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October 20th, 2009Dear Liberty Activist, I have a special task for you today. Today, ALG President Bill Wilson in a letter urged Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor & Pensions to hold public hearings on all nominees for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Tomorrow, the committee will hold an executive session on the nominees to the NLRB. Thus far, there have been no public hearings held on these nominees. So much for transparency! In his letter, Wilson wrote, "There are numerous, substantial issues in the backgrounds of two of these nominees, Craig Becker and Mark Pearce. For instance, Craig Becker is a longtime union activist who has spent considerable time and energy fighting for reduced rights for union members. His strong advocacy against workers brings into question whether he can be neutral when deciding cases involving union issues." According to the Wall Street Journal, "In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do so by regulatory fiat, without a vote in Congress." In a statement Wilson said, "Barack Obama has nominated Craig Becker, who he believes the NLRB can arbitrarily change the rules for union elections, raising questions as to whether the NLRB under Obama is planning to do away with secret ballot elections for unions." Under current law, unions have to provide for a secret ballot when they are organized. Unions have lobbied the Obama administration and Congress for a "card check" system that would allow unions to be organized without any ballot. According to the Journal, Becker was also responsible for drafting several pro-union executive orders while serving simultaneously on the Barack Obama's presidential transition team and on the SEIU payroll. In testimony, Becker said, "I was asked to provide advice and information concerning a possible executive order of the sort described. I was involved in researching, analyzing, preliminary drafting, and consulting with other members of the Transition team." Wilson was also critical of the nomination of Mark Pearce in his letter to Harkin, "Mark Pearce's past advocacy has included among other things representing corrupt union leaders who embezzled workers' money." ALG's own background material on Pearce reveals that he "served as counsel to Frank Ervolino and his unions, among them HERE Local 4. In 1995, dissidents within the union wanted to see the union's financial records and were rebuffed, with Pearce's assistance. Pearce pushed back against the 500 union members who asked to see the records." Ervolino was later indicted in 2000, along with his wife, on multiple counts of embezzlement and conspiracy. Ervolino died before trial, but his wife, Anna May, plead guilty and made restitution of $144,470.79 to the union's benefit plans. The letter continues, "These two nominees are not the type of leaders that this country needs. The issues in their backgrounds require significant, public examination. To deny the public of the opportunity to observe this examination is not the proper course of action. The Committee should conduct its work in public for all to see and should not resort to executive meetings to move nominees forward." "So much for Barack Obama's vaunted claims of transparency. Two union hacks with shady histories are nominated for the NLRB, and instead of public scrutiny, they get executive sessions to hide their pasts," Wilson concluded. Let's get Senators Harkin and Mike Enzi on the horn today and tell them to have public hearings on all NLRB nominations. Period. End of story. Tom Harkin (D -
IA) -- (202) 224-3254 Also, on the ObamaCare front, public opposition is mounting to Barack Obama's planned takeover of the nation's entire health care sector. According to Rasmussen's latest polling, a full 54 percent of voters oppose the plan. Let's
stay on Capwiz and keep the pressure on Congress before its too late!
Both the House and Senate will be voting on this abomination once the
various committees bills can be reconciled. That's going to be
very soon! Now is the time to strike! Here's
the
Target 92 list on the House side to all vulnerable and Blue Dog
Democrats. Blue Dogs are in blue. Here's the .xls
and .pdf
versions. Of note, the first 40 on the list are the Blue Dogs
that signed the "deficit-neutral" letter mentioned above.
Everything you need to email their staff, write letters, make phone
calls and send faxes, both to their district and Capitol Hill offices. And we have to keep calling out to the House and to the Senate in general. Of course, you can also reach them via the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Keep giving them Hell! Without a steady
barrage of opposition from, ObamaCare will pass without a doubt.
It's up to you. The Republicans do not have the votes unless you
can help score some Democrat votes against. In today's Liberty
Action Report, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
misses the mark, Barack Obama is an empty balloon, and the insurance
companies made a deal with the Devil. Plus, Appointment Watch
takes a closer look at Lisa Heinzerling, nominee for Associate
Administrator for Policy, Economics, and Innovation, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and Karen Mills, nominee for Administrator of the
U.S. Small Business Administration. And, Congressman Steve King
gives his take on Safe Schools Czar Keving Jennings. Please send your letters to the editor at Robert@getliberty.org. We publish all points of view! Today, Barbara Arato writes, "How about everyone just demanding the resignation of this Administration?" Not a bad idea, Barbara. Although, do you think they'll listen? Let's keep the pressure on! You are liberty's last line of defense. For Liberty, Robert Romano P.S. Want to help us keep fighting? Help us out with a small donation today! Or mail it to: Americans for Limited Government, 9900 Main Street, Suite 303, Fairfax, VA 22031.
Open Source & Copyright Free Consumer
Financial Protection Agency Misses the Mark Balloon
Obama When
you Shake Hands with the Devil, Healthcare Style ALG
Research Appointment Watch Too
Hot Not To Note: Congressman Steve King (R-IA) on Kevin Jennings Consumer Financial Protection Agency Misses the MarkBy Robert Romano This week, the House Financial Services Committee will continue work on the creation of a new federal agency: the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Ostensibly, the agency would attempt to protect consumers from risky financial products, ala the subprime and adjustable rate mortgages thought to have played a role in the continued credit crunch. Unfortunately, in the process, the House is attempting to create yet more labyrinthine regulations, treating the symptoms of very loose money by punishing the private sector for the policies that the government is completely responsible for creating. Throughout the crisis, and in its aftermath, the government has attempted—unsuccessfully—to stem the rate of foreclosures through various moratoria, subsidies, and mortgage modifications. It attempted to subsidize losses in the mortgage securities market, of which it is purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars-worth if bad debt to date first via TARP and now via TALF and other facilities. It took over AIG, the insurer of those risky securities, so that it could pay out losses on mortgage derivatives. It took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to keep the secondary mortgage market afloat. Overall, it has put taxpayers on the hook for as much as $12.8 trillion in high-risk bailouts. All of these actions have been—and continue to be—in reaction to the fallout of the problem. But none of the "fixes" thus far proposed by the government, including the creation of the CFPA, actually address the root cause of the problem. Instead, they create boogeymen of "predatory lenders" to suit a political narrative contrived to deflect blame from the true culprits of the monetary miasma that is still unraveling to date. It has even proposed putting the very cause of systemic risk in charge of regulating it: the Federal Reserve. We've read this story before. As Andy LaPerreriere noted writing for the Wall Street Journal in April 2008, "Mortgage lenders, home builders, real-estate speculators and millions of average people who borrowed too much were caught up in a mania. They were responding to misleading market signals that told them to write more reckless loans, build more houses and borrow as much as the bank would lend them. After all, people who did these things during the boom profited handsomely year after year." Chief among the "misleading market signals" were those put in place by the Federal Reserve. In particular, the federal funds rate—the rate at which banks borrow from the government—was too low, incentivized poor lending and borrowing practices, and fueled the housing boom and then bust. LaPerreriere continues, "The housing boom began in earnest when the Fed slashed interest rates in response to the 2001 recession, and kept rates too low for too long. The lower interest rates cut monthly mortgage payments and fueled the first wave of home-price appreciation, which began to take on a life of its own. Artificially low interest rates reduced returns on safer investments like government and corporate bonds, so investors moved funds into riskier assets (like subprime loans) to increase returns. Low interest rates also made it profitable to borrow heavily in order to invest in mortgage-backed securities and other financial assets, and leverage grew at a breathtaking clip." How widespread was the credit expansion in mortgages? Outstanding mortgage debt appreciated from $3.805 trillion in 1990 to $14.568 trillion in 2007—a 383 percent increase. The national debt itself increased from $3.23 trillion to $9 trillion, a 278 percent jump. The money supply, too, jumped, from $1.787 trillion to $5.268 trillion over the same period, according to the Ludwig Von Mises Institute. And prices followed: gold rose from $386.20 an ounce to $695.39, a 180 percent increase; and oil rose from $23.19 a barrel to $64.20, a 277 percent increase. The national housing price index too followed suit, increasing from 171.91 in 1990 until it peaked at 226.6 in April 2006. During the same period, mortgages were sold on the secondary market, and the money flowed back into the banks so that more loans could be given. Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE's) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played a tremendous role in the secondary mortgage market through the securitization of trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and related debt. It amounted to some $4.7 trillion as reported by Bloomberg News by November 2007 rising to over $5 trillion by the time of TARP according to the Wall Street Journal. And, they were sold all around the world. Those in turn were turned into the more than-$400 trillion derivatives industry, the losses of which were in part insured by companies like AIG. When the losses due to loan defaults hit on the consumer side, the repercussions were felt throughout the entire system. The government has spent more than two years reacting. But the simple fact is that none of this would have even been possible without government's own very loose monetary policies to begin with. And now, the government wants to pretend that the crisis that it created can be "fixed" by keeping the monetary policy looser than ever. The federal funds rate stands at an historic low near zero percent. The regulations now proposed and all government actions to date have simply been designed to exist in the world of loose credit engineered by powerful unchecked central banks like the Federal Reserve. This is like pretending that there is a "safer" way to drive home from the bar drunk. This will not end well. And the economy, the dollar, and consumers, borrowers, and lenders will still wind up rushing towards a train wreck—with taxpayers footing the bill, and the new CFPA enacting ever more regulations to keep the train recklessly careening out of control. Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1671 Balloon Obama
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1670 When you Shake Hands with the Devil, Healthcare Styleby Dave Cribbin When they cut their deal with the Administration the insurance companies rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. They traded away proper insurance underwriting practices in order to capture a larger customer base, one that would be guaranteed through government force. Like their auto company brethren who struck their own Faustian bargains before them, they have come away a several fingers shy! After promising the insurance companies a government mandate that would force young people under penalty of fines to purchase insurance (not very American sounding, is it?) the administration's minions in the Finance Committee said Oops, we lied. They watered down their mandate, delaying it's start date and reducing the penalties enough as to make it ineffective, leaving the insurance industry hanging out to dry. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to shed a single tear for the insurance companies. The bargain they sought with the Administration was despicable. They know how insurance works and doesn't work, and have played the go along get along game with the government for far too long, instead of being a force for positive change. This time it came back to bite them, and they're going to need stitches to close the wound. The Government in it's extremely finite wisdom is doing exactly the wrong things to fix the problem of rising health care costs. A quick history lesson for those who have forgotten. It was the Government's involvement in health care, subsidizing employer sponsored insurance payments by making them tax deductible, in order to cure other problems it created by imposing wage and price controls during World War II, that started us down the road to health care ruin in the first place. When you subsidize something the demand for it goes up. It's like having a clearance sale! The very same politicians who believe so strongly in incentives when they are handing out $7,500 of your tax dollars so their fellow eco-warriors can drive green in a $40,000 electric vehicle are just undone by the fact that subsidizing health care has lead to an increased demand for it. The solution to rising health care costs is LESS GOVERNMENT, NOT MORE! The government needs to let insurance companies get back to selling insurance, which is a protection against a loss that is not economically recoverable from. Insurance is not a payment system designed to take the brain power out of the decision to go see a doctor simply because the cost of that visit is near zero. The government needs to stop subsidizing health care via the tax code. When consumers of health care start to pay the real costs of the health care they purchase they will respond, like they do when the price of any other commodity they purchase increases. They will reduce their demand for it. The government mandating what procedures need to be included in an individual's policy needs to end. Only the consumer can know what is of real value to them, and what they are willing to freely exchange their hard earned dollars for. When they are able to shop and compare costs and benefits, they will. We need to let doctors be doctors and practice medicine again, instead of having to practice the bizarre form of health care CYA that an out-of-control trial lawyer lobby has forced upon them through outrageous malpractice awards. Until we get the Government out health care, no real reform will be possible, and Government will continue to play their game, which is to shift costs onto what ever group happens to occupy their demon of the day spotlight. Below is a link with the fax number of every senator who is voting on the bill today. Send your senator a note and let him know how you feel. http://www.grassfire.org/1122/targets.htm Dave Cribbin is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1669
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