Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Washington Examiner Political Digest: Byron York - Wisconsin schools buck union to cut health costs

Friday, July 08, 2011

Washington Examiner Political Digest: Byron York - Wisconsin schools buck union to cut health costs

Byron York - Wisconsin schools buck union to cut health costs

The Hartland-Lakeside School District, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee in tiny Hartland, Wis., had a problem in its collective bargaining contract with the local teachers union. The contract required the school district to purchase health insurance from a company called WEA Trust. The creation of Wisconsin's largest teachers union -- "WEA" stands for Wisconsin Education Association -- WEA Trust made money when union officials used collective bargaining agreements to steer profitable business its way. Read More

Susan Ferrechio - Obama, GOP inching toward debt deal

President Obama on Thursday told congressional leaders in a closed-door meeting that he wants to reduce the federal deficit by $4 trillion as the two sides inched closer to a deal that could allow the government to avoid defaulting on its debt. Congressional aides said Obama laid out the three deficit reduction proposals during the meeting, but favored the most sweeping plan, which would require budget-saving changes to Social Security and Medicare and include tax increases. Read More

Hayley Peterson - Obama expands mortgage aid for unemployed

The Obama administration on Thursday started a new initiative that would require mortgage lenders to give some unemployed homeowners who have fallen behind in their payments up to a year before the banks can foreclose on their homes. Read More

Timothy Carney - A call to end a corporate welfare agency

If you believe the likes of liberal columnists Thomas Frank, Frank Rich, and Jane Mayer, the Cato Institute is part of a "pro-corporate movement." I would like Frank, Rich, and Mayer, then to explain this Cato Institute paper calling for the abolition of the most blatant bit of corporate welfare in our government -- the Export-Import Ba Read More

David Fredosso - Dozens of 'Fast & Furious' guns were confiscated from illegal aliens in Phoenix

In case you weren't aware, Phoenix's ABC 15 News recently reported that guns from the ATF's disastrous "Operation Fast and Furious" are being used in local crimes. This week, ABC 15 compared the serial numbers of dozens of Fast and Furious" guns to those seized from a group of illegal aliens in an April drug bust. Read More

Phillip Klein - GOP discussing blocking Obama from making future NLRB recess appointments

House Republicans have been in talks with their counterparts in the Senate about blocking President Obama from filling two upcoming vacancies to the National Labor Relations Board through recess appointments, which would leave the body deadlocked with just two members, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said on Thursday. Read More

Barbara Hollingsworth - Virginia: Tea Party Senate candidate calls for abolition of airports authority

On the same day a federal judge was dismissing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia was calling for MWAA's abolishment. U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga ruled in Alexandria that MWAA has the right to levy tolls without the consent of the Virginia General Assembly under the Constitution's interstate compact provisions. Read More

Conn Carroll - Charticle: Defense spending vs entitlement spending

A constant claim among liberals is that government spends more on defense than anything else in the federal budget. The reality is that even after paying for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, Washington spends twice as much on entitlement programs than on defense. Read More

Francesca Chambers - It's not that Democrats don't "own" the economy, it's that they just don't care

Ahead of what of today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on the number of jobs created in June, the WH is downplaying the importance of the unemployment rate to Obama’s reelection. At a Bloomberg breakfast yesterday, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager said this: Read More

Barbara Hollingsworth - Documents confirm Obama administration’s ‘catch and release’ immigration policy

Well, what do you know. Obama administration officials at the Department of Homeland Security deliberately misled Congress when they denied using “selective enforcement” to deport convicted criminals in the U.S. illegally. Read More

Gene Healy - Uncle Sam, robot

Here's a new wrinkle in the debt-limit debate: it turns out that the feds may not be able to turn off the spigot even if the deadline passes and they're legally required to. Reuters reports that: Read More

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