Compared to President Obama’s other initiatives, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program barely registers on the government’s balance sheet. Yet the $7,500 scholarships for poor children are apparently still too costly for a White House beholden to Big Labor.

The Obama administration has officially declared its opposition to the SOAR Act, legislation approved Wednesday by the House of Representatives that would restore funding to the program for low-income families in the District of Columbia. Obama and congressional Democrats put the program on life support before Republicans seized control of the House.

“While the President’s FY 2012 Budget requests funding to improve D.C. public schools and expand high-quality public charter schools, the Administration opposes targeting resources to help a small number of individuals attend private schools rather than creating access to great public schools for every child,” the Obama administration declared in its policy statement.

The administration’s justification: Scholarships have not yielded improved student achievement. Unfortunately for Obama, that statement runs counter to what the administration’s own Department of Education reported in a federal evaluation last year.

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Why is it that the Democrats are so careful not to speak in sweeping generalizations about Muslims, Blacks, Hispanics, etc… but when it comes to Conservatives and/or Tea Partiers, Democrats know zero boundaries in their hate speech.

From a recent Dick Durbin fund-raising letter:

Harry Reid has been such a stalwart fighter for our progressive agenda in the Senate, and now he needs our help — so we’re making Harry the third of five candidates who I’m asking you to support with a $30 contribution before Election Day.

Will you contribute $30 to Harry’s campaign today — so he can win in November?

Harry is facing a tough re-election campaign this year against a right-wing opponent, Sharron Angle, who just raised $14 million from “tea party” extremists all across the country.

Also, you have to love the quotes around Tea Party! Just like how Reuters refers to “Terrorists” or how Durbin could be referred to as a “Man”.

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Somewhere lurking in the hot, putrid halls of Congress this summer is a union bailout bill of epic proportions and long-term ramifications.   Whether or not Democrats can ultimately push it (or something like it) into passage is yet to be determined. However, with rumors that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) signed on as a co-sponsor on Thursday, it would appear that the union bailout is quietly creeping along.  If it passes, though, its ramifications surpass the mere $165 billion-plus price tag, as it will influence the political landscape for decades to come.  In sum, Democrats need the bailout desperately and Republicans should shun it like the plague.

Likely to surpass the touted $165 billion it is estimated to cost, Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act (S. 3157) was introduced on March 23rd by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and is designed to bailout unions’ underfunded pension funds by transferring the liability of those funds onto the backs of the taxpayers.

Under these bills, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) would, at the request of the plans, have the authority to take over the pension obligations of employers who have withdrawn from the plans, and pay the benefits out of taxpayer dollars, says Furchtgott-Roth:

• Once the PBGC shoulders that obligation, it would keep making payments until the last retiree or designated survivor dies.
• Since many multiemployer plans are in financial difficulty, this legislation, if enacted, could dramatically increase the federal deficit, putting even more pressure on the American taxpayer and the economy.
• Depending on events, it might add billions to government spending — current underfunding levels are estimated at $165 billion-bumping up future deficits.

According to a June 24th article published in the Bureau of National Affairs Construction Labor Report (subscription required):

If enacted into law, the bill would convert a private funding shortfall for collectively bargained multi-employer plans into a public obligation, said Brett McMahon, vice president of Miller and Long Concrete Construction and an ABC member.

The legislation would transfer a portion of multiemployer pension funding obligations to a new insurance program that would be operated by the PBGC and paid for with taxpayer dollars instead of employer-paid premiums, F. Vincent Vernuccio, a spokesman for the trade group’s advocacy organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said during the call.

At the heart of the union pension problem are companies that, in many cases, agreed to put retirement money for union workers into “multi-employer plans” but have since gone out of business. As the unionized workers in multi-employer plans are still entitled to a pension, the remaining employers are left funding the pensions of workers who, in many cases, they never employed.

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Arrogance, thy name is Sen. Dick Durbin. Big Government contributor Bob Gough has a breaking story at his news site, Quincy News.org. It seems Sen. Durbin is upset that a local media outlet informed the public that their Senator was going to be in town to discuss health care.

A spokesman for U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) has said the senator’s office will no longer send media information to Quincy’s oldest radio station.

Mike Moyers, general manager/vice president of STARadio Corporation, which owns WTAD-AM (930), said Christina Angarola of Durbin’s Chicago office called WTAD on Monday to inform them they would no longer be included on the list of those receiving news releases from the senator when he plans to visit West-Central Illinois.

Moyers said Angarola was not pleased that WTAD chose to make public the time and place of Durbin’s September 4^th visit to Quincy’s Blessing Hospital to hold a meeting on health care with officials from the hospital, Quincy Medical Group and politicians Quincy Mayor John Spring and State Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville).  

The news release sent by Durbin’s office on the afternoon of September 3^rd said “NOTE: The times and locations of these events are for media planning purposes only and should not be published or aired in any form.”

Angarola did not respond to an e-mail from QuincyNews.org for comment.

Moyers said he believed it was important for the public to have the opportunity to approach Durbin on the health care issue when he was in Quincy, regardless of the directive in the e-mail.

“I’m disappointed the senator and his office have chosen to silence the press,” Moyers said.

Read the full story here.