Wisconsin Dead Last in Donating to GOP Presidential Candidates

Shocking?

Not only did Democrat President Barack Obama outraise the entire 2012 Republican presidential field through Dec. 31, 2011, $582,000 to $529,000, but a Smart Politics analysis also found Wisconsin to be dead last nationally in per capita donations of $200 or more to GOP candidates.

Not at all. I suspect that I am like most people in that there’s only so much time and money I’m willing and able to fork over to support political campaigns. With the 2010 election, the 2011 recalls, the 2012 recalls, and all of the other local races in the past two years, we’ve been in campaign mode in Wisconsin 100% of the time for over a year now. For most Republicans in Wisconsin, keeping Walker in office is just more important now than worrying about the presidential primary,

Entire School Staff Replaced

Wow. Now that’s a response.

Updated at 10:25 p.m. ET: The Los Angeles Unified School District is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School following the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges last week, Superintendent John Deasy told parents at a meeting Monday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Positions will be filled by qualified teachers and other workers already on a placement or rehiring list, the Times report stated. But the displacement of the current staff could be temporary, according to the report.

I didn’t say it was a good response, but it certainly got everyone’s attention.

Not All Recoveries Created Equal

Ah yes...

The economy grew at 4.5% in 1983, with a few quarters of growth north of 8%. In 2011, meanwhile, the economy grew just 1.7%.

In just one month—September 1983—the economy added more than a million jobs. For the full year, the economy added almost 3.5 million jobs, a trend that continued into 1984, an election year in which Reagan captured 49 states in a landslide victory.

Obama can claim job growth of 1.8 million in 2011. A welcome comeback, but still tepid by comparison.

Looking ahead to 2012, Obama could replicate the 243,000 jobs created in January over each of the next 11 months and still not approach Reagan’s total for 1984 of 3.9 million.

Interesting

The most interesting part of this ad is Obama’s statement that he doesn’t know why the woman’s husband is having trouble getting placed. Not “getting a job.” Not “getting hired.” “Getting placed.” For someone to get placed, someone else must place them. It reveals Obama’s perspective on working Americans.

Another Failed Obama Initiative

Hey, but it made some politicians feel better about themselves.

Three years after he signed it into law, President Obama has made the little-known Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act the centerpiece of his re-election pitch to women.

It’s a “big step toward making sure every worker in this country, man or woman, receives equal pay for equal work,” Obama says in a video to supporters on his campaign blog.

The legislation repeatedly tops Obama’s list of accomplishments in stump speeches on the campaign trail and is cited as a fulfilled promise from 2008.

[...]

The only problem? Women don’t enjoy equal pay, it’s improved little during Obama’s term and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act has hardly been a “big step” toward the goal.

In 2010, the most recent data available, women on average earned 77.4 cents for every dollar earned by men holding the same full-time, year-round job, according to Census data analyzed by the National Committee on Pay Equity.

The gap was virtually unchanged from 2009, when it was 77 percent and 2008 when it stood at 77.1 percent, before the law was enacted.

Different Pay for Same Job

Interesting.

The average federal worker earns about 2 percent more than a private sector worker in a comparable profession, though the government’s generous pension system means that overall compensation is significantly higher, a government study released Monday said.

Once pension and health benefits are factored in, the average federal worker reaps 16 percent more in total compensation than do private sector workers.

The Congressional Budget Office study said federal workers in lower-level jobs make more than private sector workers but that those with advanced degrees earn more in the private sector. Federal workers with a high school education or less earn about $4 more an hour than private sector employees in similar jobs.

Setting Sights on the Income Tax

Hey… bring some of that action to Wisconsin.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A year after Republicans swept into office across the country, many have trained their sights on what has long been a fiscal conservative’s dream: the steep reduction or even outright elimination of state income taxes.

The idea has circulated among academics and think-tank researchers for years. But it’s moving quietly into mainstream political discourse, despite the fact that such sweeping changes would almost certainly mean a total rewiring of tax systems at a time when most states are still struggling in the aftermath of the recession.

“I think there’s going to be more action that way,” especially as Republican governors release their budget plans, said Kim Rueben, an expert on state taxation at the Brookings Urban Tax Policy Center.

Last year, GOP lawmakers in many states quickly went to work on a new conservative agenda: restricting abortion, cracking down on illegal immigration, expanding gun rights and taking aim at public-employee unions.

Emboldened by that success, the party has launched income tax efforts in Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina. But it’s not clear how all those states would make up for the lost revenue, and Rueben said she’s not aware of any state in modern history that has eliminated an income tax.

That last sentence is a good reminder. Once a tax is created… you finish the sentence.

Pipeline to China

While I know some in our readership assume that the Keystone pipeline will be adjusted and built anyway, some Canadians may disagree. If I were Canada, I would certainly be considering diversification after being slapped in the face.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada’s national interest makes the $5.5 billion pipeline essential. He was “profoundly disappointed” that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Texas Keystone XL option but also spoke of the need to diversify Canada’s oil industry. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S.

“I think what’s happened around the Keystone is a wake-up call, the degree to which we are dependent or possibly held hostage to decisions in the United States, and especially decisions that may be made for very bad political reasons,” he told Canadian TV.

[...]

Meanwhile, China’s growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years, state-controlled Sinopec has a stake in the pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.

“They (the Chinese) wonder why it’s not being built already,” said Wenran Jiang, an energy expert and professor at the University of Alberta.

Another “Deal” in the Works

And the circus continues...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republican lawmakers on Sunday said they expect to forge a deal with Democrats to extend the payroll tax cut before it expires at the end of February but offered no specifics on how they would pay for it.

“I’m confident that we’ll be able to resolve this fairly quickly,” top congressional Republican John Boehner said on ABC’s “This Week” television show.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers have started negotiating a deal to extend unemployment benefits and a tax break for 160 million Americans beyond February. If they fail, the payroll tax, which funds the federal Social Security retirement program, will revert to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent and leave workers with about $900 less in their wallets this year.

That could harm the country’s fragile economic recovery with some economists forecasting a cut in U.S. growth of up to 1 percent.

Workers Lose Pay For Obama Visit

Well, that’s lovely.

President Obama arrived in Chandler, Arizona Wednesday to talk jobs, but his appearance cost hundreds of laborers a paid day of work.

More than 1,500 workers building the Intel manufacturing facility where Obama appeared were ordered to stay home for security reasons and told they would not be paid for the day, according to KTAR in Phoenix.

An Intel spokesman said the days will be made up since the work still must be done, but some workers disagreed and expressed frustration that they were losing overtime pay.

1,000 Days Without a Budget Proposal from Senate Dems

They don’t want to go on record with their priorities.

Senate Republicans slammed their Democratic colleagues on Tuesday for not passing a budget in exactly 1,000 days, accusing Democrats of shirking their duty in a period of soaring deficits.

National Dems Worry About Recall Draining Union Funds Needed Elsewhere

Yeah, you should have thought about that before...

But the Wisconsin fight will consume far more resources. This is a stomach-churning prospect for Democrats and their allies because the labor expenditures could come just months before the general election, when money will be needed for more important battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida.

“Some were asking us whether we could wait until after the election, but we can’t. This is too big a deal,” said one labor official.

A decision by labor unions to spend millions on a state-level political battle means Democrats will have that much less outside money helping President Obama and congressional candidates this fall.

Rep. Giffords to Step Down

Nicely done. Best wishes on your recovery, Rep. Giffords.

Mankiw on SOPA

I like Greg Mankiw’s comments on SOPA. I don’t think SOPA is the right way to address the problem, but it is a problem.

The anti-SOPA crowd argues that this is a matter of basic liberty.  But it’s not.  In a free society, you don’t have the freedom to steal your neighbor’s property.  And that should include intellectual property.  Moreover, it is the function of the state to enforce those rights.  We don’t leave it up to civil litigation to protect property rights (although that is part of the solution).  We give the state substantial powers to stop theft.  Just as owners of tangible personal property have good cause to call for a police force and a system of criminal courts, owners of intellectual property have good cause to ask the state to stop those who would infringe on their rights.

Read the rest. It’s not long.

Balanced Reporting (Not)

From the esteemed (cough) Associated Press. The story is that Governor Walker turned down a federal grant intended to help states implement Obamacare. Governor Walker turned down the grant because he doesn’t want to move forward and waste money until the SCOTUS rules on the matter. The story has a quote from Walker explaining his action. Then it has three… THREE… opposition quotes. One from The American Cancer Society. One from a liberal Wisconsin legislator. And one from a liberal activist group. This is despite the fact that several non-liberal groups and legislators have also weighed in supporting Walker’s actions.

Way to show your balance there, AP.