Wage Trends Favor Workplace Freedom States

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 5th at 05:07 PM  | 

Average wages in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky were each leapfrogged by multiple workplace freedom states from 2001 to 2011 based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Comparing Ohio and its 5 neighboring states to the 22 workplace freedom states – whose ranks Indiana joined in February 2012 – Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana were 3 of only 5 states with wage growth below 30 percent over the course of the decade.

In terms of BLS-calculated wages, slow wage growth resulted in an erosion of the relative advantage in Ohio and neighboring forced-unionism states, where workers can be required to pay a union boss as a condition of employment, versus workplace freedom states. Without adjusting for taxes or cost of living, the statewide average wage in Ohio fell from 7th-highest to 9th-highest.

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In Light of the Purge, House Conservatives Must Unite

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 5th at 04:30 PM  | 

Well, that was quick.  After denying that conservatives were thrown off committee spots for ideological purposes, Boehner now admitted it in front of his conference, according to The Hill: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned his conference on Wednesday that leaders are “watching” how the rank-and-file vote to determine committee assignments, according to sources in the closed-door meeting. Boehner addressed the firestorm over the removal of | Read More »

General Screwtape Gets His (Expletive) Chewed

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  December 5th at 04:00 PM  | 

It was Zeero-Dark-30 on a bleak December Morning. General Screwtape kind of knew this was coming since the first Tuesday in November. His rather unique and stylish “Master of Puppets” ringtone awakened him. He was not too surprised when he recognized the number as Brimstone HQ.* It wasn’t going to a pleasant morning. The (expletive) – chewing began with gusto.

“Screwtape! You misbegotten spawn of Beelzbubba! I sent you to America to wage a half-way decent War on Women, and the best you could do is have that idiot Romney put them in binders! And those deals where they only get paid $0.70 for every $1.00 the men get – you’ve seen what’s happened to Male U6 Unemployment, you (expletive)! Sandra Fluke is sending you the tab for her birth control. I’m ordering you to pay it as penance for your pathetic screw-ups! Now I’m feeling particularly jolly this fine morning.**Because of that, I’m sending you a file to read that might save your wretched and villainous career. This here tells you how China keeps the Little Ladies in their proper place!”

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John Boehner on Independent Thinking and Retribution

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 5th at 03:39 PM  | 

John Boehner is making clear to Republican House members that the four conservatives removed from committees were removed because their votes defied House leaders. There was a time when John Boehner thought otherwise and valued independence from House members. From Meet the Press on January 5, 1997, over the dissatisfaction with Newt Gingrich: MR. RUSSERT: And with us now the Democratic whip, David Bonior of | Read More »

Fire Boehner: We Only Need 16 Votes to Depose Boehner

By: Ned Ryun (Diary)  |  December 5th at 03:02 PM  | 

From the diaries…

If conservatives want to keep the House and win the Senate, we need to fire John Boehner as speaker of the House. We only need 16 House votes to do it.

As most conservatives know, Boehner and the House GOP Steering Committee decided to purge four conservative House members from their committee. Congressmen Justin Amash and Tim Huelskamp were removed from the House Budget Committee, and Congressmen David Schweikert and Walter Jones were cut from the Financial Services Committee.

Amash, Huelskamp, and Schweikert were targeted because they were too fiscally conservative—all three have voted against Boehner’s debt ceiling hikes. Amash and Huelskamp were the only two GOP votes against House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget.

Amash explained that vote at yesterday’s Bloggers’ Briefing at the Heritage Foundation, “It’s unacceptable to have unbalanced budgets until 2040.”

For anyone outside of DC, this statement seems obvious. Only in Washington is balancing the budget radical.

Many conservatives voted for the Ryan budget because they didn’t want to “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I understand that, but we shouldn’t criticize those who actually understand the depth of our debt problem and plan to propose real answers.

If Speaker Boehner wants to purge independent, bold conservatives—I think it’s time he gets fired as Speaker. Not only for the purge. He has failed to effectively win negotiations with President Obama and appointed moderate committee chairs. To the public, Boehner may appear radical but in reality he proposes milquetoast policies, like the tax-hikes he proposed this week.

While the caucus has already voted in support of John Boehner as speaker of the 113th Congress, the final floor vote doesn’t happen until early January.

Everyone thinks it’s a fairytale, but the Conservative Movement is capable of firing Boehner with just 16 votes.

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Steve Scalise Fails the First Test for Conservatives

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 5th at 02:26 PM  | 

Several weeks ago, Congressman Steve Scalise (LA) was elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Many of us felt a deep-rooted disquiet that Scalise would be too closely aligned with leadership. We feared he wouldn’t properly defend conservatives and their policies. Well, his response to the recent leadership purge of conservatives from congressional committees has validated our fears. The fact that he was at the | Read More »

Let’s Make a Deal

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 5th at 11:21 AM  | 

In an effort to minimize the public outrage over Obama’s tax proposal, Democrats are packaging the tax hikes as a mere reinstatement of the Clinton-era rates.  After all, everyone knows that the ‘90s conjure up an image of peace and prosperity; why not invoke the nostalgia? For one thing, they are obfuscating the fact that the Obamacare tax increases will take effect in just one | Read More »

Jed Babbin Talks Fiscal Cliff and the Middle East

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  December 5th at 10:02 AM  | 

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Allysen Efferson are joined by Jed Babbin to discuss the fiscal cliff negotiations, why Republicans are losing the argument over taxation and our damaged image in the Middle East.

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Conservatives Actually Suck at This

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 5th at 04:30 AM  | 

John Boehner can do whatever the heck he wants to. The GOP could be making the argument that the White House has offered nothing on spending and the American people want spending cuts as much as they are okay with tax increases, but instead John Boehner will publicly negotiate with himself. And he can. He can throw conservatives off fiscal committees without consequence. Conservatives can | Read More »

Michigan to be scene of the Right-to-Work War of 2013?

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 4th at 05:00 PM  | 

It’s an interesting situation up there in Michigan: as the Detroit News rather sourly notes, the Republicans control the legislature and the governorship, while the extremely-Big Labor-friendly Proposal 2 went down in flames (58/42, not that the Detroit News wanted to mention that statistic). This opens up the possibility of right-to-work legislation being introduced in either the current or the next state legislative turn; it | Read More »

Workplace Freedom States Soared While Ohio and Michigan Economies Crashed

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 4th at 03:33 PM  | 

Job creation in Ohio lagged far behind all 22 workplace freedom states from 1991 to 2011, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records. Without cherry-picking data as union bosses must in order to defend forced unionism, total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment growth shows a huge advantage for residents of right to work states.

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Hijacking the Senseless Brutality of a Selfish and Iniquitous Man

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  December 4th at 02:00 PM  | 

If I were to write an obituary for deceased Kansas City Chiefs Linebacker Jovan Belcher, I would suggest he was a talented athlete with poor impulse control who threw away the opportunity to live a happy and fulfilling life by refusing to properly marry the mother of his child. He instead argued with her, chased other women, went home intoxicated and shot her nine times with one of his weapons. He then drove his Rolls Royce to his workplace and deliberately killed himself in front of his coach and the GM who hired him. The child, the girlfriend, The Head Coach and the team GM all suffered the murderous and suicidal tyranny of the selfish.

But many other people have reasons why Jovan Belcher, shot himself and the mother of his 3-month old baby on Saturday 1 December. They have nothing to do with any decisions made by the 25-year-old adult and generally dove-tail conveniently with ideological causes that these individuals believe in. For example, according to Congresslady DeGette from Colorado, Javon belcher killed neither himself, nor the mother of his three month old baby. The gun leapt out of his hand both times and did it for him.

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Bob Shrum ignorantly and incorrectly lectures Senator Ron Johnson.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 4th at 12:30 PM  | 

Here’s a pro-tip* for Bob Shrum: if you’re going to try to marginalize and mock a US Senator (to the point of calling him “buddy”), make sure that you have the right info first.

Even an Ugly Cat Knows This

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 4th at 11:44 AM  | 

When you come to RedState, you aren’t charged. The Morning Briefing is free. You want a RedState account? You got one. You want to comment? Okay. We’re free. Like listening to the radio, you don’t have to pay. We make our money off of ads. It’s simple. But you guys complain. Some of the ads are annoying. Okay — some of the ads are damn | Read More »

The Members Behind the Purge of Conservatives

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 4th at 11:12 AM  | 

Yesterday, we noted that not only did House leadership select moderates to fill vacant spots on the top congressional committees, they made the unprecedented decision to banish conservatives already sitting on some important committees.  All of the decisions related to committee assignments are decided by a Steering Committee.  At present, the Steering Committee is comprised of 31 members, most of who are either members of | Read More »