Speaking to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis admitted she was biased toward unions.

Unions only account  for 11.9 percent of the workforce, but Solis’ favoritism puts them ahead of the other 88 percent of the American workers.

From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama is staying mostly quiet about the union battle going on in Wisconsin. His labor secretary, Hilda Solis, is not.

“The fight is on!” Solis told a cheering crowd at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting over the weekend in Washington. Giving her support to “our brothers and sisters in public employee unions,” Solis pledged aid to unionized workers who are “under assault” in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

It’s no surprise Solis sympathizes with the unions against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget reform proposal. After all, Solis often tells audiences how proud she is that her father was a Teamsters shop steward and her mother belonged to the United Steelworkers union. “Admittedly, I am a little biased,” she told the DNC, “because … I come from a union household.”

But is it the role of the secretary of labor to take sides in a fight that pits public employee union members against workers and taxpayers who support Walker’s reforms? After all, the Labor Department mission statement says its purpose is “to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States.” It doesn’t say anything about unionized wage earners, job seekers, and retirees.

While Obama downplays his links to the Wisconsin protesters, Solis’ language is quite similar to the president’s original knee-jerk reaction.

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Charles Koch in today’s Wall Street Journal:

Chad Crowe

Years of tremendous overspending by federal, state and local governments have brought us face-to-face with an economic crisis. Federal spending will total at least $3.8 trillion this year—double what it was 10 years ago. And unlike in 2001, when there was a small federal surplus, this year’s projected budget deficit is more than $1.6 trillion.

Several trillions more in debt have been accumulated by state and local governments. States are looking at a combined total of more than $130 billion in budget shortfalls this year. Next year, they will be in even worse shape as most so-called stimulus payments end.

For many years, I, my family and our company have contributed to a variety of intellectual and political causes working to solve these problems. Because of our activism, we’ve been vilified by various groups. Despite this criticism, we’re determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges seriously.

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At this very moment an historic press conference is taking place in Topeka, Kansas, to announce The National Tea Party Nominating Convention, also known as Freedom Fest 2011.

If you are a Tea Party activist or someone who is sick and tired of being forced to choose the “best available Republican candidate from among the worst,” then this is the event you have been waiting for.

The nominating convention will take place in America’s heartland, Kansas City, October 5^th-9^th, 2011.  Over 1 million people are expected to attend, including several of the U.S. Presidential hopefuls.

I am humbled to write that Yours Truly has been selected to act as emcee.

The purpose of the convention is not to be a third party challenge but instead, to vet U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates so that the RNC understands which candidates the grassroots Tea Party nation supports.  Should the Republican party choose to ignore the message, they will do so at their own risk.

As political pollster and author of the book Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two Party System Scott Rasmussen recently told me on my radio show, “I can’t imagine any Republican party Presidential candidate winning his party’s nomination without the support of the Tea party movement.” (more…)

Fox News has this developing story:

Fox Nation has learned exclusively from a highly placed source within Wisconsin state politics that the fourteen AWOL Democrats are experiencing “dissension in the ranks.” State Sen. Julie Lassa (D) is pregnant and “extremely unhappy” about being on the run. State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D) has been hit particularly hard by his paycheck being withheld. Wisconsin State Senate leadership is currently negotiating with eight of the fourteen to come home. Gov. Scott Walker (R) has declared today the deadline for action on his budget repair bill and plans to give a budget address at 5 p.m. ET. A deal may be announced around that time. Developing…

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When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rammed through net neutrality regulations last December, Chairman Julius Genachowski may have been hoping Americans would be too busy with their Christmas shopping to notice and that the matter would die as other issues grabbed at Congress’ and the public’s attention in the new year.

Judging by the response of House Republicans to the FCC, however, it appears that Genachowski judged wrong.

On Sunday, Speaker Boehner fired a shot across the FCC’s bow, telling a group of religious broadcasters that the FCC’s net neutrality rules demonstrate that the agency “is creeping further into the free market,” and suggesting that FCC regulation could impact freedom of speech, moving forward.

“The last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades,” Boehner said in comments cited by the Washington Times.

The Speaker’s view seems to be shared by Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, led by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.).  That panel is set to vote tomorrow on a “resolution of disapproval” of the FCC’s regulations.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Anne Sorock from the Sam Adams Alliance to discuss the Reagan legacy among America’s youth, then Pejman Yousefzadeh talks about Andrew Sullivan.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

The Enduring Appeal of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan Legacy Research
Answer This Andrew Sullivan
Daily Beast hires Trig Truther
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The world is backwards. It should be the taxpayers striking in the streets of Wisconsin. But, private sector taxpayers can’t afford to take a day off, let alone a week. Doesn’t that say everything? Only government employees with their powerful unions, lifetime job security, short work-weeks, loads of sick days, nonstop holidays, early retirement, and bloated pensions, can afford to stand in the street protesting. Common sense tells us anyone with this much time to protest and the ability to abandon their work duties, is greatly overpaid.

It’s time for a reality check. These $100,000 per year teachers keep talking about “the kids.” Exactly who is teaching those kids while their teachers abandon their jobs and commit fraud with fake doctor’s notes? If they cared about the kids, they’d be in the classroom. They’d leave the striking and lobbying to their union leaders and lobbyists. It’s the students (and their parents) who should be on strike. Wisconsin teachers are the highest paid in the Midwest, but their students’ performance hasn’t improved. Where’s the taxpayer’s union? Where’s the students’ union? Are students and taxpayers getting their money’s worth? Perhaps they should be on strike.

I’m a small businessman. Like all private sector workers, I have no time to protest or strike. Take a day off? How could I do that? I run a business. People depend on me. I’m on call 24/7/365, weekends, holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. Vacations are “working vacations.” The phones never stop ringing, the emails never slow down. I have to work 16-hour days just to pay my taxes. Who benefits? Those government employees protesting in the streets of Wisconsin.

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From The Wall Street Journal:

A report from the nonpartisan GAO, to be released Tuesday, compiles a list of redundant and potentially ineffective federal programs, and it could serve as a template for lawmakers in both parties as they move to cut federal spending and consolidate programs to reduce the deficit. Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), who pushed for the report, estimated it identifies between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending. The GAO didn’t put a specific figure on the spending overlap.

The GAO examined numerous federal agencies, including the departments of defense, agriculture and housing and urban development, and pointed to instances where different arms of the government should be coordinating or consolidating efforts to save taxpayers’ money.

The agency found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help people understand finances, according to a draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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Many parents and taxpayers feel the problem is overwhelming for one person and there is nothing they can do. There are several things individuals can do to make a difference.  In the first several segments of “Kids Aren’t Cars,” we laid out many of the problems and some of the solutions.

Watch ‘What Can I Do?’ – Episode 9 – “Kids Aren’t Cars”

Parents

• Look at all of your schooling options.
• Get to know your teacher.
• Find out: Does your child attend a student-focused school?
  • Is the staff more worried about pay and benefits than putting your kids first?
• If your neighborhood school is ineffective, demand options from community and elected leaders.

Taxpayers

• Know your school board.
  • Who did the union endorse in the last election?
  • Are they calling for tax increases or spending reform?
  • If you’re a taxpayer, parent or Tea Party group, interview candidates and hold them accountable.
  • If you don’t like what’s happening, run for the school board. Contact American Majority for training. (link to americanmajority.org)
• Look into how your public school is spending YOUR money. It’s not their money – it’s your money.
• Demand to know what is going on in contract negotiations.

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Commissioners in Dent County, Mo., made it clear they’re not interested in having the federal government sticking it’s “nose” into the business of area land owners.

In a Feb. 24 letter to Matt Meacham at West Plains (Mo.) Council for the Arts — the local front group for the National Park Service effort to designate private land in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri as the “Ozarks Highlands National Heritage Area” — they offered the following:

The Dent County Commission, by unanimous vote strongly opposes the National Heritage Area proposal for the Ozark region, encompassing Dent and twelve additional counties, and therefore respectfully asks that Dent County be removed from any further discussions, studies, etc. involving the establishment of a National Heritage Area.

In a post Jan. 27, I shared news about farmers, ranchers and other land owners in 13 Missouri counties being up in arms, fearful that the federal government will designate their land in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri as the “Ozarks Highlands National Heritage Area.” In addition, I shared a copy of a feasibility study related to the plan.

In a post two weeks later, I shared disturbing details from a never-before-published draft of that same feasibility study.

Dent County Commissioners Darrell Skiles, Dennis Purcell and Gary Larson are not alone in holding their opinion, according to Bob Parker, a cattle rancher and real estate pro from Raymondville, Mo., who’s deeply involved in the fight as a member of the Ozarks Property Rights Congress. County commissioners in Wright, Texas and Douglas counties have sent similar letters and officials in several other counties are expected to follow suit soon.

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It was like a root canal without the benefit of Novocain, watching and listening to the harangue on RT (Russia Today) about how the protests in Madison Wisconsin, Cairo, Libya, Bahrain, and Tunis are all one in the same, that is, the people revolting against dictators who want to bring back feudalism. The protests in Madison are, actually, far more akin to the protests in Athens Greece.  The throngs in Madison, like the protesters in Athens consist, primarily, of government workers who are unalterably opposed to government interference with the pension and benefit entitlements their unions have squeezed out of the taxpayers; never mind that such unfunded benefits have turned Greece, half of Europe and more than half of the states in America into financial basket cases.

Make no mistake about it.  This is a very high-stakes dust-off with historic implications for the country.  If the union and its AWOL, left-leaning legislator allies win, this spectacle becomes the game plan for government unions in every other state that has been brought to its knees by unreasonable, if not incompetent, agreements between government employees and, well, government employees who sit on both sides of the bargaining table.  And if the Governor and his Republican allies win, their victory will show politicians in both parties how to unburden their constituents of the continued growth in these same, ever-growing, largely unfunded liabilities.

The union members say they are willing to negotiate pay cuts and pension cuts (the governor’s bill would up the teachers’ contribution to a modest 12% of the costs of their healthcare insurance and only 6% of their income for their pensions) but not the right to collectively bargain over their pension entitlements. The governor wants to readdress a 2009 law the, then, Democratic legislature passed that expanded public unions’ collective-bargaining rights and lifted existing limits on teacher raises.

The problem, of course, is that those who bargain with the government employees’ unions have no real skin in the game.  They stand only to lose the taxpayers’ hard-earned money through the higher taxes taxpayers will have to pay for the deficits when they come due, or for the higher interest Wisconsin will have to pay for its debt because investors (think bond vigilantes) know a riskier investment when they see one. A bond vigilante is simply the moniker given to those bond investors who, in effect, protest by selling bonds they believe to be “overrated” thereby causing the issuing entity to pay higher interest rates.    And therein lies the rub.  The projected return on investments of most local and state government pension plans are unrealistically high, the paid-in contributions are, thus, unrealistically low and the result is that runaway unfunded liabilities plague almost all of these pension plans.  As a result, the cost to local and state governments of the debt they issue may well go through the proverbial roof.

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Today, in 1904, Glenn Miller was born.