United Liberty

Over at the Mercatus Center, Veronique de Rugy notes that unemployment in public sector (government jobs) has not been nearly as steep as the private sector:

During the time period examined, employment in the private sector decreased by 3.5% while employment within government decreased by 0.5%.  Furthermore, employment has consistently decreased more quickly in the private sector than within the government (in addition to decreasing more on net).  Since January 2009, employment has decreased in the private sector at an average rate of 0.3% each month; this is 6 times faster than employment decreased in government.

Sounds like “hope” and “change” only mean anything if you’re looking to work on the taxpayers’ dime.

Here it is how it breaks down:

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) continues to cause Democrats headaches. When asked about his future plans on The Early Show, Bayh said, “If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

Here is the video:

In the almost five years after the Kelo decision, which effectively gutted the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, local governments are still running over the property rights of their citizens:

H/T: Club for Growth

Buried deep inside stories on Sen. Evan Bayh’s decision not to seek re-election is potentially bad news for Indiana Democrats:

The timing of the expected Bayh announcement creates a dilemma for Democrats, though, since the deadline for candidates’ petitions to be submitted is Tuesday. That means Bayh’s name could still be on the ballot in May’s Democratic primary — Democrats will have another opportunity to pick a candidate through a separate nominating process. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is considering whether it would be possible for a replacement to be named.

Ballot access laws in the state require a candidate for office to have a nominating petition of 5,000 signatures, which would have been a difficult task to accomplish by noon today, with Sen. Bayh’s announcement occurring yesterday. It’s being reported that Democrat candidate, Tamyra D’ippolito, has the 5000 signatures necessary, but no reports yet of whether or not she turned them into the state in time.  No doubt, some sort of candidate substitution law already exists (not sure about that though) or the decision will be made by the state party itself.

In editorial for the Washington Post on Sunday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty lays out five policy proposals for real health care reform, which includes incentivizing patients to compare prices, pay for performance for medical providers and opening up interstate commerce between insurance companies (among a couple other ideas):

The health-care reforms proposed by the president and congressional Democrats are meeting stiff resistance because they would take America’s health care in the wrong direction. Runaway costs are the underlying reason that so many citizens do not have access to health care and that our system needs reform. Rather than focus on cost-cutting reforms like the ones I described, Democrats focused solely on expanding access — hoping that more mandates and government spending would somehow circumvent the fundamental issue of runaway costs.

Pawlenty, who is obviously running for president in 2012, I’ve always been skeptical of him. This editorial was actually good, nothing I hadn’t heard before, but well written. He is also doing some good things with the budget in his home state, cutting spending by over $1 billion without increasing taxes. He is, in fact, proposing tax cuts for businesses.

As President Barack Obama plans this health care summit, set as some bipartisan touchy, feely chance for Democrats to save a major part of domestic agenda. Isn’t is amazing how the Obama is suddenly willing to listen to ideas other than his own?

Donald Trump gave a public lashing of Al Gore because of his endorsement of global warming.  He said the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Peace Prize back from Gore.

As reported in the New York Post, Trump recently made these remarks at a speech to the members of the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester:

Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn’t care less. It would make us totally noncompetitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America’s stupidity.

Looks like even Trump, who has openly supported liberals like Barack Obama, has joined the anti-global warming crowd. It is only logical that someone who plays such an integral part of our capitalist economy should question global warming. Trump knows that measures being proposed in Washington to fight global warming will not contribute in any notable way but will in fact destroy much of our already fragile economy.

While speaking at an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sam Wurzelbacher (aka. Joe the Plumber) took some shots at John McCain and Sarah Palin:

Wurzelbacher touched on several different points during his speech, and many of them were surprising. He said he doesn’t support Sarah Palin anymore. Why? Because she’s backing John McCain’s re-election effort. “John McCain is no public servant,” he told the room, calling the 2008 Republican nominee a career politician.

I pointed out he’d just be plain old Sam Wurzelbacher of Ohio — Joe the Plumber wouldn’t exist –  without McCain. His response was blunt. “I don’t owe him s—. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”

Wurzelbacher said, “McCain was trying to use me. I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”

Joe the Plumber also had some comments about the attacks against President Barack Obama:

Wurzelbacher also told the room to lay off the extreme personal attacks on President Obama.  He said people who question whether Obama was born in the United States or compare him to Hitler “belittle and set back” the conservative movement.  “The birthers, the truthers — if people are trying to bunch them [with tea partiers], that would kill us. That just pushes away Democrats and independents who might come out for our cause otherwise.” He said he actually likes Obama, in some ways. “I think his ideology is un-American, but he’s one of the more honest politicians. At least he told us what he wanted to do.”

Well said.