Climate Surprise: Why More CO2 is Good for the Earth

I had the good fortune to attend a talk by conservative author Mark Steyn at the Princeton Club in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, sponsored by Roger Kimball’s The New Criterion and co-sponsored by the newly formed CO₂ Coalition, founded by Princeton physicist Will Happer.
Read more at Stream.org Read More......

CATO: 2013 Work Versus Welfare Trade-Off

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In 1995, the Cato Institute published a groundbreaking study, The Work vs. Welfare Trade-Off, which estimated the value of the full package of welfare benefits available to a typical recipient in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It found that not only did the value of such benefits greatly exceed the poverty level but, because welfare benefits are tax-free, their dollar value was greater than the amount of take-home income a worker would receive from an entry-level job.

Since then, many welfare programs have undergone significant change, including the 1996 welfare reform legislation that ended the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and replaced it with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. Accordingly, this paper examines the current welfare system in the same manner as the 1995 paper.

Welfare benefits continue to outpace the income that most recipients can expect to earn from an entry-level job, and the balance between welfare and work may actually have grown worse in recent years.

The current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work. Welfare currently pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states, even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and in 13 states it pays more than $15 per hour. If Congress and state legislatures are serious about reducing welfare dependence and rewarding work, they should consider strengthening welfare work requirements, removing exemptions, and narrowing the definition of work. Moreover, states should consider ways to shrink the gap between the value of welfare and work by reducing current benefit levels and tightening eligibility requirements.

Read the Analysis of the Total Level of Welfare Benefits by State (PDF) by Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow, and Charles Hughes, Research Assistant, of the CATO Institute Read More......

Is registering the poor to vote un-American?

By Matthew Vadum (Hat tip: JHD)- Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote? ✧ Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Read more at American Thinker...

Note the difference between what Cloward & Piven want(ed) to achieve and what Thomas Sowell knows will lift the poor out of poverty in his recent article "Two Different Worlds." --bc Read More......

The End is Not Nigh!

CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE/INSIDER, by Joseph Cox (guest) - Why not increasing the U.S. debt ceiling may not be the end of the world. “The end of days is nigh,” or at least that’s what you hear from President Obama when he says, “We would risk sparking a deep economic crisis….For the first time in our history, our country’s triple-A credit rating would be downgraded. Interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, on mortgages and on car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike on the American people.” ∴ In fact, nobody knows the consequences of a debt deal – or of the absence of one. But maybe not raising the debt ceiling actually would benefit the economy. There are three reasons for this:

1. Treasury rates are not necessarily the lowest rates
   
2. A rise in inflation may release productive money
   
3. A drop in government support could reintroduce healthy moral hazard into financing and investment

Let’s go through these in detail: Read more at Cascade Policy Institute Read More......

Rep. Richardson: Should Oregon Continue Paying 100% of Employee Health Benefits?

REP. DENNIS RICHARDSON, NEWSLETTER, 6/17/2011

[Excerpt] HB 2011 would require State of Oregon workers to begin paying something toward their group medical, dental and vision benefits. This is something many school districts already ask of their employees, including teachers. ∴ I believe it is time for state workers to begin paying at least $50 per month toward the $1200 monthly bill for state worker group health benefits. If this $50 minimum payment were required, more than $69 million would be generated in 2011-13—that is $69 million that could be used for high priority programs. Read more at Rep. Richardson's Newsletter...

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Tax the rich, make them pay their 'fair share'

Average annual incomes (US):

Private sector, $40,331
Public sector, $71,206

CITY JOURNAL, Winter 2005, The Real Engine of Blue America by Steven Malanga - There are no Blue states—only Blue cities, where tax eaters rule. Read More......

Poll: More Workers Worry About Keeping Their Job, Benefits

GALLUP, 8/13/2009 - American workers are considerably more worried now about being laid off, having their wages and benefits reduced, and having their hours cut than they were at the same time last year. See more Gallup poll results... Read More......

What took the U.S. Auto Companies down?

It was greedy executives.
It was union wage demands and job categories,
It was Wall St. greed.
It was Legacy Benefits.
It was those horrible capitalists.
Ah... but now, according to President Obama, it was the burden of health care benefits. Read More......