Republican lawmaker’s proposal exempted husband from Michigan ‘right to work’ law

By David Edwards/Raw Story

A Republican state representative in Michigan proposed an amendment to exempt her husband’s job from the so-called “right to work” law which limits the ability of unions to collect dues.

State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R) on Monday offered an amendment that would have added corrections officers like her husband, Brad, to the list of types of jobs not covered by the anti-union law. Police and firefighters had already been exempted from the legislation.

“When we talk about the brave women in police and fire we need to remember people in corrections,” Lyon explained earlier this week, according to MLive.com. “These guys work in conditions that we can’t even begin to imagine.”

“It’s not financial. It’s philosophy. I am saying we need to treat our corrections officers that way we treat our police men and women and firefighter men and women.”

Democrats, however, claimed that the proposal was an example of Republican hypocrisy.

“Why would she want to exempt her husband if this is such a great bill?” state House Democratic Caucus spokesperson Katie Carey asked. “We were kind of disgusted with it… We were just kind of disappointed that she would offer this amendment at the same time lauding this legislation.”

On Tuesday, Republicans chose to gavel down the amendment without giving it a vote.

“I’m convinced of the value of our union and I’m here to tell you we will continue to pay union dues, the union that has represented Brad with such unequaled advocacy,” Lyons declared in a Dec. 6 speech, adding that the “right to work” measure was about “the unions’ freedom to make its case to members.”

“Today, we are a proud union. Tomorrow, we will be a proud union family by choice,” she said.

Following passage of the bill, Lyons asserted: “This is the day when Michigan freed its workers.”

Watch this video from Michigan House Republicans, broadcast Dec. 6, 2012.

Limbaugh: Elizabeth Warren is ‘Heap Big Squaw Indian Giver’

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Thursday referred to Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren as “Heap Big Squaw Indian Giver,” confirming that he would continue to provide ammunition to critics who accuse him of being both racist and sexist.

Speaking on his radio program, Limbaugh noted that a group of Democratic senators had written a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking to delay a medical device tax that was passed as part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“Elizabeth Warren, for example, she gave her whole-hearted approval to Obamacare,” Limbaugh explained. “Now, she is one of the senators that wants to take that back.”

“She’s an Indian giver,” he ranted. “Yes! I intended to say that! Elizabeth Warren, Heap Big Squaw Indian Giver!”

During her Senate campaign earlier this year, Warren faced criticism over a claim that her mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware Indian. At one point, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) staffers mocked her heritage by shouting “war whoops” and doing the “Tomahawk Chop” at a campaign rally.

“It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples,” Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Bill John Baker said in September. “We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues.”

Listen to this audio from The Rush Limbaugh Show, broadcast Dec. 13, 2012.

Steve King: I Don’t Know What Happened In Benghazi But It’s Worse Than Watergate

By Hamed Aleaziz/Think Progress

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has no idea what happened in Benghazi but he does know that it’s worse than Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal times 10. Here’s King from a Washington Times article published on Wednesday:

“I believe that it’s a lot bigger than Watergate, and if you link Watergate and Iran-Contra together and multiply it times maybe 10 or so, you’re going to get in the zone where Benghazi is,” Mr. King said. “I don’t think the public has any idea, and I tell you, I don’t either, of the chronology of the events — what took place, and who was where doing what and why. And all the way down through — we still haven’t seen an autopsy report on the ambassador yet. Simple questions that you would ask in the first 24 hours have not been asked yet.”

Of course, mainstream media outlets have extensively reported emerging details about the assault, many of which have undercut Repubican attempts to create a faux-scandal out of the events, over the past three months.

And perhaps King should consult ThinkProgress’ comprehensive timeline on Benghazi to get the details on what is publicly known about the attacks and their aftermath.

MSNBC Host On Susan Rice Withdrawal: ‘A Woman Of Color Has Been Forced Out’

By Hamed Aleaziz/Think Progress

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell said this afternoon that Susan Rice’s withdrawal as a candidate for Secretary of State will not “help Republicans at all” because members of the party “forced out” a woman of color “before she was nominated.” For months now, Republicans, in an effort spearheaded by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have relentlessly pursued blocking Rice’s chances for a Secretary of State nomination. Mitchell explained her perspective on MSNBC earlier today:

MITCHELL: I think that this had become sort of an impossible challenge for her to be confirmed, that she realized that, the White House realized it as well. I think they know that they are on good political solid ground, as you were just pointing out. This is not going to help Republicans at all, the fact that a woman and a woman of color has been forced out of a confirmation process even before she was nominated.

Here’s the video:

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Fellow MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski similarly criticized the GOP last month for what “looks like a bunch of old white men running women out of Washington,” as Brzezinski said. “Do the Republicans really think this is going to help their brand?” Scarboroughwondered, referring to the GOP’s campaign against Rice, adding:

“This is the first big fight following an election where Republicans got routed not just among African-Americans but among hispanics, among Asian-Americans. I really wonder do a bunch of old white guys…want to make their first big battle, post election, a battle going up against a younger woman of color?”

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said in November that the use of racial “code words” was rampant in the GOP’s attacks on Rice.

Radio Host Stumps Michigan Governor By Asking How Union-Busting Will Help His State’s Economy

The Koch Brothers don't pay me to read the bills
they need me just to signed them.

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was happy to sign the union-busting “right-to-work” bill this week, saying that the law would help create jobs in his state. But in an interview with American Public Media on Thursday, Snyder was hard-pressed to give good reasons for why, exactly, the bill would inspire companies to move into Michigan and create new jobs.

Pressed by Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to explain what proof Snyder had that Michigan would see a job boom as a result of the law, the Governor cited neighboring Indiana’s recent job numbers as his only evidence:

SNYDER: This is about more and better jobs coming to Michigan. If you look at Indiana, they did similar legislation in February. And literally, thousands of new jobs are coming to Indiana where this was a major consideration in companies’ decision to move to that state.

HOBSON: Are you saying then that companies decided to go to Indiana, for example, because there’s less union membership in Indiana?

SNYDER: No, and I don’t want to speak for the companies but it is very clear that companies are looking at Indiana that previously did not. [...]

HOBSON: Well, make that connection though. You’re saying that, by not requiring workers to pay union dues, that therefore companies are going to be more attracted to the state. Why would that be?

SNYDER: Well, that’s a question for the companies but there is a strong sense, and companies do look at that. That’s something we’ve suffered here.[...]

HOBSON: Union membership has fallen dramatically in Michigan and across the country and it’s not as though that has translated into some boom in employment. I see the point you’re making, but it hasn’t been borne out in the evidence, has it?

SNYDER: Well, it’s been borne out in the Indiana case.

Listen:

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that right-to-work will cost all Michigan workers — not just those in unions — an average of $1,500 a year, and that there is “no relationship” between right-to-work laws and employment rates.

Fox News Falsely Accuses Obama Of Trying To Change The Constitution

By ADAM SHAH/Media Matters for America

Fox News host Steve Doocy misrepresented President Obama's proposal to avoid the possibility of a federal government default on its financial obligations in order to claim that the president has proposed changing the Constitution.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner proposed that Congress should pass a law giving the president authority to avoid default by raising the ceiling on how much the federal government can borrow. Under the proposal, the president's authority would be subject to a vote of disapproval by Congress. Geithner's proposal was based on an idea originally put forward by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Geithner's proposal is urgent because the federal government is expected to reach the debt ceiling early in 2013, meaning that if Congress does not act, the federal government will begin defaulting on some of its obligations for the first time in history.

On the December 7 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Doocy interviewed Republican Sen. John Thune (SD) and opined that it was "good news for the Republicans" that there would soon be a fight between Obama and congressional Republicans over the federal debt ceiling because Republicans would "obviously have the upper hand on that." Thune responded in part by saying that "what we're told is the president is even thinking about what he might be able to do to raise the debt ceiling without going through Congress, which would be a huge mistake and ought to be unconstitutional."

Doocy replied: "He just wants to change the Constitution." In fact, the Obama administration has not proposed any such change and has actually specifically rejected a novel interpretation of the Constitution that would allow the president to ignore the debt ceiling in order to avoid government default.

Rather than amend the Constitution or change the way it has been interpreted, Obama has proposed legislation that would amend the current statute that puts a limit on the federal government's borrowing.

The debt ceiling is merely a provision of law passed by Congress, which can be amended or repealed at any time through ordinary legislation without any change to the Constitution. 

The debt ceiling is merely a provision of law passed by Congress, which can be amended or repealed at any time through ordinary legislation without any change to the Constitution.

The Congressional Research Service  reports that since March 1962, Congress has amended the debt ceiling law 72 times. The last instance was in 2011 following a showdown in which congressional Republicans threatened to force a government default by not raising the debt ceiling, and it amended the debt ceiling law in almost precisely the same way that Obama now proposes.

As part of the deal, Congress incorporated a provision originally proposed by McConnell that allowed the president to raise the debt limit three times. Congress could reject the president's increase by voting to prevent it, although the president could veto such legislation and Congress in turn could override that veto. The provision was included in an ordinary bill, not a constitutional amendment, and senators, including Thune, overwhelminglyvoted for the bill.

The Obama administration has now proposed that Congress make McConnell's proposal permanent with some modifications. But as with the original McConnell deal, the mechanism is ordinary legislation, not a change to the Constitution. 

Michigan governor supports union gutting bill

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“Right to Work” Supporter Billionaire Dick DeVos Has Long History of Abusing Workers’ Rights

From The Michigan Democratic Party:

DeVos Is Behind-the-Scenes Puppeteer in RTW Effort

LANSING – With so-called “right to work” legislation awaiting final approval by Lansing Republicans and Gov. Rick Snyder, the Michigan Democratic Party today begins a series revealing the prime movers behind this unprecedented attack on Michigan workers and middle-class families.

Press reports have placed responsibility for the lame-duck push on this legislation — which Snyder had termed “divisive” during his campaign, but now plans to sign — on Dick DeVos, the failed 2006 GOP candidate for governor. According to MIRS news service, “[T]he former Republican gubernatorial candidate has called individual Republican senators and pushed them for a ‘yes’ vote on Right to Work…. DeVos and former Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser [are] making phone calls to Republican senators to assure them that if they faced a recall threat for supporting RTW, they would help to bankroll an anti-recall threat.” (December 4, 2012)

The record at DeVos family company Amway is a litany of unfair and illegal practices that have harmed workers. Amway classifies its sales employees as “independent contractors,” which allows it to ignore minimum wage, workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation laws, among many other basic worker rights. In 1998, Amway was sued by a terminated employee that was denied leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. In 2000, DeVos laid off more than a thousand workers worldwide in a corporate “restructuring.”

DeVos’ company routinely outsources jobs to low-wage countries. The company’s main manufacturing plant outside the U.S. is located in China. In 2009, the company laid off nearly 100 Michigan white-collar workers and moved their jobs to Costa Rica. The next year, they laid off another 100 production workers from a Michigan warehouse. (Grand Rapids Press, November 1, 2010; Grand Rapid Press, April 30, 2010; Grand Rapid Press, October 16, 2009)

“With DeVos’ record of attacking workers’ rights in Michigan and throughout the world, it is no surprise to see him as the puppeteer pulling the strings on another anti-worker attack,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “His involvement tells the people of Michigan all they need to know — the ‘right to work’ push isn’t about protecting workers’ rights, it’s about destroying them.”

Ed Asner: Fox News host Sean Hannity ‘behind on his rabies shots’

By Eric W. Dolan/raw story

After requesting to urinate on a Fox News producer last week, Emmy Award-winning actor Ed Asner continued to slam the conservative news network on Monday night.

Asner said on Current TV that he thought Fox News host Sean Hannity “was behind on his rabies shots” and that he was proud to be portrayed as a “Hollywood liberal.”

Fox News personalities began attacking Asner last week for narrating an animated video produced by the California Federation of Teachers. The video claimed that wealthy Americans pushed for tax cuts and found tax loopholes to enrich themselves. Their quest for greater wealth was detrimental to the middle-class, who relied on tax-funded services like public schools, according to the video.

“These are the lowest [tax] rates as I know it for the rich since God immemorial,” Asner said on Current TV. “They were higher under Eisenhower, they were higher with Clinton, so these are very low rates that the rich are now objecting to.”

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below:

MI Democratic Rep.: Right-to-work bill allows for ‘freedom to freeload’

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

A Michigan state representative called the “right to work” legislation being trumpteted by state Republicans as a “freedom to freeload” bill Monday while slamming Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for supporting it.

“It’s a remarkable thing when we have a governor who campaigned as a moderate who has said for two years that this issue is too divisive for Michigan, and now he’s it’s biggest fan,” said state Rep. Tim Greimel (D). “So either he was lying when he called it too divisive or he is, by his own admission, an extremist who’s pushing an agenda that’s too divisive and too extreme for our state.”

Snyder said he would pass the bill if it reached his desk, a likely possibility given that GOP lawmakers are in control of both the state Senate and state House of Representatives.

State Republicans’ push for the “right to work” bill attracted attention last week, after state police used pepper spray Dec. 6 on demonstrators opposing it after GOP lawmakers ordered the senate building to be closed. The bill was also condemned that same day as “petty and vindictive” on the Senate floor by state Senate Democratic leader Gretchen Whitmer (D).

Sunday, a labor activist filed a lawsuit accusing Republican State Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville of violating Michigan’s Open Meetings Act by having the building cleared.

While supporters of the bill say it will make for a fairer workplace by making union fees voluntary for non-union workers, Greimel told MSNBC host Chris Jansing that such dues are already voluntary, alluding to provisions in theNational Labor Relations Act saying that non-union members who are covered by a collective barganing agreement either join a union or pay what’s called an “agency fee.”

“What this law would do is, it would allow those who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement to avoid paying their fair share,” Greimel said. “That’s why I don’t call it this ‘right-to-work,’ I call it a freedom to freeload law.”

Watch Greimel’s interview with Jansing, aired Monday on MSNBC, below.

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Obama: Michigan union busting law means ‘right to work for less money’

By David Edwards/Raw Story

President Barack Obama traveled to Michigan on Monday where he said a controversial anti-union “right to work” law passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature last week really meant that workers had a “right to work for less money.”

“What we shouldn’t be doing is taking away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions,” Obama told a crowd of supporters at a Daimler AG plant in Redford. “These so-called right to work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics.”

“What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money,” he added. “America’s not going to compete based on low skill, low wage, no workers rights. That’s not our competitive advantage. There’s always going to be some other country that can treat it’s workers even worse.”

“So, we’ve got to get passed this whole situation were we manufacture crises because of politics. That actually leads to less certainty, more conflict and we can’t all focus on coming together to grow.”

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and other Democratic lawmakers met with Gov. Rick Snyder (R) on Monday and encouraged him to veto the right to work legislation, although he had already vowed to sign it.

Watch this video from C-SPAN via Talking Points Memo, broadcast Dec. 10, 2012.

Sherrod Brown Exposes GOP’s Motives For Deep Entitlement Cuts

By Aviva Shen/Think Progress

As President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) continue to do battle over a fiscal cliff deal, another Ohio legislator, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), soundly rejected the idea that Republicans are truly concerned with saving public programs like Social Security and Medicare. On Monday, Brown appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to blast the Republicans’ insistence on includingsevere cuts in entitlement programs to avert the impending fiscal cliff.

Brown stood firm when Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski pressed him on possibly raising the Medicare eligibility age, which Democrats are considering as part of the compromise. When Brzezinski claimed that Republicans are right to argue that Medicare and Social Security are unsustainable and could go bankrupt without reforms, Brown explained the broader anti-government ideology behind the cuts:

BRZEZINSKI: I feel like there’s a disconnect. First of all, you’ve got a lot of Republicans promulgating small businesses will be hurt. It’s not true. But I also feel like in return, there is this concept that Republicans are looking like the boogeyman who want to take away Medicare from everybody when they really want to make it solvent. When they really want to make it last into the future, when they really want to make this country’s fiscal irresponsibility come together and make sense.

BROWN: [...] When Newt Gingrich had a chance or President Bush had a chance, they wanted to shift costs onto beneficiaries by in part turning Social Security over to Wall Street. There has been a movement among conservative Republicans of a bit of a distaste for Social Security and Medicare. They’re public programs that are successful, and if it’s proven that these public programs are successful, it sort of undercuts their view that government can’t do anything right. Government has never been late on a social security check in 75 years since its first payment in 1940. We have seen two very successful public programs and there are always efforts to shift costs.

BRZEZINSKI: But they’re unsustainable.

BROWN: I don’t buy that they’re not sustainable any more than the defense budget is not sustainable. We owe billions of dollars down the line, of course. We can fix these things with changes at the margins without radical surgery.

Watch it:

Congressional Republicans have offered a budget deal that mirrors Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget in its draconian cuts to crucial social programs. Raising the Medicare eligibility age, which Brown rejected, is just another way to shift the burden to elderly Americans who risk losing their health insurance or seeing their out-of-pocket costs skyrocket.

CHART: Corporate Profits Skyrocket While Corporate Taxes Plummet

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

Corporate profits are currently at an all-time high (while worker wages as a percentage of the economy have plummeted to record lows). But despite those sky-high profits, corporate income tax revenue is projected to bejust 1.5 percent of GDP this year, below the recent average and far below the amount raised by the tax just a few decades ago.

As the Century Foundation noted in this chart, the corporate income tax, as a share of total government revenue, used to track reasonably well with corporate profits. But in the last decade, the two have become decoupled:

As the Century Foundation’s Benjamin Landy explained, “In 1952, the corporate income tax accounted for about one third of of all federal tax revenue. But, over the years, U.S. multinationals have devised increasingly complex tax avoidance schemes, far beyond the ability of the IRS to credibly monitor or enforce. Although the corporate tax rate was also lowered significantly in 1986, tax avoidance is one of primary reasons why corporate taxes supply less than 9 percent of federal revenues today.”

Between 2008 and 2011, dozens of multinational corporations paid no corporate income tax at all, despite making billions in profits. In 2011, the effective tax rate paid by American corporations fell to 12.1 percent, a forty-year low.

Sore Loser Allen West: My Opponent Only Won Because He Cheated

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress

In an exit befitting his outspoken, controversial two years in Congress, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said that he only lost his re-election because his opponent cheated.

West lost narrowly to Democratic up-and-comer Patrick Murphy last month, but refused to concede for weeks, demanding a recount of ballots in St. Lucie County. Only after a re-tabulation slightly increased Murphy’s lead did West finally accept defeat just before Thanksgiving.

However, the Tea Party congressman appears to be handling the loss acrimoniously. Appearing on Mark Levin’s radio show last Thursday, West accused Murphy of only winning by breaking the rules. “I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me,” said West. He did not specify precisely how Murphy supposedly cheated.

LEVIN: You are a national treasure. You are way too important to have something like this to happen and off you go. That can’t happen. So I’m really curious to know. Do you have further public service in mind, potentially?

WEST: The most important thing everyone has to understand is my voice is not going to be lost. We’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, a lot of offers, and we’re going to make sure we continue to have that platform. [...] I’m a warrior and I’m a statesman and I’m a servant of this republic. I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me.

LEVIN: He sure as hell did. It’s disgusting.

Listen to it:

Anyone who knows Allen West knows that he is not a bashful man. If he actually had evidence that his opponent won through fraudulent means, he would have presented it weeks ago and Fox News would run a piece every hour on the matter. That West has not shown any evidence gives a clear indication of how truthful his accusation is.

West later wrapped up the interview by accusing President Obama of being a “Marxist, Socialist, rigid ideologue” who “believes he has some self-conceived mandate to go out and further destroy and ruin our economy.”

Holly Jolly Friday: Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson

The Dangers Of Dumbing Down With Greg Gutfeld

ERIC BOEHLERT/Media Matters For America

Writing in the wake of the Republican election losses and lamenting the absence of true conservative leadership, David Welch, a former research director for the Republican National Committee, recently wished for the days of William F. Buckley. Pointing to how Buckley in the 1960's used his National Review magazine to rebuke the emerging John Birch Society and to help drive the conspiratorial anti-communists out of mainstream Republican circles, Welch longed for someone who "displayed political courage and sanity." He longed for leaders to save the Republican Party from its own dangerous fringe, the way Buckley did.

Conservatives today are in desperate need of gatekeepers, of  "adult supervision," Welch stressed [emphasis added]:

The modern-day Birchers are the Tea Party. By loudly espousing extreme rhetoric, yet holding untenable beliefs, they have run virtually unchallenged by the Republican leadership, aided by irresponsible radio talk-show hosts and right-wing pundits. While the Tea Party grew, respected moderate voices in the party were further pushed toward extinction. Republicans need a Buckley to bring us back.

If Welch had been looking for additional proof of how leaderless conservatives have become, or more specifically for proof of how the lack of adult supervision has been codified and is now even celebrated, then he could have clicked on this link and watched Fox News talker Greg Gutfeld's recent appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Invited to appear one week before Welch wrote his lament in the New York Times, Gutfeld was greeted with a hero's welcome at the Reagan Library, the bastion of modern day conservativism. Appearing at the library just days after the Republican governor of Wisconsin spoke there, and days beforethe former Republican Speaker of the House, it's clear Gutfeld and his od brand of would-be political satire, which is built around the premise that he doesn't know much about anything and is proud of it, has been welcomed to the GOP's Establishment table.

It's revealing because unlike right-wing talkers such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham, who present themselves as plugged-in and well-read experts and use that expertise to lend credibility to their commentary, Gutfeld proudly advertises the fact that he's clueless about the Middle East, and taxation, and the First Amendment, or whatever other topic happens to be in the news.

As Media Matters' Alexander Zaitchik stressed in his review of Gutfeld's new book, The Joy Of Hate:

It is not insulting Fox News host Greg Gutfeld to say he doesn't know much about the subjects he jokes and chats about for a living. He draws pleasure from saying so himself, over and over again, in a thousand repetitive ways.

Gutfeld in many ways is the face of the conservative's Tea Party media wing. Enthralled with name-calling and proud of his I'm-not-so-bright persona, Gutfeld's clearly considered to be a rising star by the Orange County faithful who gave him a standing ovation at the Reagan Library and who came to hear the Fox host make bladder jokes, while claiming liberals see terrorists groups as "heroic."

 

Why would someone with such limited skills be seen as a leader? Why have GOP gatekeepers welcomed him inside? Because Gutfeld's a regular on Fox News. Period. That's what passes as leadership within the conservative movement today. It's a movement that's powered first and foremost by the media, and most often by Rupert Murdoch's media and by common sense-challenged employees like Gutfeld, who this week appeared to be giggling on-camera while discussing the topic of teenage gun deaths.

The truth is, the Republican gatekeepers Welch yearns for no longer exist. Instead, media carnival barkers call the shots. Carnival barkers like Gutfeld who peddles his wares with the  upfront acknowledgement that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

And no, I can't imagine what Bill Buckley would make of this new conservative breed.

Jobless Rate hits four year low

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Economists: Right-to-work states have lower-income residents, poor labor relations

By John Gallagher/Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder has contended that right-to-work legislation may boost Michigan’s economic performance and attract new investments, but economists challenged those assertions Thursday, pointing out that wages and benefits tend to fall in right-to-work states and that Michigan has been a leader in attracting new investments for decades.

“Right to work is not high on employers’ things to consider when they move to a state,” Dale Belman, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, said Thursday. “For existing employers it doesn’t provide a benefit and may be a detriment,” he said, because of worsening labor relations in right-to-work states.

Site Selection magazine has often ranked Michigan at or near the top of its annual list of states gaining the most new business location decisions. Michigan, for example, ranked first in the nation from 1997 to 2000 in the annual list – all when Michigan was not a right-to-work state.

And a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based technology group Engine Advocacy reported this month that Michigan ranked third among the 50 states for growth in new technology jobs between 2010 and 2011, with a growth rate in tech jobs of 6.9%, well above the national average of 2.6%.

Backers of right to work applauded the Thursday announcement from Snyder and legislative leaders that they would try to make Michigan a right-to-work state.

“It would be the most important economic reform in decades and it would make Michigan immediately more competitive regionally, nationally and internationally,” said Charlie Owens, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “Small business owners have waited years for this reform and they are geared up for the fight.”

Partisans on either side of the issue hurled accusations as protestors walked the hallways of the Capitol in Lansing. State police sprayed mace at a group that tried to rush the Senate floor.

Charles Ballard, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, said the right-to-work legislation, while freighted with symbolic significance for Michigan, would likely produce a minimal impact for the state’s economy and jobs market.

He noted that union membership as a percentage of the workforce in Michigan has declined over the past six decades, “so in a sense the advocates of right-to-work have already won.”

“If what we want to do is do a little bit better at attracting certain kinds of low-wage jobs, I think this may help,” Ballard said. “But it’s an awful lot of political blood to be spilled for something that will not galvanize Michigan’s economy.”

When right-to-work laws were first implemented decades ago, those first states benefitted with increased employment because companies and jobs migrated there in search of the lower wages, Belman said. But that impact has faded over time as more states joined those ranks and as unions have agreed to concessionary demands from employers, he said.

The data on wages tell a fairly clear story. Of the top 10 states in per capita income in 2011, seven were not right-to work states. Of the bottom 10 states with the lowest per capital income, seven were right to work states.

“There is a lot of evidence that wages and benefits are lower in right-to-work states. There’s a redistribution of wages and benefits toward owners’ capital,” Belman said Thursday.


Timothy Bartik, senior economist with the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, a non-profit non-partisan research center, agreed.

“I think the relevant issue that people should be asking themselves about right to work is what impact does it have on employment and what impact does it have on wages. And both of those questions are important,” he said.

Meanwhile, transforming Michigan into a right-to-work state is unlikely to change how manufacturers view the business dynamics in the state, said Art Schwartz, president of Labor and Economics Associates in Ann Arbor. That’s because any new automanufacturer that locates in Michigan is still certain to face an organizing drive from the UAW.

“Even though they are going to put through right-to-work legislation Michigan is still the home of the UAW,” Schwartz said. “The other variables haven’t changed for Michigan. Just throwing this right-to-work switch from off to on doesn’t automatically light up Michigan as destination for manufacturers to locate.”

With both sides prepared for a long struggle over right to work, Belman said that Michigan will be the loser.

“We had bigger fish to fry than this,” Belman said. “It’s going to create a bloody mess in Michigan for years.”

Monica Crowley: Obama’s win was ‘national suicide’ because rich will pay more taxes

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Fox News contributor Monica Crowley says that America committed “national suicide” by re-electing President Barack Obama because tax rates will probably go up on the top earners in the country.

During a Thursday segment about Obama’s fiscal cliff “ultimatum,” Fox Business host Lou Dobbs wondered where was the “coordinated action and rhetoric” from Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and other conservatives to block the tax hikes on the rich.

“But here’s the thing, you can’t win them all so you’re going to see higher taxes on the wealthy,” one panelist noted. “And Boehner knows this so he’s probably going to sit back and let this thing backfire. And we’re looking at higher taxes, no growth, no jobs, fake interest rates. And in two years, I think the Republican Party comes back stronger. Tea party 2.0.”

“From a conservative perspective, November 6 was a national suicide,” Crowley asserted. “There is a very thin, fine, red line between us and total destruction of the American idea. That thin, red line was the Republican Party. If this party also commits suicide, this will be catastrophic.”

Dobbs concluded by promising a future segment to discuss why “Republicans are having trouble with only two areas: one — winning elections and — the other — governing.”

Watch this video from Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight, broadcast Dec. 6, 2012.