Pro-Union Is Not Pro-Worker

A recurring theme from the current administration is that to be pro-organized labor is to be pro-worker.  Concurrently, the administration has consistently refuted that it is using class warfare as a theme.

For Joe Biden to incorrectly and belligerently suggest that being pro-union means being pro-worker is pure flawed logic.  He obviously has never worked as a supplier to a large union company or worked as an employee in a company supplying a union company.

A comment from Vice President Biden in March 2011 summed it up when he stated, "We don't see the value of collective bargaining; we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining.  Let's get something straight: the only people who have the capacity -- organizational capacity and muscle -- to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor.  And make no mistake about it: the guys on the other team get it.  They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man.  The gate is wide open.  And we know that, too."

In my experiences helping groups avoid bankruptcy, the tier-1 and tier-2 suppliers to the auto industry and their employees, many of whom are UAW members as well, have suffered horribly at the hands of the big three (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) and the big one (the UAW).     

The suppliers to the auto industry have seen prices cut and wages slashed for their workers with the result that America has lost even more jobs overseas to help pay for the contract settlements with the auto manufacturers.  The loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States has even caused the UAW membership itself to plummet from 1.5 million members in 1979 to about 355,000 in 2010, yet the union fails to acknowledge its role in the decline of its own membership.   

The most recent labor negotiation with the UAW is concerning because of the impact it will have on workers at the suppliers to the big 3 or to the car buyers if prices are raised to pay for this contract.  After a taxpayer-funded bailout and substantial write-off of debt by GM and Chrysler, the auto company employees will reap bonuses and benefits unheard of in the rest of America in this current economic climate.  Class warfare at its finest!

While one might concede that it is wonderful to provide such benefits if you can afford them, those benefits can be paid only if, ultimately, the  customer is willing to pay a higher price for your product.  

Should the customer not want to pay a higher price, such bonuses and benefits must come from suppliers, the suppliers employees, shareholders (pension plans in many cases), and government.

The greed of this most recent labor negotiation in the middle of a recession/depression is palpable.  The sheer arrogance and abuse of power by the industry and its union reminds me of someone silly enough to fly to Washington, D.C. in a private jet to ask for a bailout -- not that anyone would be silly enough to do that.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/pro-union_is_not_pro-worker.html

U.S. Gov't Financial Regulators Earn Tax-Funded Salaries of $225,000-Plus

(CNSNews.com) – Federal employees at several financial regulatory agencies – including the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – are earning six-figure salaries and taking home bonuses up to $5,000, according to federal records obtained by Judicial Watch. At least 228 such regulators make $225,000 a year.

In comparison, members ofCongress make $174,000 a year; the Speaker of the House makes $223,500; and the majority and minority leaders pull in $193,400 a year.

The records, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), show the number of employees at five of the six major financial regulatory agencies.

In addition to the CFPB, the personnel documents come from Wall Street regulatory agencies including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Treasury Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The forms reveal that hundreds of regulators earn in excess of $225,000 per year, not counting bonus income awarded by some of the agencies.

The CFPB – created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulation law – has hired a dozen employees at more than $225,000 per year, Judicial Watch reported on Tuesday. The massive new financial regulator has also hired a college student intern, paying her $42,036 per year, despite being listed as a “student trainee” in federal records. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/us-govt-financial-regulators-earn-tax-funded-salaries-225000-plus

If I Were a Liberal by Ann Coulter

If I were a liberal, I would have spent the last week in shock that a Democratic audience in Flint, Mich., cheered Vice President Joe Biden's description of a policeman being killed. (And if I were a liberal desperately striving to keep my job on MSNBC, I'd say the Democrats looked "hot and horny" for dead cops -- as Chris Matthews said of a Republican audience that cheered for the death penalty.)

Biden's audience whooped and applauded last week in Flint when he said that without Obama's jobs bill, police will be "outgunned and outmanned." (Wild applause!)

I suppose liberals would claim they were applauding because they believe Obama's jobs bill will prevent these murders. Which reminds me: Republicans believe the death penalty prevents murders!

In a case I have previously mentioned, Kenneth McDuff was released from death row soon after the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972 and went on to murder more than a dozen people.

Which belief bears more relationship to reality? 

William Jordan and Anthony Prevatte were sentenced to death in 1974 for abducting a teacher, murdering him and stealing his car. They came under suspicion when they were caught throwing the murder weapon from the stolen vehicle in a high-speed car chase with the cops and because they were in possession of the dead man's wallet, briefcase and watch.

The Georgia Supreme Court overturned their capital sentences in an opinion by Robert H. Hall, who was appointed by Gov. Jimmy Carter.

Hall said that the death sentences had to be set aside on the idiotic grounds that the jurors had overheard the prosecutor say that the judge and state supreme court would have the opportunity to review a death sentence, which might have caused them to take their sentencing role less seriously.

(If the facts had been the reverse, the court would have overturned the death sentences on the grounds that the jurors did not take their sentencing decision seriously, under the misapprehension that no judge or court would second-guess them.)

Prevatte was later released from "life in prison" and proceeded to murder his girlfriend. Jordan escaped and has never been found.

As president, Carter appointed Hall to a federal district court.

Darryl Kemp was sentenced to death in California in 1960 for the rape and murder of Marjorie Hipperson and also convicted for raping two other women. But he sat on death row long enough -- 12 years -- for the death penalty to be declared unconstitutional. He was paroled five years later and, within four months, had raped and murdered Armida Wiltsey, a 40-year-old wife and mother.

http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2011/10/26/if_i_were_a_liberal

The ObamaCare games being played on us

If ever you needed proof that our government should not be entrusted with control of our healthcare, a clear case sits before you now. Even so, the Obama Administration remains confident you will not take the time to understand what has happened. Most citizens won’t.

On a recent Friday late afternoon the Administration announced the CLASS Act portion of ObamaCare will not be implemented. Friday afternoon announcements are timed with the hope they will be little noticed, a strategy of both Democrat and Republican administrations. But if you open your eyes to comprehend what happened here, you may realize what they hope you overlook, that you and I are being played by our government.

Caring for an elderly family member soon becomes a strain as it consumes more of your time, competes with spouses and children for your attention, interferes with work schedules, twists sibling relationships over the sharing of time and expenses and builds stress like a pressure cooker; never mind that it also changes the relationship with the elder needing care.

The CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Support) is an ObamaCare program ostensibly to provide benefits for long-term care (LTC). Anyone who has been a caregiver for grandma as she becomes too old and frail to care for herself knows meeting that family duty of loving care can turn life on its head.

Finally, making the decision on a nursing home placement will break your heart even though you put it off as long as possible. 

http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/terry-garlock/10-25-2011/obamacare-games-being-played-us

9-9-9 tax plan not worth supporting

Other side of the coin.

Is "9-9-9" the best economic solution that a Republican presidential candidate can present? The prospect of a 9 percent national sales tax on top of a 9 percent federal income tax has been proposed by Republican candidate Herman Cain.

He seems to be unaware that most of us are already inundated with local, county and state sales taxes now hidden in our phone bills, fuel bills and food bills (until Wyoming ended the food tax), etc.

Imagine a national sales tax on everything you buy! Some economists say it would add $2,000 tax annually on a family of four.

Cain would try to get Congress to never raise the national sales tax and, like the health plan, would kick in deductions for inner-city residents or other special interests.

What should Americans do if politicians give us this bone of contention? This dog won't hunt!

Nora Marie Lewis

Basin, Wyo.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_f5bfbe34-5ea3-5e1b-ae27-88a52204cb9e.html#ixzz1btCX8t9z

OUR WONDERFUL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

Government cannot create private sector jobs

The Obama administration and the Occupy Wall Street crowd have at least one thing in common: Both, apparently, have bought into the progressive fantasy that corporate profits are evil and that only increased government spending will create jobs.

Now it's true that governments can create jobs in the public sector; they do it all the time and President Barack Obama's recently rejected $400 billion "jobs bill" would have done more of it. Governments can hire consultants, school teachers, social workers, and millions of bureaucrats to administer its thousands of programs and enforce its myriad of regulations.

Importantly, however, the funds for these public jobs must be provided by either taxation or by money borrowed from the private sector. Thus as almost all economists recognize, any increase in public sector employment must come — in some real sense — at the expense of lost opportunities for private sector employment.

To see why this is so, assume that $1 million is raised by taxation to, say, fund new staffing at the Environmental Protection Agency. No debate; public sector jobs get created. But note that the very same $1 million cannot now be spent by taxpayer/consumers on new washing machines or trips to Las Vegas or newspaper subscriptions. Thus for every job created by government spending there must be a trade-off of jobs not created (or maintained) in the private sector.

Private sector jobs are created by an entirely different process; if they are sustainable, they are self-financing. Private employees are hired with the expectation that their wages will be paid by the additional profit that they generate for some employer. Individuals that work for a washing machine retailer or for a travel agency or for a newspaper must generate a stream of benefits for the company that more than compensate for the wages they are paid — or they will be fired. In short, private firms create jobs if and only if it is profitable for them to do so.

We can now see why the Bush and Obama jobs programs of the past all failed to create private sector jobs; simply put, hard-earned tax money was not invested profitably. The most notorious programs involved channeling your tax money and mine to politically well-connected private firms in so-called green industries. Predictably, bureaucrats are notoriously poor at selecting "winners" and many of these firms went belly up. The $528 million that was wasted on the solar panel company Solyndra (only the tip of the iceberg) could have been spent by consumers supporting local retailers and their employees. Instead, it was classic crony capitalism debacle with money and jobs down the drain.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/oct/24/dom-armentano-occupy-wall-street-protestors-dont/

Social injustice a disincentive to tax paying

AS A GENERAL rule, most people do not like paying taxes and will avoid doing so if they feel they can get away with it. This is why in all developed states, Inland Revenue and other tax collection services have sweeping powers while courts impose severe punishments on individuals found guilty of cheating the tax authorities. 

Big fines and prison sentences are powerful deterrents to tax evasion, because if the authorities took a lax approach to tax collection, as they had done in Greece, very few people would pay their dues. Effective tax collection is also dependent on the standard of services offered by the state. People would be less inclined to engage in tax evasion if the state was offering a high standard of education and healthcare and other services free of charge, the case in Scandinavian countries.

In countries, like Cyprus in which the state does not offer a good standard of service to its citizens and squanders the taxpayer’s money on populist measures and on paying public employees obscene wages and pensions, many people, understandably resent paying taxes, because they cannot see any benefit. This is not to say there are no greedy individuals who would avoid paying taxes no matter how good the services offered by the state were, but the current state of affairs does not put any moral pressure of people to pay their taxes.

For instance, union bosses have been demanding for the last two years that the government clamp down on tax evasion by the self-employed rather than dock the wages of public sector workers. But could we blame a plumber or an electrician if he chooses not to declare his full income, choosing instead to invest part of it in a private pension plan. The alternative is to pay the amount to the state Social Insurance Fund, and subsidise the generous pensions paid to public employees, who contributed less to the Fund but would be paid a pension at least twice as high as the plumber’s. And by declaring a higher income, they might not be eligible to free, state healthcare which public employees are guaranteed regardless of their earnings.

Businesspeople are in a similar position. They have to pay tax on every cent they receive from the company for justified expenses, whereas senior state officials and deputies are entitled to a ‘representation allowance’ (€18,000 for the former and even higher for the latter) which is tax-free but still goes towards the calculation of the state pension. Even the use of a company car is taxed as a benefit in kind, but it is not in the case of state officials; as for deputies they have the privilege of not having to pay any taxes when they buy a car.

We have not heard any union bosses complaining about this legalised tax evasion, but they wasted no time expressing their objections when they heard that finance minister Kikis Kazamias was considering taxing the big retirement bonuses paid to public sector employees. The tax privileges of the workers of the broader public sector are a ‘workers’ conquest’, insist union bosses while demanding a clampdown on tax evasion. But is not being exempt from paying taxes on benefits such as low interest loans, the use of government cars, free healthcare, cheap holiday homes not tax evasion, even if it is sanctioned by the state? Private sector workers pay tax on these benefits.

If the government is serious about clamping down on tax evasion, as its union comrades have been demanding, the first step should be to end the tax discrimination and create a level playing field. All citizens must be treated equally by the tax authorities and be subject to the same taxation rules and regulations. What sort of democracy and rule of law do we have when the state taxes all the benefits of one set of citizens and none of the benefits (not even big cash allowances) of another set? This is social injustice.

Once we are all treated equally, there may be fewer resentful citizens willing to cheat the tax authorities. There should also be a clampdown on tax evasion that should be exercised much more effectively than has been the case so far, but the priority must be the equal treatment of all citizens by the tax authorities. Now, that the State is desperate for cash is the perfect time to introduce a fair, non-discriminatory taxation system.   

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/taxes/our-view-social-injustice-disincentive-tax-paying/20111023

When did it become D.C.'s responsibility to pay town employees?

To the editor,

If the presidents latest attempt at a "jobs" bill comes to the Senate floor our Senators should vote no.

The millionaires tax to pay for it is a red herring. The vice president's statements today about putting teachers and first responders back to work is disingenuous at best. It is just another payoff to the public employees unions at the expense of people who have nothing to do with these laid off workers.

When did it become the national governments responsibility to pay local public employees? These local governments have had three years to deal with their problems. If they do not have the political will to either raise taxes or cut wages and benefits then they can't have these workers. And the workers have to deal with a new reality that the country and the taxpayers are all broke.

Wrapping this jobs bill with code words like "First Responders" makes you think we are not being protected from terrorists by the federal government, when this is just not true.

Rather than dealing with this three years ago, the state governments took hundreds of billions in stimulus money to pay them . . . remember those saved jobs. Now the stimulus money is gone, the workers have lost their jobs anyway and we still have to pay it all back.

If we do not come to grips with and except the economy we have and begin to live within our means rather than continuously kicking the can down the road hoping for some miracle, we will end like Greece.

James Edgar

Meredith

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story/james-edgar-10-22

Swampyville's - "Tax! Tax! Tax!, then Tax! some more"

Question? What is a Value Added Tax (VAT)?

Politically Correct Resolution:

Every taxable item "Manufactured" in the United States has an Added Value Tax (hidden tax) of 17% added by the government.

A value added tax (VAT) is a form of consumption tax. From the perspective of the buyer, it is a tax on the purchase price. From that of the seller, it is a tax only on the "value added" to a product, material or service, from an accounting point of view, in each stage of its manufacture or distribution. The manufacturer remits to the government the difference between these two amounts, and retains the rest for themselves to offset the taxes they had previously paid on the inputs.(Wikipedia)

The "value added" to a product by a business is the sale price charged to its customer, minus the cost of materials and other taxable inputs. A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed. It differs from the sales tax in that, with the latter, the tax is collected and remitted to the government only once, at the point of purchase by the end consumer. With the VAT, collections, remittances to the government, and credits for taxes already paid occur each time a business in the supply chain purchases products.(Wikipedia)

There are politicians who want to add an additional 10% of Federal sales tax on top of the current (VAT) being paid. If they are allowed to do this, the consumer will be paying 33% in taxes for taxable items that they purchase. The same approximate amount that is actually being paid on most credit cards (with their hidden charges)! I guess the government/corporations/ Financial Interests need every penny of the tax payers money than can get to keep from starving to death! Make no mistake about it, The Government/Corporations/ Financial Interests are all complicit in minipulating the Tax codes to allow this Usury to happen/continue.

http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/swampyvilles-the-banshees-cry/2011/oct/19/swampyvilles-tax-tax-tax-then-tax-some-m/

Texas High School students made to recite Mexican National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance

A high school student refused to participate in a bizarre class assignment that required students to recite the Mexican Pledge and national anthem. She said it had nothing to do with learning Spanish and decided to video the incident. The Blaze has the exclusive and disturbing video. Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.
Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class.

That didn’t go over well with sophomore Brenda Brinsdon. The 15-year-old sat down and refused to participate. She also caught it all on video:

It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/blaze-exclusive-tx-high-school-students-made-to-recite-mexican-national-anthem-pledge-of-allegiance/

In the end, Gov. Brown is just a union guy

SACRAMENTO ---- As the legislative session came to an end, some Capitol observers expressed a glimmer of hope that Gov. Jerry Brown would be the independent, reform-minded governor that he swore he would be when he ran for office.

After the governor argued that not every problem deserves a government solution when he vetoed a nanny-ish ski-helmet law and put the kibosh on a card-check bill that would have eliminated secret-ballot elections for farm workers, I joined the "wishful thinking" chorus and urged the governor to heed his libertarian impulse.

But Brown was just playing head games with those of us who believe that California must reform its government and take on the unions that are driving up costs and eroding public services.

He vetoed a couple of other egregious union-backed laws, including one that would have unionized child care workers, but when the final bill-signing tally came in, it's clear that he is nothing more than a front man for the unions and an enemy of reform. It always helps to deal in reality. So don't expect anything to improve under his watch.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/greenhut/article_e860cb3d-c687-58b5-93c9-7b77e2f5b7d4.html#ixzz1b328Ys7a

Keystone Cops Wag The Dog

October 17, 2011 by Bob Livingston 

UPI FILE

The Administration of President Barack Obama saved the announcement that an assassination plot had been thwarted for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Attorney General Eric Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

With investigations into U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s complicity in the Fast and Furious guns to Mexico criminality gaining steam, and public appetite for another U.S. war in another Mideast nation waning, President Barack Obama needed a big play.

What he got was a four-base error.

At a news conference last week announcing a thwarted assassination plot, Holder said the plot was the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm, according to a Reuters report.

“High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,” Holder told the news conference.

If so, they must have planned it about four hours into a booze- and cocaine-fueled night of poker, because it is one of the most convoluted, pathetically inept, unprofessional hits ever concocted. A 10-year-old semi-literate could have devised a plan with a better chance of success.

The “plot,” such as it was, came to light in early summer. Press reports say President Barack Obama was briefed on it in June. The “mastermind,” an Iranian-American used-car salesman said to have a penchant for alcohol and prostitutes and described as scatterbrained, was arrested in September. But the Obama Administration saved the announcement for the same day a Congressional investigation announced Holder was being subpoenaed over his lying testimony about Fast and Furious.

The problem for Obama and Holder is that not even their normally fawning press corps is buying the story, simply because it is so ridiculous.

NBC's Isikoff Warns Cain's 9-9-9 Plan May Mean 'More Pain' for 'Struggling Families'

On Saturday's NBC Nightly News, correspondent Michael Isikoff filed a report recounting criticisms of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, as Isikoff asserted that "critics see more pain, not gain, for struggling families." His report continued:

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: A family of four with an income of $50,000 could face a tax hike of more than $5,000, says one tax analyst.

PROFESSOR EDWARD KLEINBARD, USC SCHOOL OF LAW: Anybody who works for a living and has an income below six figures a year is going to find him or herself very sorry that they live in a 9-9-9 tax environment.

The NBC correspondent soon featured a soundbite of Cain advisor Rich Lowrie which did not address the charge that the poor would pay more, as Lowry was instead shown arguing in favor of eliminating the capital gains tax to help increase investment.

But, on the same night's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee allowed guest Cain the chance to argue that his plan would not cause the poor to pay higher taxes because the 9-9-9 plan would also eliminate hidden taxes that increase the prices of consumers goods, thus allowing prices to drop as the sales tax is introduced.

Returning to NBC, Isikoff undermined Cain's plan as he concluded the report:

Nobody disputes that the 9-9-9 plan would radically change current policy. But while Cain says it will recharge the economy, his critics say there's no guarantee of that, and that his proposal would unfairly shift the tax burden away from the wealthy and onto working class Americans.

Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/10/16/nbcs-isikoff-warns-cains-9-9-9-plan-may-mean-more-pain-struggling-fam#ixzz1axRuZGH4

Salary increases? In this economy? They can’t be serious, can they?

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 | 2 a.m.

When we read recent reports that many Clark County government workers were receiving salary increases, we had one thought: Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Schoenmann has reported, Clark County has been working with unions representing its employees to try to whittle down costs and has received concessions from several unions over the past few years. However, many county employees have still seen their wages increase over the past three years. (You can find coverage here.)

For example, county officials said members of the Service International Employees Union received average wage increases of 12.6 percent over that time. A spokesman for the SEIU, which is negotiating its contract with the county, disputed the number and said the union was doing its own analysis.

County officials have been accused of overstating wages before. This year, county officials said prosecutors had received total wage increases of 15 percent over three years. As Schoenmann noted, District Attorney David Roger complained, saying the county had grossly overstated the increases. However, an audit backed the county, saying the number was 14.6 percent.

Regardless, the squabbling over numbers misses the larger point: Times are tough. Thousands of workers in Clark County have lost their jobs, and many workers have taken pay cuts. Nevada continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. And an untold number of others have gone years without pay increases. 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/13/salary-increases-economy-they-cant-be-serious-can-/

‘We are caught in a systemic debt trap’

Our world faces a large, profound, and very important problem: systemic debt.

We are each and all in debt, whether or not we have actually borrowed from anyone.

This is because our financial system is based on debt and interest on debt.

Our individual interest payments are disguised as taxes and hidden in the inexorable price inflation we each experience.

You are already directly in debt if you are a citizen of a country in debt, and all countries are in debt. The fact of your citizenship makes you liable even if you don't think you are personally in debt to anyone.

The collateral for each country's interest-bearing debt is the ability of its inhabitants to work and pay taxes. The taxes are used to cover the nation's interest payments, and since the interest is compound interest our financial system is biased toward unstoppable exponential growth reflected in price inflation.

So it becomes imperative to grow the economy in line with exploding interest-bearing debt so that money does not lose its purchasing power in terms of goods and services.

But real world growth is limited by the laws of physics (broadly construed) and ecology, since we live in nature; and by the laws of psychology and sociology since we live in cultures and are all real beings with finite needs. For example, no single person can live in a thousand houses. And we can each eat only so many meals in a day.  


http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/we-are-caught-in-a-systemic-debt-trap-1.1153270

139 central Pennsylvania officials tout membership in the $100k club

School district superintendents make the list. So do principals. But surprises on the local government top-earners list in the capital region came from police officers, firefighters, a borough manager and an athletic director. The first-ever snapshot of earnings paid out by 75 local government agencies in the Harrisburg area — county governments, townships, boroughs, cities and school districts — shows 139 officials can tout membership in the coveted $100,000 Club. Sixty-six others earning between $95,000 and $100,000 were close to knocking on that clubhouse door. 
    
The data compiled by The Patriot-News through Right-to-Know requests is from the end of 2009. Many of the people on the list have since left their jobs. 
    
But this survey shows the payroll for the 17 school districts, four county governments and 53 townships, boroughs or cities included in the survey totaled just over $755 million for nearly 23,000 full- and part-time employees. 
    
Former Harrisburg School District Superintendent Gerald Kohn topped the list of salaries at $235,431. Following him was his former deputy superintendent Julie Botel, who made $204,790. They were the only ones to top the $200,000 mark. 
    
A few, including former Harrisburg fire chiefs Donald Konkle and Daniel Soulier, made the list only because their earnings included the leave pay-outs they received when retiring that year, which they had accrued over decades of service. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/139_central_pennsylvania_offic.html

Biden: Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party Have Frustration in Common

Vice President Joe Biden today likened the Occupy Wall Street protests to expressions of grassroots frustration by members of the Tea Party.

“Let’s be honest with one another,” Biden told an audience on camera at the Washington Ideas Forum. “What is the core of that protest? The core is: The bargain has been breached. The core is the American people do not think the system is fair, or on the level. That is the core is what you’re seeing with Wall Street.

“There’s a lot in common with the Tea Party,” he said. “The Tea Party started, why? TARP. They thought it was unfair.”

Biden cited Bank of America’s recent decision to impose a $5 monthly fee on some debit card users as an example of new perceived unfairness related to the banking sector that has fueled more popular frustration.

“The middle class folks, these guys with the debit cards, are on their back. And [banks] are going to charge them $5 to use the cards? At minimum, they are totally tone-deaf,” Biden said.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/biden-occupy-wall-streettea-party-have-frustration-in-common/

Biden: GOP Strong Enough to Beat Obama in 2012

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says the Republican Party is more than strong enough to beat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

"A significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction," Biden said. "That is never a good place to be going into reelection whether it’s your fault or not your fault. It’s almost sometimes irrelevant."
During an appearance Thursday at the Washington Ideas Forum, Biden was asked by NBC News host David Gregory if a significant majority of the American people don't believe the country is moving in the right direction. And he says that is never a good place to be going into re-election, regardless of whether it is the current administration's fault or not.

“Is it strong enough of a Republican Party for its nominee to beat this president?” Gregory asked.

“Oh absolutely, absolutely," Biden replied. "It’s strong enough to beat both of us. Look, look – no matter what the circumstance, at the end of the day, the American people right now are - many of them are in real trouble – an even larger percentage have stagnant wages and a significant majority of the American people believe that the country is not moving in the right direction.


Read more on Newsmax.com: Biden: GOP Strong Enough to Beat Obama in 2012
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Public employee salaries, pensions far outpace private sector's

John R. Smith

October 5, 2011

For decades, I was told by friends who work in local government that they were entitled to higher job benefits than private sector workers because they received less in terms of salary.

Why is it I don't hear that anymore? It's because these days the numbers decisively show that most government workers earn more pay than their counterparts in private sector jobs, and earn far more in benefits, too. In fact, the benefits are four times greater for federal workers than private industry workers.

Even union-friendly media are turning a critical eye to public sector unions, who throw up picket lines and pack the halls of government to bleed dry the American taxpayer.  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-jscol-pensions-salaries-public-smith-1005-20111005,0,4134099.column

The High Price of Hidden Costs

Many policy experts and economists think it’d be far better if people knew the cost of health care, if they were aware what their full, employer-sponsored premiums cost, etc. I agree. Transparency is the right way to go.

But make no mistake, people will be annoyed. No, that’s not right. A $5/month debit card use fee is annoying. Suddenly learning that your income is lower than it would otherwise be by $10,000 because of your “employer-paid” premium is not annoying. It is enraging.

What will Americans do when they finally recognize the full cost of health care?....I think many people will be furious at how much of their paychecks are, effectively, being piped into the pockets of health insurers, health care providers, drug manufacturers, health IT gizmo creators, massive radiology machine developers, other device makers, and government programs. Some will think the return is worth the price. Many will not, particularly those who think insurers are wringing them dry.

Once you start thinking about it, you'll be surprised at just how addicted we all are to hidden costs. There are all the hidden bank fees, of course, which become enraging when they turn into transparent fees and we realize just how high they actually are. There's the hidden cost of healthcare that Austin points to — hidden because, in the American system, employers pay for most of it and most of us never really realize just how much we're really paying.

 Read more at : http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/10/high-price-hidden-costs

There are hidden taxes, too. If we want to reduce greenhouse gases, the single best way to do it is via a carbon tax. But that's transparent and produces a gigantic political battle. So instead we end up with direct EPA regulation, something that every economist in the world agrees is less efficient, less effective, 

Falling Wages Threatening U.S. as Consumers May Cut Spending

Ninety-one percent of people in the U.S. labor force have a job.(bullshit) That may be the extent of the good news for these Americans, whose incomes tell a darker story.

Take-home pay, adjusted for prices, fell 0.3 percent in August, the third decrease in five months, and personal income dropped for the first time in two years, the Commerce Department reported last week. The declines followed news from the Census Bureau that median household income in 2010 fell to $49,445, the lowest in more than a decade, and the poverty rate jumped to 15.1 percent, a 17-year high.

Salary and benefit growth “has been going nowhere,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “One of the key reasons the recovery has stalled is that real incomes have fallen.”

While policy makers from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to President Barack Obama focus on cutting unemployment stuck near or above 9 percent since April 2009, the widespread stagnation in wages may offer a better explanation for the failure of economic growth to accelerate two years after the end of the recession. Workers’ ability to negotiate higher earnings won’t return until the job market strengthens, and flagging confidence has raised the risk that consumers may retrench.

Inflation-adjusted weekly earnings have fallen for six consecutive months, dropping 1.8 percent in August from a year earlier, a pace not seen since the 18-month economic slump ended in June 2009.

Getting ‘Squeezed’     http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-03/falling-wages-threatening-u-s-as-consumers-may-cut-spending.html

Has Dallas, Texas Got a Good Idea or What?

Recently, the City of Dallas, Texas passed an ordinance stating that if a driver is pulled over by law enforcement and is not able to provide proof of insurance, the car is towed.

To retrieve the car after being impounded, they must show proof of insurance to have the car released. This has made it easy for the City of Dallas to remove uninsured cars.

Shortly after the “No Insurance” ordinance was passed, the Dallas impound lots began to fill up and were full after only nine days. 80+ % of the impounded cars were driven by illegals.

Not only must they provide proof of insurance to have their car released, they have to pay for the cost of the tow, a $350 fine, and $20 for every day their car is kept in the lot.

Accident rates are going down and… Dallas’ solution gets uninsured drivers off the road WITHOUT making them show proof of nationality.

Wonder how the ACLU or the Justice Department will get around this one.

Just brings tears to my eyes.

GO Dallas!