CEI Today: Farm Bill vote, NLRB reform, Julian Simon Award, and CEI gala feat. Rand Paul

FARM BILL - FRAN SMITH

Farm Subsidy Programs in House Farm Bill

 

The House is expected to vote on the five-year farm bill this week. But representatives from a diverse coalition of groups - such as CEI, the Environmental Working Group, National Taxpayers Union, National Black Farmers Association, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife - have voiced serious concerns with massive farm subsidy programs contained in the bill. > Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy

 

> Interview Fran Smith

NLRB REFORM - TREY KOVACS Workplacechoice.org: GOP Introduces NLRB Reform Bill On June 13, Representative Tom Price introduced the Representation Fairness Restoration Act that would rollback significant policy changes created in the National Labor Relations Board decision, Specialty Healthcare. > Read more > Interview Trey Kovacs

June 13, 2013: Deirdre McCloskey Wins CEI’s Julian Simon Award Deirdre McCloskey, a distinguished economic historian and author of many books, including The Rhetoric of Economics, The Bourgeois Virtues, and Bourgeois Dignity, will receive CEI’s Julian Simon Memorial Award on June 20 at CEI’s annual dinner. CEI Founder and Chairman Fred L. Smith, Jr.  talks about how McCloskey’s work embodies the same joie de vivre and optimistic spirit that animated Simon’s thought.

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013! CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL cei.org/ceidinner

MORE IN THE NEWS... CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation France Wants Culture Out of U.S.-EU Trade Agreement Re: WHO’s response to article on doctors and the alcohol industry

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

NO CARBON TAX CEI and 19 other free market organizations sent a joint letter to Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor urging a floor vote on the concurrent resolution, H. Con Res. 24, expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy. > View the coalition letter

INTERVIEW A CEI EXPERT CEI Experts by Issue Advancing Capitalism Constitutional and Legal Issues Energy and Environment Finance and Entrepreneurship Health and Safety Labor Nanny State Regulatory Reform Tech and Telecom Trade and International Transportation

   

ALG's Daily Grind - Why are taxpayers paying $80 billion a year for food stamps?

June 19, 2013

Why are taxpayers paying $80 billion a year for food stamps?

100 House Republicans in 2008 voted to override George W. Bush's veto of the Farm Bill that dramatically expanded eligibility for the food stamp program.

Paying back donors with 'Obamaphone' program

$2 billion a year program to give away cell phones receives new scrutiny.

Path to ending federal sugar subsidies?

Congress is considering an interesting new approach on sugar subsidies.

Eilperin: What did Holly Paz tell IRS investigators?

IRS official to congressional investigators: "political campaign intervention in 501(c)(4)s was not something we have previously dealt with very much." Then why were they so concerned about it?

CEI Today: Farm Bill, Obamacare impact on jobs/state courts, and misuse of E-Verify

FARM BILL - FRAN SMITH

Farm Subsidy Programs in House Farm Bill

 

The House is expected to vote this week on the five-year farm bill. But representatives from a diverse coalition of groups - such as CEI, the Environmental Working Group, National Taxpayers Union, National Black Farmers Association, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife - have voiced serious concerns with massive farm subsidy programs contained in the bill. > Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy

 

> Interview Fran Smith

OBAMACARE IMPACT - BILL FREZZA Forbes: Coming Soon: A Dramatic Downshift In Company Size, Plus Hours Worked The effect [of Obamacare] will be a dramatic shift in firm size, as many medium-sized companies restructure to avoid the law, spinning out functions to subsidiaries. Outsourcing, subcontracting, and shifting employees from full to part time will become the norm. Entirely new corporate forms are likely to emerge—for example restaurants with no wait staff will contract work to wait staff firms with no restaurants, allowing each to operate under the thresholds. Small businesses will put off growth plans to avoid tripping the limits, learning, like Italian firms, that when growth is punished, small is beautiful indeed. > Read more > See also: Obamacare and Activist State Courts Drive Up Health Plan Costs > Interview Bill Frezza

E-VERIFY - DAVID BIER Openmarket.org: E-Verify National ID System Threatens Americans’ Privacy “I’m not a criminal, so there’s really no reason for me to be in a criminal database.” That was James Shepherd, a Kentucky native and a roofer, after he was stopped by police under “suspicion of trespassing” at a Florida hotel. The officer on the scene asked to take his picture and ran it through Florida’s facial recognition database. Finding no matches, he uploaded Shepherd’s photo with the label “suspicious person.” This should make those who support, in order to stop illegal immigration, the E-Verify national ID system contained in the Senate immigration bill consider what other applications authorities could find for the System. > Read more > Interview David Bier

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013! CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

June 13, 2013: Deirdre McCloskey Wins CEI’s Julian Simon Award Deirdre McCloskey, a distinguished economic historian and author of many books, including The Rhetoric of Economics, The Bourgeois Virtues, and Bourgeois Dignity, will receive CEI’s Julian Simon Memorial Award on June 20 at CEI’s annual dinner. CEI Founder and Chairman Fred L. Smith, Jr.  talks about how McCloskey’s work embodies the same joie de vivre and optimistic spirit that animated Simon’s thought.

NO CARBON TAX CEI and 19 other free market organizations sent a joint letter to Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor urging a floor vote on the concurrent resolution, H. Con Res. 24, expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy. > View the coalition letter

INTERVIEW A CEI EXPERT CEI Experts by Issue Advancing Capitalism Constitutional and Legal Issues Energy and Environment Finance and Entrepreneurship Health and Safety Labor Nanny State Regulatory Reform Tech and Telecom Trade and International Transportation

ALG urges food stamp transparency in $80 billion a year program

June 18, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in support of an amendment by Rep. Tom Marino being considered by the House Rules Committee today that would require the Department of Agriculture to publish a detailed record online of all retail sales in the $80 billion a year food stamp program:

"Rep.Tom Marino deserves thanks from taxpayers across the nation as he tries to bring transparency to the food stamp program through an amendment to the Farm Bill that is being considered in the House of Representatives.

"Marino's amendment would require the USDA Secretary to publish SNAP (food stamp) sales online in a searchable, comparable format that would enable the public to learn what items are purchased with SNAP benefits, where they are purchased, and the cost of those items.

"Food stamps comprise more than 2 percent of our nation's $3.6 trillion budget with almost 50 million people using them, costing $82 billion in 2013 alone. In fact, the program is so large that fully 80 percent of the $939 billion so-called Farm bill is actually designated food stamp spending. 

"With so much taxpayer money being spent on a program that is exempt from sequesters, or other discretionary budget cuts, creating transparency in how the program is used will help identify reforms that will save millions of dollars in future federal government spending.

"Americans for Limited Government urges the House of Representatives to consider and pass the Marino amendment. The American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent."

To view online: http://getliberty.org/alg-urges-food-stamp-transparency-in-80-billion-a-year-program/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org  

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Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

CEI Today: events on Farm Bill, cell phone unlocking, plus opinions on carbon tax, cutting red tape

TODAY!

Farm Subsidy Programs in House Farm Bill

 

Representatives from Environmental Working Group, American Enterprise Institute, R Street Institute, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Black Farmers Association, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife will hold a Capitol Hill briefing for accredited journalists and congressional staff on Monday (June 17) to discuss their concerns with the farm subsidy programs in the House version of the 2013 farm bill.

 

What: House Farm Bill press conference

 

When: 11:00 a.m. ET Monday, June 17

 

Where: Cannon House Office Building, Room 210

 

Who: Environmental Working Group, American Enterprise Institute, R Street Institute, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Black Farmers Association, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife

 

Please RSVP ssciammacco@ewg.org if you plan to attend.

> Interview Fran Smith

> Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy

CARBON TAX - MARLO LEWIS Globalwarming.org: Is a Carbon Tax a Conservative Idea Whose Time Has Come? Thoughts on the R Street – Heartland Debate Do carbon taxes pick winners and losers? Do R Street and Inglis believe in “pixie dust”? What is the conservative energy agenda? Is a carbon tax an efficient climate policy? Is a carbon tax an efficient air pollution policy? What about the social costs of carbon mitigation? Conservative policy or dumb politics? > Read more > Interview Marlo Lewis

OPPOSING A CARBON TAX CEI and 19 other free market organizations sent a joint letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor urging a floor vote on the concurrent resolution, H. Con Res. 24, expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy. > View the coalition letter

Rep. Adrian Smith: Cutting Red Tape to Unleash Economic Growth The time and money spent keeping up with federal rules is a major burden on our economy.  American families and small businesses struggle to comply with the growing number of federal regulations even when they do not realize it.  The true cost of regulatory compliance is often hidden in the price of products, energy, and even health care. A new report by Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute shines a light on the growing regulatory state and its true cost to our economy.  At the end of 2012, the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit an all-time high of 174,545.  Last year alone, the government enacted 1,172 new regulations; 16 percent more than were completed in 2011. > Read more > Interview Wayne Crews

MORE IN THE NEWS... CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation France Wants Culture Out of U.S.-EU Trade Agreement Re: WHO’s response to article on doctors and the alcohol industry

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013 CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

TODAY! What Should Congress Do about Cell Phone Unlocking? Should copyright law stop you from unlocking your cell phone? Join TechFreedom and CEI on June 17 for a lunch discussion. Opening remarks by FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. > RSVP

June 13, 2013: Deirdre McCloskey Wins CEI’s Julian Simon Award Deirdre McCloskey, a distinguished economic historian and author of many books, including The Rhetoric of Economics, The Bourgeois Virtues, and Bourgeois Dignity, will receive CEI’s Julian Simon Memorial Award on June 20 at CEI’s annual dinner. CEI Founder and Chairman Fred Smith talks about how McCloskey’s work embodies the same joie de vivre and optimistic spirit that animated Simon’s thought.

INTERVIEW A CEI EXPERT Media Contacts: Christine Hall 202.331.2258 Nicole Ciandella 202.331.2773 Brian McNicoll CEI Experts by Issue Advancing Capitalism Constitutional and Legal Issues Energy and Environment Finance and Entrepreneurship Health and Safety Labor Nanny State Regulatory Reform Tech and Telecom Trade and International Transportation