Congress

Pelosi/Murtha Retreat on Jets for Congress Not Enough

Submitted by Peter Flaherty on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 07:30

Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha have retreated half way on their plan to spend $550 million on private jets for use by members of Congress. This is not good enough. Plans for the remaining four aircraft must be abandoned as well.

Murtha was quoted by AP as saying, "If the Department of Defense does not want these aircraft, they will be eliminated from the bill." I guess the public uproar over the jet purchase had nothing to do with it. After years of ramming unwanted projects down the throat of the Defense Department, Murtha this time just wants to defer to the Pentagon.

It is amazing that Pelosi continues to allow Murtha such a high visability as his cronies get indicted one by one, and he unapologetically defends earmarks for projects like the Airport for No One in his district.

The fact that these aircraft purchases were even contemplated shows how out of touch Congress has become.  Pelosi and Murtha are becoming symbols of everything that is wrong with Congress. Until they relent completely, this issue will not go away.

Analysis: Obama Stimulus Plan Invokes Keynes

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 14:09

Keynes photoThe $787 billion economic stimulus package passed and signed into law last month had any number of co-sponsors in Congress, but in a real sense its main author was someone deceased for more than 60 years:  John Maynard Keynes.  The measure, and proposals subsequent to it, represent a tribute to a highly flawed, though highly original thinker.  They also speak of a larger ongoing and recent pendulum shift in theory and policy. 

         

New Report Projects Card Check Law Will Create Joblessness

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 01:05

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as this publication has noted several times, is a classic case of deceptive packaging. The proposal, now pending before Congress, would effectively eliminate the secret ballot as a means of allowing workers to decide whether to join a union. Specifically, it would force an employer to recognize as binding the result of a union "card check" campaign that generates signatures from at 50 percent of affected workers who indicate a desire to join. Labor leaders from the start have admitted they seek to boost their ranks and retool themselves as a formidable economic and political force. What they won't admit is the possibility that EFCA, once enacted, would be counterproductive to the interests of workers as a whole. A new study concludes, however, that such a possibility is very real.

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