This is why you are broke.

On the same day that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel publically discusses service cuts and tax increases to close a looming $636 million budget deficit, the Chicago City Council advances a city ordinance that would spend $7.7 million dollars to purchase 21 acres of Rosehill Cemetery.  (The cemetery is owned by Service Corporation International).

The purchase of this property is “essential to prevent the area -- which includes no graves -- from being developed into a retail or housing project”, according to Alderman Patrick O'Connor, (40^th ward).  The city's portion of the cost will come from $3 million in tax increment financing, and $4.7 million in bond money, according to Nelson Chueng of the city's Department of Housing and Economic Development.

When did the city council gain the authority to purchase land to prevent retail or residential development?

Not only is the city flushing $7.7 million down the drain for the cost to purchase this land but the city is committing to a perpetual cost to maintain this property.  Note that the city is borrowing the money to pay for this.  Also, what tax increment financing will result from converting this land to public space?

Sign a White House petition to repeal ObamaCare

Our friends at Verum Serum have alerted us to a interesting opportunity. The White House launched a new site last week allowing the public to petition the Administration on various public policy issues. No doubt they intend to use this to mobilize the OFA-MoveOn-Kos armies around various election issues next year, to demonstrate how “popular” the Administration’s positions are. But some enterprising American managed to create and post a petition which I found just a little more worthwhile: to repeal ObamaCare.  Click on the following link to read and sign this petition:

Petition

I assume that this slipped by the review process and that the Whitehouse will remove this petition soon.  Removing it will become news story of its own.  This will be a bigger story if there are a large number of signatures on the petition when it is removed, so sign it ASAP and send this information to all of your friends.  Unfortunately you have to register with the White House in order to vote – just a name and an email address.  You can opt out of any email lists when you register.  I think it’s worth it.

The federal budget has become a contemporary morality play.

The following link leads to an article written by Roger Pilon who is vice president for legal affairs at the Cato Institute and director of Cato's Center for Constitutional Studies.  This article was published in the April 7, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12969

This article was written as a response to several advertisements from religious organizations that depict federal spending in a moral light.  Some highlights Roger’s article are as follows:

"We the People" constituted ourselves for the several reasons set forth in our Constitution's Preamble, but chief among those — the reason we fought for our independence — was to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Yet nowhere today is that liberty more in jeopardy than in a federal budget that reduces us all, in so many ways, to government dependents.

The ads' signers imagine that the Good Samaritan parable instructs us to attend to the afflicted through the coercive government programs of the modern welfare state. It does not. The Good Samaritan is virtuous not because he helps the fallen through the force of law but because he does so voluntarily, which he can do only if he has the right to freely choose the good, or not.

Americans are a generous people. They will help the less fortunate if left free to do so. What they resent is being forced to do good — and in ways that are not only inefficient but impose massive debts upon their children. That's not the way free people help the young and less fortunate.

And it's not as if we were bereft of a plan for determining our priorities as a nation. Our Constitution does that quite nicely. It authorizes a focused but limited public sector, enabling a vast private sector of liberty. But early 20th-century Progressives — politicians and intellectuals alike — deliberately shifted that balance. Today the federal government exercises vast powers never granted to it, restricting liberties never surrendered. It's all reflected in the federal budget, the redistributive elements of which speak to nothing so much as theft — and that's immoral.

This article illustrates the basic political struggle of our modern society. Over time a moral standard has been assigned to government spending. This has lead to the current great divide between our citizens. Advocates for big government view spending as a necessary moral action that can right all of the wrongs perceived in society. Therefore in their minds anyone who opposes government spending is evil.


There is nothing virtuous about being forced to provide charity. For charity to be truly virtuous it must be voluntary and personal. The great hypocrisy in the belief of government spending as a moral obligation is the fact that it is immoral to take another person’s property.

Gone but not forgotten

Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has a talent for creating controversy.  Just when we thought we had heard the last of him after his resounding defeat in the recent election he finds a way to get back on the front page.  After finishing last in the democratic primary and losing his bid for reelection he has now filed for unemployment benefits.  Follow this link to the news story

Recall of the absent Wisconsin State Senators

You have an opportunity to show your support for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in his efforts to limit government employee union influence.  14 democratic state senators have boycotted the state senate chambers and are refusing to vote on the Wisconsin state budget.  Recall efforts are now underway in various districts in Wisconsin to remove the absentee state senators from office.  One of these recall committees have the following website:

http://www.recallwirch.com/

The Consequences of Government Employee Unions

Thomas J. DiLorenzo of the Ludwig von Mises Institute has written a short but comprehensive article about the effects of government employee unions.  The article can be viewed here:

http://mises.org/daily/5072/The-Political-Economy-of-Government-Employee-Unions

I recommend reading the entire article.  Listed below are a few of the highlights:

The main reason why so many state and local governments are bankrupt, or on the verge of bankruptcy, is the combination of government-run monopolies and government-employee unions. Government-employee unions have vastly more power than do private-sector unions because the entities they work for are typically monopolies.

The enormous power of government-employee unions effectively transfers the power to tax from voters to the unions. Because government-employee unions can so easily force elected officials to raise taxes to meet their "demands," it is they (the unions), not the voters, who control the rate of taxation within a political jurisdiction.

Politicians are caught in a political bind by government-employee unions: if they cave in to their wage demands and raise taxes to finance them, then they increase the chances of being kicked out of office themselves in the next election. The "solution" to this dilemma has been to offer government-employee unions moderate wage increases but spectacular pension promises. This allows politicians to pander to the unions but defer the costs to the future, long after the panderers are retired from politics.


As taxpayers in California, Wisconsin, Indiana, and many other states are realizing, the future has arrived. The Wall Street Journal reports that state and local governments in the United States currently have $3.5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. They must either raise taxes dramatically to fund these liabilities, as some have already done, or drastically cut back or eliminate government-employee pensions

Every government-employee union is a political machine that lobbies relentlessly for higher taxes, increased government spending, more featherbedding, and more pension promises – while demonizing hesitant taxpayers as uncaring enemies of children, the elderly, and the poor (who are purportedly "served" by the government bureaucrats the unions represent).

How to support the Wisconsin Revolution

You can lend your support to the current efforts in Wisconsin to control government spending and reduce government employee union’s control. A group of Tea Party organizations has formed “American Majority” to support the whose mission is to train and equip a national network of leaders committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market. Their website is: http://americanmajority.org/

American Majority is organizing a national demonstration of support for Scott Walker and leaders across the country who have the courage to fight the public sector union bosses - on Wednesday, February 23rd. The website dedicated to this effort is: http://www.istandwithwalker.com/

Why the Wisconsin State Employees Unions cannot back down

The following blog news item includes the comment listed below:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/02/20/tea-partier-joins-george-will-great-debate-about-wisconsin-abcs-week#ixzz1EX5JhPae

The following comment was posted by shivas irons redux

Would someone please note that Unions make the great lion's share of their $ from negotiating "benefits", not salaries... or collection of dues.

This is why the decoupling of the Salaries and Benefits so important to Unions in Wisconsin. And why the Union's have countered the way they have. They'll give up Salary and Jobs for Teachers in a second, but they will fight to death for Benefit negotiation position. In another life as an executive in CA, I used to do administration for two Teamster's "Health and Welfare" benefit packages. Do your research, but you'll find I'm correct about motivation of Unions. I also believe that the amount of money kept by Unions will be very interesting to both your viewers, and the tax payers of the US of A. The way it works is that the Unions negotiate with the "Employer" regarding how much money per member/per month they will need to support the benefit options required in Union contract. In the case of WI, they negotiate with each of the 77 counties. Then the Unions negotiate the terms of benefits with "providers"/Ins Co's, etc. They make the lion's share of their money off of what is called the "breakage" created by Employees choosing between plan options, and the administration of the programs. Let me explain with an example: A Union begins by negotiating with the Employer/State. They'll claim their buying leverage will afford Employer significant savings. They'll end up with a 3-tiered cost structure which allows the Union a profit even with the highest benefit option available as Union already has a very good idea about what Providers will be charging. But it gets even more lucrative for Unions at this point. Let's say high-end Blue Cross PPO coverage costs $400 for the Family tier. What a Union will do is require $425 from Employer, plus a loaded in admin fee, as a charge for all Families in the employer group. So far, so fair? But, the Union will also offer a few other plans for Employees to choose from. The Union will also have developed relationships with a few cheaper HMO plans, and lesser PPO benefit structure plans that charge, as an example, $325 and $375, respectively. At an Open House Employees will choose what fits their needs and the Union is in line for the "breakage". The left over breakage is then, to my experience, placed in a fund where only the Union has the checkbook. Cars, Vacations and Condo's, oh my. The Union also makes a "commission" off of things like Pre Legal, Dental and Term Life. As another profit source, the Union also leans on the Administrator for favors I'd rather not list, but usually involving idiocy like buying thousands of dollars of "raffle tickets" and leasing cars for the Union's Business Agents, not entirely above board. Of course I am relating my experience, and what little I know of others who also did Union administration. I'd expect any simple research by an actual reporter would open up a Pandora's box of Slush in the Badger State.

This exposes the Union motivation in opposing the proposed Wisconsin legislation.  If the Unions lose control of the employee benefits they lose the majority of their discretionary funds along with the ability to extort and corrupt the benefit providers.  If you have information to add to this subject please include a comment.  I agree with the comment “I'd expect any simple research by an actual reporter would open up a Pandora's box  of Slush in the Badger State.”

Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011

Thanks to Senator Rand Paul we now have a bill before the US Senate that will reduce Federal spending by 500 billion dollars in 2011.  The title of this bill is the “Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011”.  The bill can be viewed at this link:

http://www.randpaul2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/500Bcutsbill.pdf

This is a relatively short bill considering the amount of spending cuts that it entails.  You can easily read all 12 pages in a few minutes.  If you do not read the entire bill the highlights are as follows:

The following departments or agencies will be defunded:

The Government printing office

The Agriculture Research Service.


The National Institute of Food and Agriculture.


The Resources Conservation Service.


The Foreign Agricultural Service.


All Department of Education programs are defunded effective on the date of enactment of this Act, except for the Pell grant program which shall be capped at $16,256,000,000.


All accounts and programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.


The Bureau of Reclamation.


All accounts and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.


All accounts and programs of the Office of Justice Programs.


International Organizations and Conferences.


International Commissions.


All Amtrak Federal subsidies are terminated.


Affordable Housing Program.


Commission on Fine Arts.


Consumer Product Safety Commission.


Corporation for Public Broadcasting.


National Endowment for the Arts.


National Endowment for the Humanities.


State Justice Institute.



All other Federal Agencies and departments will have their budgets cut by various amounts except for the following:


The Occupational Safety and Health Administration.


The Mine Safety and Health Administration.


The Employment and Training Administration (including all unemployment compensation).


Department of Veterans’ Affairs


Social Security Administration


MISCELLANEOUS BUDGET SAVINGS.


The following programs shall be implemented or repealed in fiscal year 2011 with the savings provided:


Collect delinquent taxes from Federal Employees, $3,000,000,000.


Freeze Federal Government employee pay, $2,000,000,000.


Reduce Federal Government travel, $7,500,000,000.


Davis- Bacon is repealed, $6,000,000,000.


Prohibit union labor project agreements, $2,000,000,000.


The Troubled Assets Relief Program is repealed, $4,481,000,000.


Unused Federal assets shall be sold, $19,000,000,000.


Reduce Federal vehicle budget, $600,000,000.

I sent the lettter listed below to  both of my Seantrors:
 

Dear Senator _______________________


I enthusiastically support the “Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011” which was sponsored by Senator Rand Paul. I encourage you to consider the detrimental effects that our current Federal spending will have on the future financial stability of our nation. I know that you have the best interests of your continuants in mind and that you realize that our current federal spending is unsustainable. Your vote to pass the “Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011” will make America stronger and more self sufficient. I know that you will put your constituents future above politics.  I strongly encourage you to vote in favor of the Senate bill “Cut Federal Spending Act of 2011”.

Sincerely yours,

The race to the top

Illinois is poised to capture the title of "highest combined national-local corporate income tax in the industrialized world".  Congratulations!  The details can be found in this article:

http://taxfoundation.org/publications/show/26954.html

It is not over yet.  The lame duck session of the Illinois legislature has only one day left and the tax increase does not yet have the votes to pass.  If you live in Illinois call your State Representative and State Senator and tell them you oppose the tax increase.  Use this link to find the contact information:

http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByDistrict.aspx