Alabama Right News: Jan 6, 2011

Thursday, January 6, 2011

In Europe, Jitters Over Sovereign-Bond Defaults

from WSJ.com: Europe Markets News

In Europe, Jitters Over Sovereign-Bond Defaults: "The cost of insuring some European government debt against default hit a record after regulators issued a proposal on bank bailouts that would hurt bondholders."

New York City’s No-Show SEIU Snow Jobs

from - Big Government by Don Loos

New York City’s No-Show SEIU Snow Jobs: "

Big Labor and politicians across the United States have transferred union costs to taxpayers. For example, SEIU Local 444 (The Sanitation Officers Association, see related snow slowdown stories) has six full-time union officials who are paid full-time city benefits and salary, yet work 0.00% of the time for New York City. These Sanitation Officers are working on everything but New York City business – including political activities and golf outings – all on the taxpayers’ dime.

SEIU sanitation union transfers its costs to NY City taxpayers and provides an excellent place to cut the budget.

This means taxpayers are essentially paying for union bosses’ no-show jobs.

In 2009, SEIU Local 444 local President Joseph Mannion was paid $108,340 plus benefits, including seniority credits, for working fulltime for the union. According to the union’s 2009 IRS report, Mannion was paid an additional $83,046 by the union. That’s over $190,000 plus benefits.

This type of union cost transfer to taxpayers is commonplace.

If NJ Governor Christie, other governors, and Congress are looking for a place to cut the budget, taxpayer-funded no-show jobs would be a good place to start. There is zero reason overly-burdened taxpayers should be forced to subsidize Big Labor.

This SEIU waste of taxpayer money is just the tip of the iceberg, a mere reflection of what occurs throughout state and federal government agencies. Even worse, these transfers may represent violations regarding the use of federal, state, and municipal payroll funds.

Public employee forced-union-monopoly-bargaining not only forces workers under union boss control; it also forces taxpayers to patronize union bosses like Mannion. It is time to begin looking at the source these schemes, government mandated monopoly bargaining and forced unionism.

——–

Additional supporting information (to download complete supporting documentation packet, click here)

SEIU Local 444 – NY City Contract Language (pertinent part)

This is to confirm our mutual understanding and agreement that effective January 1, 2007, the Sanitation Officers Association shall be permitted five (5) additional full-time positions with full pay and benefits pursuant to Executive Order No. 75.

These five (5) positions are in addition to the one (1) additional full-time position with full pay and benefits effective July 31, 1999, that the Sanitation Officers Association shall be permitted pursuant to Executive Order No. 75 which had been funded in the 2000-2003 collective bargaining settlement. [Emphasis added]

House Republican Introduces Bill to Block FCC’s ‘Internet Grab’

from - Big Government by Capitol Confidential

House Republican Introduces Bill to Block FCC’s ‘Internet Grab’: "

Rep. Marsha Blackburn introduced legislation Wednesday to deny the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory oversight over the Internet, which the Tennessee Republican insisted was the “sole prerogative of Congress” to administer.

“I agree that the Internet faces a number of challenge, ” Blackburn said in a release. “Only Congress can address those challenges without compounding them. Until we do, the FCC and other federal bureaucracies should keep their hands off the ‘net.”

According to Rep. Blackburn’s office, the “Internet Freedom Act” has the support of more than 60 House members, including a majority of GOP’ers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The legislation already has bipartisan support, counting among its endorsers Blue Dog Democrat Dan Boren of Oklahoma.

“The only sector of our economy showing growth is online,” Blackburn said. “In these times, for an unelected bureaucracy with dubious jurisdiction and misplaced motives to unilaterally regulate that growth is intolerable.”

But Blackburn, who filed similar legislation in 2009, said the measure is an “intermediate step” to counter the FCC’s recent adoption of Net neutrality rules. By way of a more immediate enforcement countermeasure, her office says she supports invoking the Congressional Review Act, which empowers legislators to invalidate noxious regulatory frameworks developed by federal agencies.

Baker's Dozen of Democrats Vote No To Reduce House Budget

from JammieWearingFool by Just A Grunt

Baker's Dozen of Democrats Vote No To Reduce House Budget: "Things continue to move along in DC. While everybody is distracted by reporting of the outburst during the reading of the Constitution the Republicans brought forth a bill to reduce the size of the House budget by 5%, which is about $35 million. While the final vote count came the closet to being bipartisan in nature that we have seen in awhile there were still a stalwart group of Democrats who"

Big Government Pays Google to Direct Searches to Pro-ObamaCare Propaganda

from Moonbattery by Van Helsing

Big Government Pays Google to Direct Searches to Pro-ObamaCare Propaganda: "

If you type 'ObamaCare' into Google, the first link that comes up is to HealthCare.gov, a government site extolling government control of the healthcare sector paid for with government money — that is, your money. Also paid for with your money was the link itself.

Politico's Ben Smith, in a post entitled 'HHS Buys 'ObamaCare,'' quotes an official from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who confirms that this clear attempt to influence what Americans read about Obamacare does, indeed, represent your tax dollars at work: ''We are using a bunch of search term[s] to help point people to HealthCare.gov. [It's] [p]art of our online efforts to help get accurate information to people about the new law (i.e. [we] also use Facebook, Twitter, blogs and webcasts),' an HHS official confirmed by e-mail.'

The "accurate information" that Americans will glean about the massive health care overhaul from this HHS website is of the same sort that President Obama has supplied all along — such as that Obamacare would lower health costs (only 17 percent of Americans believe this), increase the quality of care (only 22 percent believe this), and reduce deficits (only 17 percent believe this).

You won't find anything on the HHS site about how the Medicare chief actuary projects that Obamacare would bend the cost curve upward by $311 billion by 2019 in relation to costs in the absence of Obamacare; about how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that, by 2016, in the non-group market, the average American family's health care premiums under Obamacare would increase by $2,100 per year in relation to what those premiums would be without Obamacare; about how the CBO projects that Obamacare would cost over $2 trillion in its real first decade (2014 to 2023) alone; or about how the administration's internal ('midrange') estimates are that more than half of all employer-provided health plans wouldn't be grandfathered in under Obamacare — and that, therefore, if you like your health care, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll get to keep your health care.

For that sort of information, you'll have to consult sites that — because they don't use taxpayer dollars to pay Google to list them first — appear somewhat lower in the pecking order.

The vicious circle turns and turns: the bigger government gets, the more of your money it has to promote its own growth.

On tips from Byron and BURNING HOT.

Legislative Powers: Not Yours to Give Away

Legislative Powers: Not Yours to Give Away: "Although the Constitution contains no explicit prohibition against Congress delegating its legislative powers (to the President or an administrative agency, for example), the principle of non-delegation is fundamental to the idea of a limited government accountable to the people. Indeed, the people, in whom sovereignty ultimately resides, carefully assign cer-tain powers to each branch of government. The delegated powers are defined as placed in distinct branches of government for the “accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands,” writes James Madison in Federalist No. 47, “may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” While the executive must exercise some discretion in the application of law, lawmaking remains the prerogative of Congress. Since the New Deal, the Supreme Court has unfortunately sanctioned ever greater delegations of legislative power to administrative agencies. That the courts have flouted this principle does not mean that Congress can or should ignore this element of constitutional construction. This essay is adapted from The Heritage Guide to the Constitution for a new series providing constitutional guidance for lawmakers."

Obama's QDDR Report and Foreign Aid Strategy

Obama's QDDR Report and Foreign Aid Strategy: "The QDDR proposes to make more bureaucrats less accountable by further diluting and expanding the government’s development bureaucracy."

Unconstitutional Who Cares: DNC Chair Dean Confirms ObamaCare Will Eventually Eliminate Employer Based Private Insurance

from The Blaze - Stories by Naked Emperor News

Unconstitutional Who Cares: DNC Chair Dean Confirms ObamaCare Will Eventually Eliminate Employer Based Private Insurance: "

U.S. Military Direct Orders: Do More with Less

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Mackenzie Eaglen

U.S. Military Direct Orders: Do More with Less: "

Politicians looking for places to save money after an era of spending binges are now set to solve their self-made problem on the back of the U.S. military. Responding to this pressure, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen will conduct a press briefing at 2 p.m. to discuss efficiencies initiatives in the Department of Defense.

Cutting the defense budget without any change in U.S. foreign policy commitments would cause direct harm to those in uniform. Instead of asking, “How we can cut defense?” lawmakers should be asking, “What is required to protect the nation?” and developing a robust defense budget from there. America’s military power should match the commitments that America’s military is expected to keep, which in turn are dictated by how America’s political leaders, over time, define the nation’s interests and responsibilities.

The 112th Congress should answer a fundamental question before even considering the latest defense efficiency and cut proposals: Do current and planned defense budgets allow the U.S. military to fully support the national security strategy without jeopardizing readiness or core military capabilities?

In June, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell stated, “The bottom line is for us to be able to continue to do all of the things that are going to be asked of us, we need to be as big and as well-equipped as we have been. And you can’t do that on 1 percent real growth.”

Members of Congress often like to say they are simply getting rid of waste or cutting government bureaucracy. Everyone is for making the Pentagon more efficient, but no one wants to hurt the troops. Yet that is exactly what will happen if Congress isn’t careful.

Those calling for defense cuts also tend to ignore the reality that defense has already been significantly cut over the past two years. Over 50 major programs for modern, upgraded systems were canceled in last year’s defense budget because of cost constraints. The plan to give tomorrow’s forces yesterday’s equipment should be unacceptable to all Americans.

As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the nation in August: “It is important that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, where tough economic times or the winding down of a military campaign leads to steep and unwise reductions in defense. The current and planned defense budgets—which project modest but steady growth—represent the minimum level of spending necessary to sustain a military at war and to protect our interests and future capabilities in a dangerous and unstable world.” Gates has also said that his single “greatest worry is that we will do to the defense budget what we have done before. That is, to slash it in an effort to find some kind of a dividend to put the money someplace else.”

Thankfully, U.S. Representative Buck McKeon (R–CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, agrees. John Holly, a spokesman for McKeon, said, “Mr. McKeon doesn’t want to see any savings generated with the military services harvested for other spending outside of the Department of Defense. Due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the need to develop a force structure capable of meeting future threats, he wants any savings to be reinvested into higher national security priorities.”

Congress should support the Secretary of Defense in his effort to grow the defense budget modestly and allow any savings generated by the military services to be reinvested into higher priorities, including modernization.

The time to rebuild the military is now. America’s enemies will likely exploit areas of weakness, attacking precisely those areas where the country is least prepared. But maintaining a broad range of capabilities will minimize these risks. As President Reagan clearly knew, weakness invites aggression and challenge.

New Plastic Bag Tax Coming to a Store Near You

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Rory Cooper

New Plastic Bag Tax Coming to a Store Near You: "

Watch out Virginia. You’re next. According to TBD.com, Virginia House of Delegates member Joseph Morrissey will introduce legislation next week to tax residents 20 cents for every plastic bag they receive at a grocery store or retailer. Following the lead of Washington, D.C., Delegate Morrissey sees an opportunity to punish shoppers and low-income earners in order to “chang[e] people’s attitudes.”

This is just the latest effort by the radical environmental left to punish their fellow citizens who are merely trying to make ends meet on a day-to-day basis. In D.C., residents and visitors have been dealing with a careless and unnecessary nickel tax on bags for two years now imposed by the City Councilman Tommy Wells (D) and the leftist Anacostia Watershed Society.

Behavior taxes are the new trend for liberal politicians across the nation. Whether it is five cents in DC for a bag, or the crippling costs President Obama is adding to gas prices to discourage fossil fuel use. Without an economically viable and supported argument for their policies, they turn to the invisible hand of the government to penalize you daily, and hope that you simply absorb the new costs of living without a fight.

In fact, wealthier shoppers may in fact absorb the costs. It is low-income and jobless residents who are obviously hit the hardest when the government starts nickel-diming them at their local store.

But at least there is a viable explanation in Virginia for why the price of twenty cents was chosen, right? Wrong. Delegate Morrissey simply saw Ireland charging twenty pence for their plastic bags and decided it seemed like a good round number. “It wasn’t any more far-reaching than that” said Morrissey. So Morrissey wants to take a percentage of your shopping budget, on a whim. (And please, nobody tell Morrissey that different currencies have different values, otherwise he may try to raise the tax to thirty cents!)

Morrissey says that “everyone” loves his proposed tax. Alexandria, Virginia Delegate Adam Ebbin (D) is onboard as well. “I’ve heard nothing negative, only positive,” says Morrissey. This is most likely due to the fact that Morrissey and Ebbin aren’t personally going to collect their tax penalty from their neighbors. Instead they turn part-time cashiers into the long arm of the environmental movement, like Monique Johnson, a lottery agent in Northeast Washington, D.C. who told the Washington Post: “I get dirty looks all the time.”

And remember, this is all because plastic bags are evil. Of course, this premise means you believe a bag is made from thin air and has no production process or other mitigating factors. According to a Wall Street Journal report in 2009, there is little difference between paper and plastic, it’s simply about what environmental tradeoffs you are willing to choose. Paper bags need more energy and water to produce and result in more greenhouse gases, but plastic are less likely to be recycled.

Of course, as recycling becomes more accessible everyday, this argument carries less weight. In fact, plastic bags make up a miniscule portion of landfill waste and a study in San Francisco showed that chewing gum makes up entirely more street litter. (Please, nobody tell Morrissey, or he may tax chewing gum!)

But so long, as you bring a reusable canvas bag to the store, you get the eco-left seal of approval, and everyone is happy. Not so fast. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is called for a federal investigation in 2010 into the excessive levels of lead found in most popular reusable canvas bags. Schumer said: “Federal agencies need to put a ban in place for reusable bags that have lead in them,” and he told the FDA: “Any situation where lead bags are coming into contact with the food being purchased by Americans needs to be immediately investigated and resolved.”

So if plastic bags are bad, and paper bags are bad, and canvas bags are bad…well what’s left? Will liberals start taxing our arms as we carry our groceries to the car?

At least the bag tax in D.C. is proven to change behaviors. Shoppers are crossing over into Maryland and Virginia to avoid the tax, like self-described environmentalist Virginia Johnson who told the Washington Post she maps out her day “to avoid having to shop in the District.”

Delegate Morrissey’s punitive tax on his neighbors in the name of environmental enlightenment is recklessly unfounded and unnecessary, especially in this economy. Just as President Obama’s efforts to unilaterally raise gas prices to change consumer behavior will merely hurt the economy while providing little value to the environment, Delegate Morrissey’s efforts are equally destructive.

If you think these taxes don’t affect you because you don’t live in D.C. or Virginia, think again. Many states are considering the same behavior taxes, or thinking of entirely new ones. Maryland has been debating bag taxes for years, and just this week, Maryland lawmakers also began consideration of a ten cent tax on each individual alcoholic drink sold in the state. (Logically, a six-pack would cost 60 cents more while a keg would cost ten cents). San Francisco, CA, already the leader in behavior taxes is now extending their reach into McDonald’s Happy Meals.

Behaviors indeed need to change…the controlling tax-and-spend behavior of leftist politicians.

Recession Accelerates Shift Towards Greater Control of Washington in Health Care

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Nina Owcharenko

Recession Accelerates Shift Towards Greater Control of Washington in Health Care: "

While overall health care spending slowed in 2009, it is the underlying trend that is more troubling: the continuing decline in private coverage and the steady increase in government health care. These trends will only accelerate under Obamacare.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), total health care spending grew by 4 percent in 2009 to reach $2.5 trillion. This represents a slower rate of growth from 2008, but the slower increase still outpaced spending as an overall percentage of GDP.

The 3.2 percent decline in private coverage and the slowing of out-of-pocket spending by consumers are attributed to the recession. Fewer people with jobs mean fewer people with traditional employer-based health care coverage and less income to pay for health care.

The decline in private coverage is reportedly offset by a massive increase in Medicaid as more individuals enroll in the government health care program for the poor. According to CMS, Medicaid spending grew at a rate of 9 percent, nearly doubling from 4.9 percent in 2008. Moreover, the federal share of this spending increased 22 percent as the federal government picked up a greater share of the cost as directed under the stimulus bill.

Under the new health care law, the shift to more government-controlled health care spending will only worsen. According to former Congressional Budget Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, the new health care law will encourage more employers to drop their health care coverage in place of taxpayer-funded government health care. Holtz-Eakin and Cameron Smith estimate that 35 million people will lose their employer-based coverage under Obamacare. Government health care spending will also increase as the new law expects to add over 16 million to Medicaid and spend over $400 billion on new health care subsidies.

The health care sector has been steadily moving to a tipping point at which the federal government will control the majority of spending in the health care sector. The recession and responding policy changes have accelerated movement toward this point. And Obamacare will put the country on the fast track over the cliff.

Take CBO Report With a Grain of Salt: Obamacare Repeal Would Not Increase Deficits

from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. by Kathryn Nix

Take CBO Report With a Grain of Salt: Obamacare Repeal Would Not Increase Deficits: "

Next week, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2, a measure to repeal Obamacare in its entirety. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released a report stating that repealing the health care law would increase the deficit by $145 billion between 2012 and 2019.

This report is based on the findings of the CBO’s March 2010 report that predicted that Obamacare would reduce the deficit. CBO does respectable work, but their analysts have their hands tied by assumptions they are required to make. The reality is that, in spite of the March report, Obamacare will not reduce the deficit, so repealing it would not add to the deficit, in spite of today’s report.

The CBO report should be taken with a grain of salt for a few reasons. First, CBO is required to assume that current law will be enacted as written, even in cases where reality couldn’t be further from what is on the books. CBO Director Doug Elmendorf himself makes this clear in the report:

Current law now includes a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time. … If those provisions would have subsequently been modified or implemented incompletely, then the budgetary effects of repealing [the law] and the relevant provisions of the Reconciliation Act could be quite different—but CBO cannot forecast future changes in law or assume such changes in its estimates.

Second, CBO must ignore the many budget gimmicks written into legislation. The health law does not include the “doc fix” to prevent an automatic cut to physicians’ reimbursement rates under Medicare. Congress recently passed a one-year fix and will continue to prevent the cuts in the future, but this will still not solve the ongoing problem. Nevertheless, pretending it will not happen won’t reduce the deficit.

Obamacare also includes billions in double-counted savings. Over the next decade, Obamacare includes $529 billion in cuts to Medicare and $70 billion in revenue from the new CLASS program. CBO assumes that these savings and revenues will offset the cost of new programs in the legislation. But Medicare savings are also pledged to extend the program’s solvency. Revenue from CLASS, a new long-term care insurance program, is the result of premiums collected to pay out benefits in outlying years and will not pay for new programs, either. Claiming that these dollars will pay for Obamacare is akin to trying to make a mortgage payment and buy a Macbook with the same paycheck: In the real world, you can spend money only once.

Then, Obamacare creates a new subsidy program for the middle class to purchase insurance. CBO predicts that 19 million Americans will benefit from this generous new entitlement program. But this doesn’t take into account Obamacare’s huge incentives for employers to drop their insurance programs and allow employees to instead purchase taxpayer-subsidized coverage. Former CBO director Doug Holtz-Eakin points out that both businesses and their employees stand to seriously benefit by dropping employer coverage and instead relying on taxpayer-subsidized health care. These incentives, combined with the various new insurance rules that will increase premiums on employer plans, will cause the cost of the subsidy program to greatly exceed expectations.

Since, in reality, Obamacare will not reduce the deficit, repealing the law does not need to be offset under pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules. Repeal is in fact in keeping with the spirit of PAYGO, which exists for the purpose of long-term deficit reduction. Moreover, PAYGO only requires deficit neutrality over a 10-year budget window, so a program could create savings in one decade but run trillions in deficits the next and still meet PAYGO requirements. The loopholes of 10-year scoring were not lost on the 111th Congress—the costliest provisions of Obamacare do not go into effect until 2014, so the CBO score actually includes only six years of spending.

If Congress is really serious about reducing long-term deficits, the best path forward is to accept the CBO report for what it is and also set aside PAYGO in favor of real budget process reform. In the meantime, repealing Obamacare is the right step toward reducing the federal deficit and getting health care reform right.

Gates surprises lawmakers with plan to cut $78 billion from defense budget

from TheHill.com by dweaver@thehill.com (Erik Wasson)

Gates surprises lawmakers with plan to cut $78 billion from defense budget: "

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said he was deeply concerned about the Defense secretary's proposal.

EPA holds up oil drilling in Alaska as gas prices rise

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

EPA holds up oil drilling in Alaska as gas prices rise: "

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said “the federal permitting system is broken and we are paying the price. These appeals are not all about protecting the environment”

Governor Sean Parnell expressed great disappointment that the Environmental Appeals Board remanded key air permits for Shell’s offshore oil and gas exploration activities back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further work.

“It is extremely disheartening that Shell has been unsuccessful in trying to get this critical permit for almost four years,” Governor Parnell said. “They have invested tens of millions of dollars in pollution control equipment, and met or exceeded every request made of them, yet they still can’t get a permit to drill a single exploration well off the coast of Alaska.

“This decision comes on top of the continuous challenges and delays caused by other federal agencies. Nothing can replace the jobs that Alaska and America lose when one resource project after another is delayed by endless appeals. The federal permitting system is broken and we are paying the price. These appeals are not all about protecting the environment or the health of Alaskans. They are primarily about outside groups opposed to development and a federal administration in Washington, D.C. all too willing to accommodate them.

“I intend to work with members of Congress, fellow governors and others to bring attention to these concerns and to seek legislative or administrative solutions. We must find a way to allow this and other responsible resource development.”

The Environmental Appeals Board is a body within EPA that reviews administrative appeals of permits. The permits apply to air emissions from the vessel Shell planned to use to drill oil and gas exploration wells in the Arctic Ocean beginning in 2011. Three environmental and Native organizations appealed the permits. The board rendered its decision on December 30, 2010. This appeal follows an appeal in 2007 that had led to EPA withdrawing an earlier permit it had prepared for Shell.

While the Environmental Appeals Board denied some of the petitioners’ arguments, it concluded EPA erred in regard to two aspects of the permits. The permits were remanded to EPA to correct the errors. The board also decided not to answer other questions and directed EPA to do more work in these other areas.

From Office of Governor Sean Parnell

Drilling Is Stalled Even After Ban Is Lifted

Sadistic Judges Back EPA Climate Rules

‘Obama’s EPA a Growing Menace to Economy’ – Sen. Inhofe

BIG GREEN 3, Green Gold: BP, GE & the World’s First Carbon Billionaires

Drill, North Dakota, Drill

Another Massive Energy Tax Looms on the Horizon

UC Santa Barbara emeritus professor of physics quits American Physical Society over global climate hoax

America’s Crude Advantage

EPA is Obama’s Offshore Drilling Ace in the Hole

W.Va. Sues Obama, EPA Over Mining Coal Regulations

Where EPA Is Public Enemy #1

EPAs Anti-Industrial Policy – Threatening Jobs and Americas Manufacturing Base

Landrieu battles White House for killing drilling jobs

EPA’s Own Estimates Say Greenhouse Gas Regs Could ‘Slow Construction Nationwide for Years’ — and Take a Century to Reduce Temperature 0.0015 Degrees

Pushing Junk Science on Children

Ozone Rule Would Kill 7.3 Million Jobs, Raise Costs

Education Department teams with unions in global effort at ‘progressive’ reform

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

Education Department teams with unions in global effort at ‘progressive’ reform: "

Seeking more ways to blow the doubled budget under Obama, Sec. Arne Duncan will have the Department team up with teachers unions in a global summit to “consider the future of their profession as equal partners with governments”.

From the U.S. Department of Education website:

“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will join leaders from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Education International (EI), together with the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Asia Society and public broadcaster WNET, to host an International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York City, March 16-17, 2011.

The summit will convene education ministers, national union leaders, education organization leaders and accomplished teachers from countries with high performing and rapidly improving educational systems to identify best practices worldwide that effectively strengthen the teaching profession in ways designed to enhance student achievement.”

Participants will also engage in a discussion on the vital role teachers’ play in advancing progressive, sustainable education reform. “The summit represents a unique opportunity for teachers and their unions globally to consider the future of their profession as equal partners with governments,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.

Attendees will include National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Asia Society, and public broadcaster WNET.

By ’sustainable’ education reform I’m sure the unions mean unending supplies of taxpayer money to pay bloated benefits and under performing teachers.

~ Editor

Poster child for eliminating teacher unions – cocaine addict takes four years to fire

Learning the Truth About Education

Teachers union promotes Alinsky radicals guide to revolution

Indoctrination Disguised as Education Reform

The best government money can buy -top 20 public sector union paid politicians

The Department of Education – Who Needs it?

They met to kill God and establish Marxism

The Failing Promise of Public Education

Teachers union says parents too stupid to understand ratings

We Don’t Need No (Leftist) Education

Pushing Junk Science on Children

The Urban Plantation

Department of Education’s slush funds

Stupid in America: How We Cheat Our Kids

Sen. Tom A. Coburn: Big Government and teachers unions are failing our children

The best government money can buy -top 20 public sector union paid politicians

Teachers union promotes Alinsky radicals guide to revolution

Tenure qualification: Are you still breathing?

Rocking the Boat on Education

Power grab on campus

Education secretary vows climate indoctrination

The Department of Education – Who Needs it?

The Schools Scandal

Obama Education Dept. pushes awards to close race states

Secret is out -union endorsements win ‘Race to the Top’ funds

Christie tells truth about union pensions

This ‘progressive’ sex ed is child abuse

Obama’s Safe School Czar Admits Gay Curriculum is the Ultimate Goal

Back to Constitutional Basics in Education

Folk hero Gov. Chris Christie responds to teacher criticism

The Anti-Parent Agenda of Colleges

Pimping for the left – Education secretary urged his employees to attend Sharpton’s rally

Race to Nowhere – tear the schools down

National Education Association Selling its Saul

Some Who Can’t Teach Still Do

Union thuggery: threatening the Los Angeles Times for reporting on teacher’s performance scores

Less than 25% of high school grads ready for college

In Washington, It’s the Money that Talks

5 Ways the Incestuous Left is Pimping Your Kids for Cash and Votes

The Left’s Special-Interest Human Shields

UPDATE: Congress passes union payback bill – here’s why

Bailing Out Teachers

Teachers union promotes Alinsky radicals guide to revolution

The best government money can buy -top 20 public sector union paid politicians

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) – best money can buy

Illinois school administrator to get $26 million pension!

Myths about the teacher layoff crisis

Why firing the desk-sleepers, burnouts, hotheads and other failed union teachers is all but impossible

Why Democrats are Pushing the $165 Billion Union Pension Bailout

SEIU union spends $500,000 in local election, may reach $1,000,000 – a sign of the times?

Cititzens wise up to high union costs

Unions get personal in protests for goodies

Finance bill favors interests of unions, activists

In the Tank for Big Labor

Unions plan to own your representative – step up the election heat

The Unionized States of America

More union disclosure woes

Violent leftists – Union Thugs Attack Non-Union Workers with Baseball Bats

Obama, leftist activists to push on immigration reform (amnesty)

Will Congress Kill Volunteer Fire Departments?

In Wake of Arizona Law, Labor Unites Behind Immigration Reform (amnesty)

Unions battle for public job benefits

Black hole of union benefits could see light in state bankruptcies

Bankruptcy by union extortion – its spreading

DISCLOSE Act shields Democrat-leaning groups from disclosure requirements

Five more ways Obama’s health-care law boosts unions

The best government money can buy -top 20 public sector union paid politicians

Democrats in Congress Want To Bail Out Union Pensions

No wonder unions will spend over $100 MILLION to keep Democrats in power

Obama asks congress to take $50 BILLION from taxpayers to bail out unions in failed cities and states

Unions using your tax dollars to campaign against you

Big Labor’s Payoff ( one of many)

Look who’s protecting incumbents

Union style terrorism ok when bankers are target?

Unions to spend $100 MILLION+ on saving Democrats -will want even more payback

Teachers Seek $23b- Lifeline or Bailout? or union payoff?

Taxpayer losses from bailing out Chrysler and General Motors may reach $34 billion

Union benefits already bailed out with taxpayer dollars in GM deal

Tide of PR battle turns against public employee unions

NJ Gov. Christie has the ‘tone’ the people want to hear

Another big union payoff without congress

Another big union payback for Obama election help

Warning! Card check isn’t dead

Obama Gives Unions a ‘Massive Payback’ with Executive Order, Contractors Claim

Fix Is On by Obama and Congress in Union Fight

Meet Andy Stern -SEIU President and Close Obama Ally – & learn about union influence

“New Jersey is the failed experiment”

NJ Governor Christie takes on the Teachers Union

Socialists and American Unions

Rep. Paul Ryan ‘we really do have a fiscal disaster coming’

from USACTION NEWS by Editor

Rep. Paul Ryan ‘we really do have a fiscal disaster coming’: "

In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show new chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan spells out how he hopes to change the direction of the government and cut spending enough to keep the US economy from going ‘off a cliff’.

Excerpts from the interview:

HH: Now Congressman Ryan, you’ve written in your road map, and you wrote in the book you co-authored, Young Guns, with Eric Cantor and with McCarthy, Congressman McCarthy from California, that there’s a way out of this mess.

PR: There is.

HH: But the Budget committee’s going to have to lead that, and it’s going to have to be brutal. Do you think it’s prepared to do that?

PR: Yeah, I mean, I personally don’t call this brutal. What’s brutal is doing nothing, and just watching us go off a cliff. What’s brutal is procrastinate budget reforms, entitlements reforms, and then to the painful European austerity, where we just manage our decline as a social welfare state for the rest of the century. That’s what’s brutal. What makes sense, but we’ve got to get the politics right to do this, is let’s do budget reform, fiscal reform on our own terms. Let’s do it our own way before we have a debt crisis, without tax increases, without slowing down our economy, and without giving pain and cuts to current seniors who’ve already retired. If you go now or in the near future, you can prevent severe disruptions in the lives of people who’ve already retired and organized their lives around these programs like Medicare and Social Security. If you delay, you can’t keep making that kind of a commitment. So if you go now, you can grandfather the grandparents, reform these programs for the future generations so they’re more sustainable, more solvent, so we can keep our government limited, so we can maximize economic growth, prosperity and free enterprise. You can maintain that, that limited government, free enterprise, free market democracy, which is what we’ve had in this country, if you fix this stuff fast. But again, if you procrastinate, you’re not going to have that. You’re going to have a government that will be twice as big as it is today when my kids are my age. You’ll have a tax burden that will be twice as large as it is, per person, per capita, as a percentage of our GDP, when my kids are our age. We will slow down the economy, and we will give the next generation a far lower standard of living. And the American exceptionalism will be a thing of the past.

HH: All right, I want to go through each of those areas with you. We’ve got 25 minutes to do that. But let’s start with the actual tall weeds of the process. What’s the Budget committee going to do to start moving toward, away from the cliff, not towards the cliff, but away from the cliff?

PR: So between now and the spring, which is when the budget is written, we plan to do a lot of things to start making a good dent on spending. We plan to rescind spending. That means going to current year spending, and cut it out, cut a lot of this stuff back to pre-binge spending levels. We want to do process reforms like putting caps on spending, a Constitutional version of a line item veto. We want to freeze pay for federal employees and hiring. And we want to cut budgets. So we want to start going after spending right now in this year today. What happens is the President gives us his budget in February. We go and have the CBO measure that budget. They give us that at the end of February, and in March, we begin writing our budget to pass typically in April. So April is when our budget blueprint comes out. Before that is when we are going to go into the floor, almost every week, and go in after spending in many different ways.

HH: Now when you say you’re going to write your budget so that it comes out in April, that means, I think, that you send it to the Senate in April?

PR: That’s right. So this is the way the budget law works. So we don’t get our baseline, which is really the measuring stick we use to measure budgets, until the end of February. So in April is when all of this stuff is supposed to occur. So somewhere at the end of March, Early April, the House should pass its budget. The Senate should be working on it same track. And then we will see whether or not the House and the Senate can come together on a budget agreement. You know, my guess is that’s going to be pretty tough to do, given that the Democrats control the Senate, and health care is really the big driver of our problem. We don’t want this Obamacare to occur. We want to repeal it. We want to replace it. That’s the centerpiece of any budget that makes any sense in my mind. And I have a hard time believing the Senate’s going to agree with us on this, since they muscled this thing into law, and they still control the Senate. So it’s hard to see a big agreement between the two. And so what might probably happen is that the House will govern itself with the budget we pass, the Senate will govern themselves with the budget they pass, which will delay a budget impasse until later in the fiscal year in the fall.

After record spending for two years in a row, White House warns failure to raise debt ceiling would bring ‘economic crisis’

Illinois Governor Wants to Borrow $15 Billion to “Balance” the Budget; Illinois Total Unfunded Liabilities Exceed $200 Billion Already

from theblogprof by The blogprof

Video: Harry Reid was against raising the debt ceiling (2006) before he was for it (2007-2011): "Harry Reid wants to raise the debt ceiling above the absurd $14.3 trillion that it's at now. Whenever this ceiling gets raised, my first instinct is to ask why the heck we even have a debt ceiling when politicians raise it ever higher anyway? Harry Reid 2011 ought to talk about debt ceilings with Harry Reid 2006:

“If my Republican friends believe that increasing our debt by almost $800 billion today and more than $3 trillion over the last five years is the right thing to do, they should be upfront about it. They should explain why they think more debt is good for the economy.

How can the Republican majority in this Congress explain to their constituents that trillions of dollars in new debt is good for our economy? How can they explain that they think it’s fair to force our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to finance this debt through higher taxes. That’s what it will have to be. Why is it right to increase our nation’s dependence on foreign creditors?

They should explain this. Maybe they can convince the public they’re right. I doubt it. Because most Americans know that increasing debt is the last thing we should be doing. After all, I repeat, the Baby Boomers are about to retire. Under the circumstances, any credible economist would tell you we should be reducing debt, not increasing it.Democrats won’t be making argument to supper this legalization, which will weaken our country. Weaken our county.”

Obama himself voted against raising th edebt ceiling in 2006, to which his propaganda czar had this to say: Gibbs: Obama only voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006 because he knew his vote wouldn’t matter. Where there's yet another display of Obama leadership for ya! Allahpundit comments:

Give Gibbs credit for honesty on this one, though. The One took plenty of votes during his brief layover in the Senate that were aimed squarely at polishing his record for a presidential run down the road. The one on the debt ceiling was aimed at centrists; the votes against Roberts and Alito were aimed at his base. And sometimes, when he couldn’t decide whom to pander to, he just voted present as he’s wont to do.

Who would have thought that Obama's a gutless turd careerist? Uh - that would be us on the right, and we pointed out that fact many times before November 2008.

UPDATE: From Jack Tapper via memeorandum: Gibbs: Senator Obama Only Voted Against Raising Debt Ceiling in 2006 Because He Knew It Would Pass Anyway. More from Weasel Zippers, Power Line and Hot Air

HEADLINES

Thursday, January 6, 2011

SEIU sanitation union transfers its costs to NY City taxpayers and provides an excellent place to cut the budget.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said “the federal permitting system is broken and we are paying the price. These appeals are not all about protecting the environment”

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Seeking more ways to blow the doubled budget under Obama, Sec. Arne Duncan will have the Department team up with teachers unions in a global summit to “consider the future of their profession as equal partners with governments”.

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In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show new chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan spells out how he hopes to change the direction of the government and cut spending enough to keep the US economy from going ‘off a cliff’.

Excerpts from the interview:

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