The United States federal government faces some daunting economic challenges. From the debt to the deficit to our credit rating to joblessness, we are staring down the barrel of a gun, economically speaking. There are occasional signs that Washington is beginning to get serious about addressing these problems, such as the emergence of Rep. Paul Ryan as the intellectual force behind conservative economic policy. Sadly, there are just as many, probably many more, examples that Washington doesn’t get it.

Place the latest effort to shred the paper dollar and replace it permanently with the dollar coin in the latter category.

As the Hill puts it, “Rep. David Schweikert (Ariz.) and two other House Republicans — including supercommittee co-chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) — introduced legislation last week aimed at retiring the paper dollar. Schweikert said his bill would save billions of dollars over the next few decades by transitioning to a dollar coin in four years, or as soon as $600 million worth of dollar coins are in circulation.”

Schweikert should be commended for thinking imaginatively about how to save taxpayers money. But in this case he’s being a little too imaginative. Imposing the unpopular dollar coin on an unwilling American public (previous dollar coin mandates have flopped) – and more importantly, small businesses – will actually increase costs on American taxpayers. In fact, it already is.

The current, more reserved mandate has done nothing to spur the use of dollar coins. Instead these coins are handed out as change by the Post Office and DC Metro stations and customers almost immediately give them to their children as trinkets. As the Washington Times pointed out in a recent editorial, “This utterly wasteful program is costing us a billion, and it’s a perfect example of why this country is going bankrupt.”

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From the Associated Press:

Protesters will have to clear out of the private Manhattan park where they’ve been camped out for nearly a month so the owners can clean it, but they’ll be allowed to return afterward, city officials said.

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said in a statement Wednesday that the protest has “created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park.” He said Brookfield Properties asked for police help to clear Zuccotti Park so it can be cleaned.

Holloway said the cleaning will be done in stages Friday. Protesters will have to leave but can return. Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the protesters Wednesday to offer assurances.

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“… freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice… Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.”

~ Mikhail Bakunin

There is more to the disheveled crowd that has been entertaining Americans for the past three weeks than meets the eye. Don’t let looks fool you. Sure it’s hard to overlook the general lack of hygiene and proper grooming. Some may go without bras while others sleep on sidewalks. So are we to somehow be convinced that a bunch of dirty children can produce this much attention?

The protesters have railed against food corporations because they believe their products are altering their DNA. They want free education so they don’t have to work or join the military to payoff student loans. They have called for a living wage. They take pride in disrupting the lives of working Americans because they do not share the same work ethic. Furthermore, they want to end wealth in America and replace capitalism with a system of sharing that gives out really cool stuff. These are but just a few of the mob’s demands. Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian author of the quote in the heading, was considered the author of violent social anarchism. Bakunin advocated atheism and violence as well as terrorism, revolution and destruction. Is it coincidental that the Wall Street Protestors have been heard shouting death threats against cops, Jews, and the wealthy?

“We must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement, and shall be content to realize his activity  of the many.”

~ Jane Adams

So how does a group of unkempt undergraduates built upon such empty and disjointed demands carry this effort on scrawny shoulders and sunken chests? Please read further.

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Last month, the Chicago Tribune broke the story of a union leader who was re-hired for one day at the City of Chicago and then retired with a $158,000 city pension. Yesterday, the Tribune broke the story of the union leader accruing three pensions off of the same work credit: a city pension, a local union pension and a national union pension.  Combined, his annual pension income exceeds $400,000-  with anticipated lifetime benefit of $9 million.

There is debate as to whether these rotten scams could even be legal in Illinois!  But, we’ve discovered that sweetheart union leader access into our Illinois state pension system is an even larger scam.

On September 29^th, we broke this story nationally on the third largest conservative talk radio program: 34 union leaders who are not government employees are draining nearly $340 thousand per month from the state teachers’ pension system.

Last Sunday, the Illinois Statehouse News was the first Illinois newspaper to investigate.  No other newspaper has covered the statewide angle.

Former employees of the National Education Association (NEA), Illinois Education Association (IEA), Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), and Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), drawing pensions have collected more than $47 million from the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), to date.

It’s an on-going $47 million pension scam.  Union leaders who are not government employees are draining millions in teacher retirement pensions.

How did we unearth this pension abuse?

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It’s just a piece of cotton thread.

And yet, in order to use that simple piece of thread in Arizona for the popular practice of removing unwanted facial hair, the state’s Board of Cosmetology demanded that highly skilled entrepreneurs sit through 600 hours of classroom instruction—with a price tag of up to $10,000.

And here’s the kicker:  not one hour of instruction teaches anything about threading:

Thankfully, five Arizona threading entrepreneurs teamed up with the Institute for Justice and fought back. And this week, they proved that you can stand up to government officials to defend your civil rights—and win.

As Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter Executive Director Tim Keller explains in the video above:

Threading is such a safe and sanitary practice that Arizona’s neighboring states – California, Utah and Nevada – have all exempted braiders from their states cosmetology licensing schemes.   Our goal is to restore the right to earn an honest living to its proper role as a fundamental right in Arizona.

And so last June, the entrepreneurs and IJ filed a lawsuit challenging the Board’s requirement that Arizona threaders first obtain a cosmetology license in order to use a single piece of cotton thread to remove facial hair.  And now those same entrepreneurs have joined the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in asking a Superior Court judge to sign a Consent Judgment that will end the litigation and prevent the Board from requiring threaders to become licensed cosmetologists.

Once the Consent Judgment is signed, every threader in Arizona will be able to work without fear of citations, fines or harassment from the Board.

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Cross-Posted: TobyToons.com (Conservative Political Cartoons)

Does it matter if a so-called “conservative” presidential candidate believes, and practices, “big government” liberalism on a state level? Do we believe that a governor, who may have worked to implement “big government” mandates and policies in his state, and excused them as “states’ rights,” will later be able to rein himself in and become a small government proponent and leader in Washington?

Frankly, I don’t see a heck of a lot of difference between the approaches taken by both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry when it comes to their respective “hot seat” issues, namely, mandated health insurance, for Romney, and immigration and mandated vaccines, for Perry.

In Tuesday night’s debate, when Perry challenged Romney on the Romneycare issue, Romney responded rather defensively- moreso than at any other time- that he wanted to insure all the children in his state because he cares. He attempted to contrast his caring with, in his view, Perry’s “lack of caring,” with figures reflecting the many children in Texas who are uninsured.

Romney also asserted, as he now often does in his defense of his signature healthcare legislation, that Romneycare was the right decision for his state, a decision to which his state was entitled to make, while Obamacare was a bad decision for the country. Surprisingly, there was no mention, during the debate, of the news that President Obama apparently consulted with Gov. Romney’s staff to obtain ideas for the implementation of Obamacare. Nevertheless, it sounds like Romney wants us to believe that caring is a good reason to support a “big government” mandate, albeit on a state level.

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Interesting to see how this plays out.

From the Associated Press:

Congress approved free trade agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.

In rapid succession, the House and Senate voted on the three trade pacts, which the administration says could boost exports by $13 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs. None of the votes were close, despite opposition from labor groups and other critics of free trade agreements who say they result in job losses and ignore labor rights problems in the partner countries.

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Remember when we used to have a legislative process?  Lately, the Obama Administration has me wondering if Congress even has a job to do anymore. Between Obamacare, card check, cap and trade, net neutrality, and massive financial regulations, among many others, it’s crystal clear that the Administration would prefer to ignore the limits of the Constitution than abide by it.

With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) “waivers,” the President has topped even his own high bar. The “waivers” plan is a misnomer because it does not give states more freedom. Rather, the plan forces states to comply with nearly 40 new government mandates. This is the nationalization of education policy, which will affect all 50 states and tens of millions of students.

In announcing the waiver scheme, the President explicitly said “given that Congress cannot act, I am acting.”  The President must have missed the memo that it’s not his job to make laws, which is, of course, exclusively Congress’ responsibility.  Yet Congress did not even hold one hearing on the waiver scheme, let alone actually pass legislation to authorize this move.  The Obama Administration continues to legislate through regulations in every aspect of policy, regardless of whether or not the federal government has authorized authority to do so by either the Constitution or Congress.

I’m certain there’s nothing in the Constitution saying that a President can do whatever he wants because Congress is taking too long. If the President wants to change the law, fine, but he needs to actually work with Congress to change the law — not just make proclamations from the White House. (more…)

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is holding little back as he compares his state’s model for success to Washington’s big government corporate socialism and big labor cronyism. In a recent letter, Gov. McDonnell writes, “we are unapologetic supporters of Virginia’s Right To Work laws.”  But, McDonnell doesn’t stop there.  He pulls no punches when he compares Richmond to Washington, DC and boasts about Virginia’s success.

From Gov. McDonnell’s letter:

There’s much more separating Richmond and Washington than just 100 miles of interstate.

It’s a Tale of Two Cities.

In Washington they’re bogged down in red ink, spiraling debt, expanding government and overspending – all while the difficult decisions are left to future generations.

Here in Richmond, for the second straight year, we’ve reached the end of our fiscal year in the black —with a surplus this year of more than $500 million.

What does it take to create jobs and bring economic development to Virginia?

It’s really common sense and a focus on getting results, something that is in short supply in Washington.

Businesses want consistency and a level playing field, low taxes, reasonable regulation, good schools and a world-class transportation system.

We are unapologetic supporters of Virginia’s Right-to-Work laws and fighting off the union excesses that is hurting businessmen across the United States.

We’ve kept taxes low on businesses in Virginia.

We’ve worked to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses here in the Commonwealth.

Contrast that with how Washington does businesses.

In Washington, the Administration is using unelected people in appointed boards to do what Congress can’t, like using the NLRB to prohibit companies like Boeing from relocating some of their workforce to Right To Work states.

In Washington, a national healthcare plan was passed which explodes the cost of healthcare that employers must pay, and places an estimated $2.2 billion unfunded mandate on Virginia over the next 10 years.

In Washington, the Democrats beat the redistribution drums for increased taxes on job creators and wealth generators.

What business wants more than anything else from government is to make sure there is certainty and a level playing field —and then get out of the way.

When we took office in January, 2010, we were greeted by a massive budget shortfall, our rest stops were closed, and we were facing outgoing Governor Tim Kaine’s proposal for a job-killing $2 billion tax increase to solve our shortfall.

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The Working Families Party, an infamous ACORN front group notorious for corruption, was instrumental in organizing the Occupy Wall Street protests, according to radical journalist Laura Flanders of Free Speech TV.

The protests, which have spread to several other large U.S. cities, are part of what ACORN’s neo-communist founder Wade Rathke calls an “anti-banking jihad.”

Working Families Party (WFP) organizer Nelini Stamp has “been here since day one and she is part of the organizing team and the outreach team that has managed to bridge the distance between that first day and this day and between the grassroots folks here and the labor movement,” Flanders said at the protest in lower Manhattan.

We are “actually trying to change the capitalist system we have today because it’s not working for any of us,” Stamp told Flanders in an interview. Demonstrators are asking “how do we really reform and bring revolutionary changes to the states?”

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One year out from the next election, the President’s 2012 reelection coffers are failing to fill up at a fast enough rate to meet the quarterly bilking quota.  Thus the situation demands a new tactic to prod, embarrass and shame former contributors into making the same mistake they made last time by sending money to reelect a man who, if truth be told, most people wish would retire.

One thing Obama has never had a problem doing was finding a way to guilt people out of money.  In fact, money grubbing appears to be the President’s singular forte.

With that in mind, the Obama reelection campaign has come up with a way to mortify people into contributing – sending emails that threaten to expose traitorous former patrons to neighborhood drones who remain faithful.

Initially, the Obama 2012 fundraising effort commenced with a $5 Dinner with Barack raffle. After that idea failed to sell, the concept morphed into a “fired-up” first lady cheerleading supporters into coughing up cash by hawking raffle tickets for the discounted price of $3.

Apparently, that creative tactic hasn’t worked either, because America’s socialist-leaning anti-capitalist president is now hoping to finance his reelection by injecting a perverse form of — dare I say, competition — into the fundraising effort by “ever-so-gently sham[ing] supporters into donating.”

Even if the effort ends up failing, the concept is a good one, because the method could have an effect on baby boomers who grew up way before being first in a competition was considered mean-spirited and guilt and humiliation still held sway over the insecure.

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From today’s Politico:

The White House wants to make it clear that President Barack Obama is on the same side as the Occupy Wall Street protesters – and that Republicans are not.

“If you’re concerned about Wall Street and our financial system, the president is standing on the side of consumers and the middle class,” Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe said on “Good Morning America” Tuesday morning when asked about the demonstrations. “And a lot of these Republicans are basically saying, ‘You know what? Let’s go back to the same policies that led to the great recession in the first place’.”

[...]

“Taxpayers won’t be on the hook for a bailout any more, we’ll be more transparent,” he said. “Consumers will be protected on hidden fees on mortgages and credit cards.” (more…)

From The Chicago Tribune:

At least eight Chicago labor leaders who are eligible for inflated city pensions also stand to receive union pensions covering the same work period, thanks to a charitable interpretation of state law by officials representing two city pension funds, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.

By double and even triple dipping on pensions, these union officials stand to reap millions more in retirement while thousands of rank-and-file union members face hard times and city pension funds stagger toward insolvency.

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From Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS):

(WASHINGTON) – In an open letter in August, Congressman Tim Huelskamp called on billionaire Warren Buffett to release the contents of his tax returns. Subsequently, Congressman Huelskamp told Neil Cavuto that he would release the contents of his own tax returns if Mr. Buffett would do the same. Congressman Huelskamp reiterated this additional promise to Mr. Buffett in a letter last week. Today, Congressman Huelskamp released the contents of the response he received from Mr. Buffett (available here).

Warren Buffett’s response to Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)

After reading Mr. Buffett’s inadequate response, Congressman Huelskamp said: “Mr. Buffett still refuses to release his tax returns.  What he does disclose may be accurate, but it is incomplete and it fails to explain how he shelters millions of dollars in income from taxation. It is unprecedented that we would write an entire law based on one man’s anecdotes without actual proof. By sheltering millions of dollars of income from taxation, probably through charitable giving, Mr. Buffett demonstrates that he doesn’t trust Washington with his own money either. (more…)

Via PJ Tatler – #OccupyLA, October 1, 2011:

President Barack Obama’s call yesterday for “restraint on all sides” as defenseless Coptic Christians were attacked and murdered in Egypt in a government-supported Islamic pogrom was typical of his administration’s response to attacks by states against civilians.

Though he has, in some cases, come around to criticizing and even toppling regimes, Obama’s first instinct is to treat the perpetrators and the victims as equals.

The sole, and repeated, exception is Israel, which the Obama administration criticizes and condemns for legal activities such as construction within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. By contrast, the administration coddles the unrepentant, terror-promoting Palestinian leadership–a fruitless effort, greeted with contempt rather than gratitude.

The same tendency is apparent in Obama’s newly-uncovered attempt to apologize for the atomic blast at Hiroshima, which the Japanese, appropriately, rejected. Obama has had trouble, especially early in his presidency, distinguishing defense from aggression–especially when that defense is on behalf of western democracy.

That is worse than moral equivalence; it is “immoral equivalence,” because it destroys the moral distinction between freedom and tyranny. (more…)

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D, Illinois 9th District), whose husband has been convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion, was recently interviewed by the far-left website “truthout” and served up some rather unsettling thoughts on economics and the role of government.

You’ll remember truthout for its scoop back in 2009; it was the first site to report the big news that Karl Rove had been indicted. Unfortunately for this “news” site, Karl Rove was never indicted. That was a spot of bother, indeed, impugning the site’s veracity just a bit. You may also know that original editor, Marc Ash, was ousted from the site by a coup from within when it was discovered he was making $140,000 a year off the donors and left-wing foundations supporting the site. But he’s all for the downtrodden masses, ya know?

Now that we have established the forum upon which Schakowsky appeared, let’s look at some of the extreme things she said.

The interview began with the most likely of subjects given the national debate: as Joe Biden said, that three letter word–jobs, jobs, jobs. Schakowsky, of course, stuck to that debunked idea that government “creates jobs” and indulged her inner Keynes in every answer.

Saying she just couldn’t understand how people could say government doesn’t create jobs, Schakowsky indulged in the typically Keynesian fantasy that all left-wingers wallow in. She imagines that jobs created by the government are economic boosters because the money such people are paid will be spent in the general economy. This, she absurdly says, means that everyone is a “job creator” because they spend money. (more…)