Republicans for special tax breaks
Corporate cronyism isn’t just for Democrats. The “fiscal cliff averter” includes an extension of a special tax treatment for NASCAR. We’re loading up the nation in public debt, but at least the entertainment lobby will be happy! From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php#ixzz2HggH5zMb
Nothing as permanent as a government regulation
If you’d like to see tedious, irrelevant government policy in action, you could start by looking at the world of aviation. Consider, for example, the ban on electronic devices during certain times of your next flight. From a commentary in the New York Times: “The agency has no proof that electronic devices can harm a plane’s avionics, but it still perpetuates such claims, spreading irrational […]
Chief Justice Roberts, meet Justice Roberts
In an oddity of legal and political history, two major expansions of federal power have been enabled by two different members on the U.S. Supreme Court, both with the surname “Roberts.” People say “no more Bushes in the White House.” Perhaps it’s time for a new slogan: “No more Roberts on the Supreme Court.” In the 1930s, president Franklin D. Roosevelt to increase the role […]
Happy Electoral College Day!
Today is the day that the Electoral College meets, in 51 locations across the United States. It’s one of those important features by which the United States is constituted as a representative republic, not a direct democracy. Under the electoral college, a group of people in each state, called electors, vote for the presidential candidate who won the popular vote within the state. Each state gets […]
Snyder surprises
From the moment he stepped on the political scene, I was skeptical of Rick Snyder, thinking he was another go-along, get-along business-leader-turned politician. I also doubted that his business skills would translate into political leadership. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been wrong, of course. While Gov. Snyder has a history of discouraging the right-to-work cause, he recently saw a need, opportunity, or both, to […]
How right-to-work came to Michigan
How is it that Michigan, of all states, is set to become the latest state to have a right-to-work law? Economic distress is one factor, but personalities and over-reach are factors as well. Long-term decline leads to a one-state recession One factor in Michigan’s move to right-to-work is the state’s dismal economic performance. In the 1970s and 1980s, many people fled the state for economic […]
Is right to work freedom payback for Obamacare?
Did the passage of Obamacare play a role in setting up Michigan’s move to right to work? Certainly, competitive pressures from Indiana are key, as Henry Payne points out. But the lessons of Obamacare should not be overlooked, either. Consider how Washington Democrats passed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA), as the law is formally known. It on a strict party-line vote: The majority party […]