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David Harsanyi says that there are no brains at “No Labels”.
“We are not labels — we are people.”
So begins the absurd, anti-democratic “declaration” of the soon-to-fail “No Labels” organization. This movement of rejected liberal Republicans and triangulating Democrats (oops, there I go again with the labels) are, unlike partisans and ideologues with bad manners, really interested in solving America’s problems.
“Not Left. Not Right. Forward!” is its motto.
The answer, my friends, is always in the muddled but inspirational middle. And partisanship “is paralyzing our ability to govern” — because, as you well know, Washington didn’t spend trillions and reform a significant sector of the economy in just these past two years. …
George Will also discusses the No Labels outfit.
…No Labels purports to represent a supposedly disaffected middle of the ideological spectrum. Some No Labels enthusiasts speak of eliminating “political retribution,” presumably meaning voters defeating candidates with whose positions they disagree. No Labels promises to police the political speech of the intemperate.
…The perpetrators of this mush purport to speak for people who want to instruct everyone else about how to speak about politics. Granted, there always are people who speak extravagantly, and modern technologies – television, the Internet – have multiplied their megaphones. But blowhards, although unattractive, are easy to avoid. …
…No Labels, its earnestness subverting its grammar, says: “We do not ask any political leader to ever give up their label – merely put it aside.” But adopting a political label should be an act of civic candor. When people label themselves conservatives or liberals we can reasonably surmise where they stand concerning important matters, such as Hudson’s ruling. The label “conservative” conveys much useful information about people who adopt it. So does the label “liberal,” which is why most liberals have abandoned it, preferring “progressive,” until they discredit it, too.
Tony Blankley thinks its time that politicians face fiscal reality before investors force the issue.
…Starting immediately, it is beyond the doubt of rational minds of the right, center or left – (yes, I concede to my fellow conservatives that I am stretching a point combining the words “rational” and “the left”) – that our national destiny requires us to re-establish fiscal balance or let our great history and remaining great destiny rot and fail.
As Alan Greenspan observed recently, we will surely reduce our debt and deficit – “the only question is whether we do it before or after a bond crisis.” And, as we have seen in Greece, Ireland and other parts of the world, a bond crisis doesn’t come slowly. It strikes within hours when the collective judgment of cold and calculating investor minds around the world reach a harsh judgment.
How ludicrous our petty haggling will look to us the morning after. And what a painful and long-lasting economic agony we and the world economy will have if that dreadful day comes.
But as Thomas Paine said and Reagan often repeated, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” And we do. Congress and the president could start now – before Christmas – to begin signaling to the world that Washington is committed to laying the legislative foundations in the next six months for fixing our fiscal crisis. It’s not even a world we have to begin again – just a vaunted American skill we have to reapply.
In Reason, Veronique de Rugy gives an overview of the muni bond bubble the administration increased, and explains how investors have recently signaled a lack of confidence in this market.
…Since 2000 the total outstanding state and municipal bond debt, adjusted for inflation, has soared from $1.5 trillion to $2.8 trillion … The recession didn’t slow the spending.
…Municipal bonds are perceived as safe investments because, like U.S. Treasury bonds, they are backed by the full faith, credit, and taxing powers of the issuing governments. Investors know that states and localities can always raid taxpayer wallets to pay off their debts.
But in the last two years tax and fee hikes have faced greater public opposition. Last year, for example, Jefferson County, Alabama, was unable to raise sewer fees to meet its sewer bond obligation. Since governments are generally unwilling to cut spending either, the result of resistance to new revenue raising has been substantial increases in states’ and cities’ debt levels. Detroit and Los Angeles have announced that they may have to declare bankruptcy, as have a number of smaller cities. …
…But municipal bonds have not yet lost their low-risk reputation. According to the Investment Company Institute, $84 billion went into long-term municipal bond mutual funds in 2010, up from $69 billion in 2009. And the 2009 level represents a 785 percent increase from the 2008 level of $7.8 billion. Artificial incentives have lured investors into thinking that lending cash to bankrupted cities will be profitable. …
Fred Barnes discusses round one of Delta against the unions, and how the Obami are helping the unions in round two. Makes us want to hop on a Delta flight to show support.
…With the Obama administration on their side, the unions expected to win the elections and end Delta’s status as the only major airline with a largely nonunion workforce. (Delta pilots have been union members for years.) But the AFA and IAM lost in what was not only a shattering defeat for labor, but also a reflection of the sharply diminished appeal of unions for most workers today.
The final election, conducted last week, delivered the most stunning verdict. Delta workers at airports and reservation centers rejected the IAM, 70-30 percent. In November, flight attendants voted against unionization, 52-48 percent. Ramp (or “under the wing”) employees voted not to join the IAM, 53-47 percent. And maintenance workers turned down the IAM more decisively, 72-28 percent. Sensing defeat, labor unions had earlier decided not to attempt to unionize four other groups of employees: mechanics, technical writers, meteorologists, and “simulated technicians.”
It was a clean sweep for Delta and shocking to labor organizers. As a result, 17,000 former Northwest employees who had been union members will become nonunion once the election results have been certified. That may take a while because the unions have filed formal complaints that Delta interfered with the election. They are seeking a new election. Unions do this routinely when they lose an election. They are poor losers.
How did Delta thwart the unions? The company pointed out its pay and benefits are 10 percent to 15 percent above those of unionized employees who had worked for Northwest and have been for years. Higher pay, better benefits, no union dues—that was the argument. And it proved to be compelling. …
In the National Review, Rich Lowry succinctly explains everything wrong with ethanol and ethanol subsidies.
…Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, the Democratic and Republican senators from Iowa respectively, stand at the doors of Congress declaring: Ethanol now, ethanol forever. They have graced the Obama-McConnell tax bargain with an extension of a tax credit for ethanol that costs about $6 billion a year, and with an extension of a tariff on ethanol imports. Ethanol is so uneconomical that Congress supports it three different ways — with a mandate for its use, a tax credit to subsidize it, and a tariff to keep out competitors. Rarely are so many levers of government used to prop up one woeful product.
During the past decade, ethanol enjoyed a good run as a notional part of the solution to global warming. Then, environmentalists began to realize it may actually increase greenhouse emissions. Ethanol releases less carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline. Once the emissions necessary to convert land to corn production and then grow and process it are taken into account, though, ethanol doesn’t look so green anymore.
So much corn — about 40 percent of the U.S. crop — is feeding into the maw of government-created demand for the fuel, that it could be increasing worldwide food prices. In short, in exchange for not reducing greenhouse emissions, ethanol reduces the availability of food to the poor.
The multiple layers of subsidization have their own perversity. Since there’s already a mandate to blend ethanol into gasoline, the tax credit is giving away money for something that would happen anyway. Environmental groups say this pads the bottom line of Big Oil. Harry de Gorter of the free-market Cato Institute has a more complicated take — the subsidy decreases the cost and therefore the price of gasoline, effectively subsidizing its consumption. Your Congress at work. …
In the Top of the Ticket Blog at LA Times, Andrew Malcolm has a post on Virginia’s AG and the win against the individual mandate.
Ken Cuccinelli has not been a well-known public figure — until now.
He’s the attorney general of Virginia, who wasn’t given much chance of succeeding in his lonely legal challenge to President Obama’s beloved healthcare legislation designed to change whatever you believe in on that subject.
But then, oops, Federal District Judge Henry Hudson on Monday agreed with the Virginia AG, declaring a crucial part of the law unconstitutional. Full details here, including the opinion’s complete text.
…Here’s how the judge put it in a powerful historical footnote: “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause power to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market.” …
CBS – Baltimore reports on a natural resources police officer that needs to get a clue.
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) – They fought to save a life, and now they say they’ll fight the fine. It all revolves around the rescue of a deer trapped in icy water Thursday night.
Alex DeMetrick reports that good deed was rewarded with tickets.
Strangers banded together to pull a deer out of the freezing water of the Patapsco River on Thursday night. “We seen the deer going under,” said Khalil Abusakran. “It couldn’t maintain. It was starting to freeze, and it was really getting bad.” Abusakran brought a raft, and Jim Hart joined him. “We had oars and shovels to break the ice, for the deer to get out,” Abusakran said. But in the excited aftermath of the rescue, a natural resources police officer on the scene wrote both men a ticket.
“And he didn’t say anything,” Jim Hart said. “We went in and out of the water numerous times. He didn’t stop us at all.” They say they were ticketed for not wearing life vests, although both are over the age for mandatory use of flotation devices. “No, we didn’t have vests on, but we’re not 16 years old,” Abusakran said. “There were personal floating devices on the boat.” The ticket itself doesn’t check off any specific violation, just a $90 fine. They’ll fight it in court, as they fought for the deer. The two men ticketed say they will fight the citations at the court hearing in Annapolis set for Feb. 18