A blatant handout to powerful Democratic interest groups.

So, Megan McArdle is totally right about the auto bailout and stuff...

I would paint a moral equivalence to Bush Republicans' Medicare Part D and the Florida vote--except that handout is perpetual and significantly bigger because it had broader public support, including from social welfare Democrats.

Public support for labor unions at 72-year low

Perry gathers some polling:

From last September, a Gallup Poll finds that for first time since in its polling history back to the 1930s, fewer than half of Americans (48%) approve of labor unions (see chart below):

And a majority of Americans (51%) now think that labor "mostly hurts" the U.S. economy compared to a new low of 39% who say that labor unions "mostly help" the U.S. economy.

More recently, Pew Research finds that:

"Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions' purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many (42%) express an unfavorable opinion (see graph below). In January 2007, a clear majority (58%) had a favorable view of unions while just 31% had an unfavorable impression."

Favored constituency watch

Obama continues the special treatment, which reminds Megan of an ad.

Protectionism watch

Andrew:

Brad DeLong calls the tariff the Obama administration slapped on Chinese tires "really stupid." Soren Dayton doesn't pull punches:

[W]here was the logic in this? He helps his allies, with one hand, but hurts them with the other. He hurts the economy. He hurts the government run companies. And he opens a trade war just in time for the G-20...

Mish piles on:

Not a single job will return to the US as a result of these tariffs. Imports from China will drop but imports from elsewhere will rise. Thus, the unfortunate tragedy in this mess is that Obama's kowtowing to the unions is going to cost union jobs. The ultimate irony is misguided unions are cheering every step of the way.

Ugh.

I second the ugh. When asked about this a couple weeks ago, I said I didn't think Obama was protectionist enough to so stupidly mess with free trade, and that I expected him to let this pass and take the hit from the left. Shows what I know : (

Addendum: Drezner assesses the threat.

Hope for vouchers?

NewMajority:

On July 31, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) - one of the moderates from Maine - co-sponsored the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR) along with Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Senator George Voinovich (R-OH). The bill would reactivate the D.C. School Voucher program, which is in danger of being eliminated after the current crop of students graduate. All Republicans should follow Collins’ lead.

This is a program that is great for the students, their families, their neighborhoods, etc. Both parents and students are happier, and the students are a full third of a grade ahead of their D.C. public school counterparts in math after only three years, as well as ahead in reading. The program costs between one-fourth and half of the normal cost of publicly-funded education in D.C. (depending on whether you believe CATO’s numbers or the Heritage Foundation). In return, the nation receives better-educated students who will help create a larger tax base in the future while diminishing their own odds of delinquency.

This program, however, was killed by teacher’s unions, who support Democratic candidates for congressional office and our current president. These same elected officials often talk about the big money special interests hurting Americans through Washington… Officials such as President Obama, whose children go to private schools. Such a shame the same opportunity doesn’t apply to poor minorities.

In short, the program is wildly successful and popular. If we want to help future generations be safer, more economically successful and help lead this country in the 21st-century, we would be wise to follow Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman on this issue.

At the very least, we would be holding the Democrats responsible for their claims of attempted fiscal responsibility- saving between $7,500 and $20,000 per student for 1,700 students (plus future participants in the program) saves at least $12,750,000 for the taxpaying citizens of this country. And all it would take is a simple vote. Easiest $12.75 million ever saved in Washington.

In sum, voucherizing private education results in:

- Happier families
- Better education
- Lower costs

It's win-win on everything except supporting that favored Democratic constituency: public schoolteachers' unions.

"The Case Against the Case Against Taxing Health Care Benefits"

It's great to see Nate Silver countering the unions' specious arguments. Now if only the Democratic Congress would do the same...

Politics of fear

"If we fail to act, and act now, working families will continue to see their premiums skyrocket, their benefits will erode even further, the number of uninsured will keep exploding and the deficit will grow uncontrollably."

—Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, objecting to a month's delay of the Senate health-care vote.

We wouldn't want anyone to actually read and study the final version of the thousand-page bill we're lobbying to get passed, now would we?

UAW jumps the shark

Unions...what'll they think of next?

[Photo credit: Perry]

Favored constituency watch

Democrats plan to tax health benefits, but only those not part of a union. Brilliant.

U.S. auto industry doing well

Provided you include BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota.

Reuters:

[..] in the last decade, car manufacturers have selected southern states for new plants due to lower labor and energy costs, cheaper land, state subsidies, a lower tax burden and -- significantly -- the absence of unionized labor.

You think?

Ah, federalism's 'laboratories of democracy': they show what works. Hurrah for globalization and right-to-work states.

The quagmire ahead

David Brooks lays out the gory consequences of the Obama administration's takeover of GM.

Gulp. It's worse than I expected.

Update: It gets even worse. Criminy.

I understand the plight of autoworkers, but their union is dysfunctional, has lead to a dysfunctional company, and due to its political power is now receiving preferential treatment that will lead to even more dysfuction.  The market has determined that GM and the UAW are doomed, but Democrats won't let them die and have arranged for the long, perpetual bailout of taxpayer and union co-ownership of the company, throwing the rules of capitalism and international trade out the window and creating an entity the marketplace will seek to avoid like a toxin.

Oops

The Obama administration's favored constituency service for Big Labor has produced its first unintended consequences.

Link blag

Earlier I linked to Keith Hennessey's analysis of Obama's tax proposals, but Conor Clarke says taxing income earned and kept abroad is not being proposed. According to him, it only ends IRS deductions on investments abroad for which the income is kept abroad.  That plan makes sense to me.

Politico: Defense Budget Baloney; spending his higher than the topline figures that get quoted.

ThinkProgress notes that Obama's budget eliminated abstinence funding .

Megan: "there is probably a special place in hell reserved for politicians who betray our nation's most helpless children for the benefit of a sullen and recalcitrant teacher's union."

Larison contrasts neoliberalism with neoconservatism.

At last, a good argument against capitalism.

Awkward family photos.

Link blag

Ambers: How about a gay justice? It's already aired out bigot Sen. Thune (R-SD)

Megan details why the auto bailouts are all about the unions.

Ordinary Will looks at teaching reform.

Conor says power to the principals.

Thinner people spend more time eating.

America's first face transplant offers some improvement over being shot in the face with a shotgun. I'd still consider a veil, though.

The nation is ready to be lied to about the economy again

Union reform

I welcome doing what we can to solve these problems, however:

a) Letting union organizers bully employee support via card check is not the correct solution to the supervisor bullying problem described in the video; it's fighting fire with fire.

b) Right-to-work laws are necessary to protect the employment of those who do not wish to participate in unions.

Favored constituency service

Discussing Obama's interventions, Jon Henke goes there:

"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." —Darth Vader

A hedge fund manager defends the rule of law.

Why?

SIGH...

The voucher program is $7,500/year per student for a superior education, compared to the $14,000 of DC's failing public schools.

Vouchers are the only way to bust the government monopoly on public education funding that segregates kids in to those whose families can afford to pay extra for private education, and those who must rely on free public schools. It's something all fair-minded liberals and libertarians should be for, except those in the pocket of public school teachers' unions.

You can find more info on the horridness of unions—including video interviews with teachers—at teachersunionexposed.com.

Obama's takeover of GM

Doesn't look pretty for the bondholders, and legally they were supposed to be paid first. This is a fair bankruptcy?

I'm going to wait for someone who knows what she's talking about, like Megan, to weigh in before I jump to conclusions on this. Because from these numbers it sure looks like Obama's version of assisting GM with "hard choices" is to reward unions for their parasitic, company-destroying behavior with a disproportionate stake in the company.

Big threats

That 45% of people now see Big business and Big labor as a larger threat than Big government is distressing. People need to review their history; government is more harmful and coercive than these special interests, by a very significant factor. Of course, a fair part of the harm in democratic societies comes from catering to special interests. (Non-democratic governments tend to cause additional, more egregious harms)

D.C. voucher update

Better results at a QUARTER of the cost!

Yet Democrats in Congress want to let it die due to the insane lobbying power of public school teachers' awful unions. It's outrageous.