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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 29, 2010 7 Comments
Another “emergency” and pending “catastrophe” is being used to justify more federal government spending to support unsustainable teachers’ union contracts: Education Secretary Arne Duncan says President Obama “absolutely supports” a congressional proposal for $23 billion in emergency education spending in order to stave off teacher...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 27, 2010 23 Comments
Joe Sestak says “I was offered a job” by someone senior in the Obama administration in exchange for getting out of the Democratic primary against Arlen Specter. “Joe heard what he wanted to hear,” said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on Greta last night (video below):...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2010 5 Comments
“Stocks fell sharply Thursday after an unexpected spike in jobless claims and as global jitters pushed the dollar higher.” (via CNBC) More flesh put on the bone by The Washington Post: New jobless claims filed last week rose by 25,000 to 471,000, the government reported...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2010 3 Comments
A Democratic state legislator in Rhode Island has filed a bill similar to the immigration law recently enacted in Arizona. As reported by The Providence Journal: State Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-District 16, Cranston, has filed a bill that largely copies a controversial Arizona law considered...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 15, 2010 0 Comments
This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain: Yesterday, Sam Stein, a lead reporter and blogger for HuffPo, ran a post titled Group Sends Racially-Tinged Mailer Targeting Bill Halter In Arkansas Senate Race: The already racially-tinged...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 15, 2010 11 Comments
The fiscal equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome: A term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein government officials express adulation and have positive feelings toward unsustainable union contracts that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk posed by such contracts to the government....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2010 5 Comments
Your stimulus dollars in action, buying high-efficiency refrigerators, low-flush toilets and a windmill for the Shalom Apartments (run by the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island) in Warwick, RI. As reported in The Providence Journal: Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2010 4 Comments
Puerto Rico is approaching a plebiscite on statehood, pursuant to congressional legislation which is under consideration. Pat at And So It Goes In Shreveport has a good post summing up the current politics of statehood for Puerto Rico. One person to keep an eye on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2010 2 Comments
Steve Malanga wrote an excellent article for City Journal about how public sector unions have controlled, and ruined, California, The Beholden State: How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2010 15 Comments
On March 11, I reported on a proposal by a New York State Democratic legislator to ban salt in restaurants, Leave Our Salt Alone. One political scientist, who also totally missed the Scott Brown election call, vehemently objected that the claim the government would regulate...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2010 13 Comments
On Friday, Goldman Sachs was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud in the formation and marketing of a mortgage backed product, a so-called Collateralized Debt Obligation. The gist of the allegations is that Goldman Sachs failed to disclose that a major hedge...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 03, 2010 6 Comments
The jobs numbers released yesterday were nothing to cheer. Strip out the temporary hiring of Census workers, and a weather-related adjustment from February, and there was almost no net job growth. As the stagnant 9.7% overall jobless rate reflected, there was no meaningful job improvement....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2010 16 Comments
Some more thoughts on the worst piece of legislation “since the Great Depression,” in no particular order: Democrats won the messaging war. Democrats succeeded in portraying the bill as being about “giving” people “health care.” Even Republicans used the terminology. In fact, everyone has hospital...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2010 5 Comments
Tom Coburn (R-Okla) has signaled that any Congressman who flips from a “No” to a “Yes” vote on Obamacare should not expect a federal appointment after he or she gets voted out of office: Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is putting wavering Democrats on advance notice:...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 11, 2010 3 Comments
I understand that some people were upset when Scott Brown voted for the $15 billion “jobs” bill in February. Brown’s voting for cloture on the $140 billion spending bill earlier this week, although he voted against the bill on the merits, also was worrisome (although...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 07, 2010 15 Comments
Jim DeMint (R-SC) famously said that health care would be Barack Obama’s Waterloo. But Waterloo probably wasn’t the best analogy, in hindsight. Waterloo was a short but decisive battle. The health care fight has turned out to be more like the battle of Stalingrad. The...
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