Via Sam Stein at the Huffington Post, the deal struck Friday night apparently contained $1.5 billion in cuts to Obama's proposed high speed rail budget.
In this situation, people like me and others on the left will criticize Obama for caving on a major priority and cutting from a rail infrastructure budget that was too small to begin with.
People on the right will still make hysterical claims that Obama is a scary, African socialist-Muslim.
The only people that will be pleased by this kind of policy are the bland Washington punditocracy who may take it as a sign of moderation and seriousness. Unfortunately, the punditocracy has found itself almost comically unwilling to say anything good about any Obama policies.
2011/04/12
Liberalism Gone Wild
I have to admit, when I saw this headline about a city attempting to curtail all sugary drinks in municipal offices, my immediate guess was San Francisco. So congratulations, Boston! You surprised me.
I support instituting taxes to increase the cost of food products with harmful health impacts. Taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, gambling and other activities with public safety or public health implications are widely accepted. Capturing the cost of those societal externalities is good public policy.
But this sort of heavy handed attempt to control people's choices - especially when done by a public employer - is exactly the kind of awful policy that partially validates conservative claims that liberals want to introduce a nanny state.
I support instituting taxes to increase the cost of food products with harmful health impacts. Taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, gambling and other activities with public safety or public health implications are widely accepted. Capturing the cost of those societal externalities is good public policy.
But this sort of heavy handed attempt to control people's choices - especially when done by a public employer - is exactly the kind of awful policy that partially validates conservative claims that liberals want to introduce a nanny state.
2011/04/11
No, we don't have a health care crisis in our country. Why do you ask?
These stories, this one via Crooks & Liars, about free health care clinics and the terribly long lines that they draw, are really depressing. How we can have a situation where one half of our political system basically waves its hand at this issue and says, "Nothing to see here," is beyond me.
My State's Incredibly Bloated Legislature
Many, many stories about the amazingly wasteful institution that is the Pennsylvania Legislature. These stories are focusing on legislative staff, rather than the actual wasteful, expensive legislators themselves.
Allow me to summarize:
The Legislature is huge, with lots of unnecessary members.
Each legislator's staff is huge, with lots of unnecessary employees.
Overall, the thing is big, inefficient and very expensive.
Allow me to summarize:
The Legislature is huge, with lots of unnecessary members.
Each legislator's staff is huge, with lots of unnecessary employees.
Overall, the thing is big, inefficient and very expensive.
And Right on Schedule
I missed this from earlier today, but apropos of an earlier post, right to work legislation has apparently already been put forward in the Pennsylvania House.
Mitt Romney is Running for President
No surprises, and I don't have much to add.
Nevertheless, it is sad when the one who believes in magic underwear is the "serious" GOP candidate.
Nevertheless, it is sad when the one who believes in magic underwear is the "serious" GOP candidate.
Is America Europe's Mexico?
Free Exchange led me to this piece from the LA Times. To quickly summarize, the story discusses an Ikea manufacturing plant in Danville, Virginia. Workers there are apparently trying to unionize, claiming they are suffering from relatively low pay, strict work conditions, unpredictable schedules, forced overtime and multiple cases of racial discrimination. The workers are also taking issue with the fact that employees doing virtually identical jobs at facilities in Sweden enjoy higher pay, better conditions and more paid vacation.
Ikea has a relatively friendly image, both here in the States and in its home country. It is generally known as a responsible company and allows all of its employees in Sweden to unionize. According to the article, this has been a much bigger story in Sweden than in the US due to surprise at the companies seemingly incongruent actions. However, I don't see why anyone should be surprised. This is what companies do. Any operation that can be sent to an area with lower wages and weaker labor protections will be sent there. It just isn't that often that we in the US think of ourselves as a cheap labor substitute for more expensive workers. Driving home the point, an organizer from Danville, Bill Street said, "It's ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico."
Unfortunately, Americans had better get used to it. Already within the country, states compete with one another by weakening environmental and labor laws in order to attract jobs from other states or other countries. This race to the bottom has set off pushes in many states to pass Right to Work laws to compete with lower wage states. The Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank here in Pennsylvania, is a strong supporter of such a policy.
I have no doubt that this sort of competition is going to become increasingly common as states desperately try to boost employment. So more states will be forced to compete with each other like they used to compete with Southeast Asia and Latin America. And all the while, we'll be even cheaper labor for our new Scandinavian overlords.
Ikea has a relatively friendly image, both here in the States and in its home country. It is generally known as a responsible company and allows all of its employees in Sweden to unionize. According to the article, this has been a much bigger story in Sweden than in the US due to surprise at the companies seemingly incongruent actions. However, I don't see why anyone should be surprised. This is what companies do. Any operation that can be sent to an area with lower wages and weaker labor protections will be sent there. It just isn't that often that we in the US think of ourselves as a cheap labor substitute for more expensive workers. Driving home the point, an organizer from Danville, Bill Street said, "It's ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico."
Unfortunately, Americans had better get used to it. Already within the country, states compete with one another by weakening environmental and labor laws in order to attract jobs from other states or other countries. This race to the bottom has set off pushes in many states to pass Right to Work laws to compete with lower wage states. The Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank here in Pennsylvania, is a strong supporter of such a policy.
I have no doubt that this sort of competition is going to become increasingly common as states desperately try to boost employment. So more states will be forced to compete with each other like they used to compete with Southeast Asia and Latin America. And all the while, we'll be even cheaper labor for our new Scandinavian overlords.
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