By now, you know that the fiscal instanity that is President Obama's budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. Did you know that it also passes the buck?
President Barack Obama boasts that he'll reduce spending on key domestic nondefense programs to their lowest levels since the 1960s, but he and Democrats in Congress are on a spending spree not seen since then.
President Obama's plan would drive up the annual cost of government in 10 years to $32,000 for every household in America -- a jump of $8,000. The government expansion would more than double our national debt to $12.5 trillion, despite higher taxes.
President Obama's energy tax plan -- a version of the failed European "cap and trade" global warming fiasco -- may cost families $1,800 yearly in higher utility bills, far exceeding his promised $800 a year tax cut for 95% of Americans.
While campaigning, Obama admitted that his energy plan would cause electric bills to "skyrocket." Few took note, perhaps because Sen. John McCain also backed some form of a "cap-and-trade" energy tax.
But the most grievous threat to future prosperity may be off-budget -- the inaptly named Employee Free Choice Act. Also known as card check, the legislation would effectively abolish secret ballots in unionization elections. It provides that once a majority of employees had filled out sign-up cards circulated by union organizers, the employer would have to recognize and bargain with the union. And if the two sides didn't reach agreement in a short term, federal arbitrators would impose one. Wages, fringe benefits and work rules would all be imposed by the federal government.
So, you might ask, what do Democrats get out of the deal?
The Trentonian writes about Big Labor's "desperation move" to pass the "insultingly named 'The Employee Free Choice Act'":
The advocates say that card sign-ups are necessary because management intimidation leads employees to vote no in unionization elections. C'mon, now. Employees are intimidated when they cast a secret ballot in an NLRB-monitored election, but they wouldn't be intimidated when, say, approached by three union guys in the parking lot and urged to sign a unionization card?
In a robust economy, the union-coddling Employee Free Choice Act would drain job creation. In a severely recessed economy, it would be a death knell.
Legislation that would make it vastly easier for unions to organize -- and essentially eliminate secret ballots in the process -- could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to an analysis by economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar. Her work has appeared in the Antitrust Law Journal and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Big Labor's drive to eliminate secret ballots for union elections has united American business in opposition, so labor chiefs are putting on the brass knuckles: The new strategy is to threaten companies with government retaliation if they don't stop lobbying against turning U.S. labor markets into Europe.
We wrote on February 13 about the letter from the labor consortium Change to Win to the Financial Services Roundtable, demanding that banks receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program money keep quiet about union "card check." To its credit, the banking lobby hasn't backed down. Now Big Labor is escalating, demanding in a February 23 letter to Secretary Timothy Geithner that Treasury muzzle the companies if they won't muzzle themselves.
