CEI Today: Financial transaction tax?, S&P rating, and global warming science

FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX? - JOHN BERLAU

IBD: Online 'Fairness' Tax Could Hit Your 401(k)

Supporters of the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), which the U.S. Senate passed on May 6 on a 69-27 vote, claim that online retailers enjoy an unfair advantage over their brick-and-mortar competitors. The bill, they maintain, addresses this imbalance by allowing states and localities to require "remote sellers" to collect taxes for "sales" to their residents.

However, the bill is silent on the particular products and services of "sellers" and "sales" it covers. Thus, it could open the door for state and local governments to tax financial transactions they deem as "sales" on businesses throughout the country. > Read more

> Interview John Berlau

 

S&P RATING - BILL FREZZA CBN: S&P Boosts US Credit Outlook to 'Stable' Standard & Poor's ratings service has boosted its outlook for U.S. government debt from "negative" to "stable," meaning it's not as likely to downgrade the nation's debt in the near future. Bill Frezza, a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a Boston-based venture capitalist, talked more about implications of the S&P's revised outlook on CBN's Newswatch, June 10. > View the interview > Interview Bill Frezza   > Follow Bill Frezza on Twitter

GLOBAL WARMING SCIENCE - MARLO LEWIS Globalwarming.org: Climate Models: “Epic Failure” or “Spot on Consistent” with Observed Warming? Surface temperatures are not a direct or reliable measure of bulk atmospheric heat content, which is one reason [University of Alabama scientist John] Christy has devoted much of his career to developing a satellite record of global temperatures. Satellite datasets “are not affected by these surface problems and more directly represent the heat content of the atmosphere.” If the models accurately represented the atmosphere’s heat content, Christy told me by email, the warming rate of the tropical mid-troposphere (TMT) would be 1.4 times that of the surface. In reality, the TMT warming rate is only 0.6 times that of the surface. The models simply project too much warming in the bulk atmosphere. > Read more > Interview Marlo Lewis

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CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 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.

CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation The federal government sells pecan insurance. A new rule corrects errors made in a previous rule from February. > Read more

TEN THOUSAND COMMANDMENTS An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State This year marks the publication of the 20th anniversary edition of the CEI’s annual survey of the federal regulatory state, Ten Thousand Commandments.  cei.org/10kc > Follow 10kc on Twitter > See also: Wall Street Journal editorial, Red Tape Record Breakers

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 - Republicans taking default off the table

April 24, 2013

Republicans taking default off the table

The "Full Faith and Credit Act" will certainly avert default if the debt ceiling is reached, but Republicans also need to avoid the accusation that the debt ceiling fight throws Grandma off the fiscal cliff.

On Global Warming Advocates and Scientific Consensus

Does scientific consensus determine scientific truth?

EPA obstructs Keystone XL pipeline, puts Obama nominee at further risk

As the EPA continues obstructing Keystone,  the Senate should reject Gina McCarthy's nomination to be the next EPA Administrator, so the Obama Administration would understand that their continued expansion of power will no longer be tolerated.

Jindal: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion is bad for Louisiana

"President Obama's Medicaid expansion could cost taxpayers in Louisiana $1.7 billion over the first 10 years of implementation, and the cost will continue to rise."

CEI Today: Michigan right-to-work, Sen. Whitehouse on 'climate deniers,' and BPA junk science

MICHIGAN RIGHT-TO-WORK - MATT PATTERSON

Openmarket.org: Catching The Chimera: Right-To-Work In Michigan

Labor leaders have seen the writing on the wall for their movement for a while now. But that writing just got bolder and more ominous for them.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced in a stunning press conference today that he would sign legislation making Michigan the 24th right-to-work state as soon as he can, possibly this week.

It just goes to show how contagious — in the best possible sense — political courage can be: Earlier this year, Gov. Mitch Daniels did indeed sign legislation making Indiana the first Rust Belt state to adopt right-to work. Daniels was undoubtedly inspired by the success of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reforms. And now, mirabile dictu, he has inspired Snyder.  > View the news story on Openmarket.org

> Interview Matt Patterson

 

CLIMATE SCIENCE - MARLO LEWIS Openmarket.org: Sen. Whitehouse Fumes Against 'Climate Deniers' In a fiery speech yesterday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) ”calls out” “climate deniers.” In the first half of the speech he goes ad hominem, attacking opponents as “front groups” who take payola from “polluters” to “confuse” the public by selling “doubt” as their product. Okay, let’s examine Sen. Whitehouse’s argument. He accuses skeptics of peddling “straw man arguments,” such as that “the earth’s climate always changes; it’s been warmer in the past.” Well, it does, and it has!> Read the full commentary on Globalwarming.org > Interview Marlo Lewis

BPA JUNK SCIENCE - ANGELA LOGOMASINI Openmarket.org: Researchers Repudiate BPA Junk Science The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) — which is used to make hard, clear plastics and resins that line food containers — regularly appears in news headlines claiming the substance causes everything from heart disease to obesity. But a new study on the topic shows that much of this “research” is little more than junk science.  > View the full commentary at Openmarket.org   > Interview Angela Logomasini

COALITION DEFENDS TAXPAYER PROTECTION PLEDGE In response to an all-out assault by the media and even some in Congress on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge lawmakers signed promising they would not raise taxes, a coalition of national and state policy groups sent a letter to GOP lawmakers on Wednesday that urges them to honor their pledge to taxpayers and refuse to raise taxes. > View the coalition letter

More in the news... Union Holds U.S. Ports Hostage When Gridlock Is Good: The Case Of The Toxic Substances Control Act

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.

ALG's Daily Grind - Obamacare Mandate To Cut Worker Hours, Leaving The Poor Worse Off

Nov. 15, 2012

Obamacare Mandate To Cut Worker Hours, Leaving The Poor Worse Off

Employer mandate will not only hurt job growth among small businesses, it is already resulting in fewer hours and less income for workers at larger companies.

Video: ALG Is Urging Governors Not To Implement ObamaCare Exchange

America's Governors are set to make a decision on whether to implement an ObamaCare exchange. ObamaCareWatcher.org's John Vinci explains what Americans for Limited Government thinks they should do.

New York Misses Out on Natural Gas Revolution as Junk Science Carries the Day

The Marcellus Shale cuts across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia and could potentially to help transform the world's energy portfolio. But this will require public policy decisions that rooted in sound science not unsubstantiated alarmism.

Roff: GOP Senators Need to Radicalize

Does Harry Reid want to restrict Republican use of the filibuster in the Senate?

CEI Today: Jobs report analysis, Europe's youth unemployment, and medical junk science

UNEMPLOYMENT & REGULATORY COSTS - IAIN MURRAY & HANS BADER

CEI.org: Jobs Report Doesn't Tell Full Story, Regulations Still Prevent Real Jobs Growth

Unemployment fell below 8 percent for the first time in four years last month, according to the September jobs report from the Department of Labor. The economy gained 114,000 jobs in September, which helped lower the unemployment rate from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent.

But, as CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray pointed out, job numbers are almost always inflated this time of year because of holiday season hiring. And, as Senior Counsel Hans Bader noted, many people have given up on full-time employment and taken part-time jobs.

  >Read the analysis on CEI.org

> Interview an expert

> See related: Unemployment Falls As Part-Time Work Expands

EUROPE'S JOBLESS YOUTH - MATTHEW MELCHIORRE EU Observer: Jobless youth - southern Europe's ticking time bomb As Europe hangs on every public statement about the possibility of more bailouts from the European Central Bank or German Chancellor Angela Merkel, some investors don't see the wood for the trees. The focus on short-term stability ignores southern Europe's powder keg of jobless youth which is set to undermine workforce productivity and pension affordability over the next decade. Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy top the list in eurozone youth unemployment. Southern Europe is not helpless in the face of the problem. Countries need to liberalise their labour markets to make giving proper, full time jobs for young employees more attractive to employers.  > Read more at EUobserver.com   > Interview Matthew Melchiorre

FOOD WARS - ANGELA LOGOMASINI Openmarket.org: Medical Junk Science: Canned Veggies May Make Kids Fat Can feeding your child canned soup and vegetables make make her fat? According to study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), it just might — but only if your child is white. That’s the latest junk science “finding” from yet another study designed to condemn the chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Despite obvious flaws with the study and the implausibility of its findings, newspapers around the nation, news websites, blogs and others continue to declare that there is “more evidence” that BPA poses a health problem.   > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Angela Logomasini

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Profiles in Liberty: Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute Christopher C. Horner serves as a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. As an attorney in Washington, DC, Horner has represented CEI as well as scientists and Members of the U.S. House and Senate on matters of environmental policy in the federal courts including the Supreme Court. Horner has testified before the United States Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works, and works on a legal and policy level with numerous think tanks and policy organizations throughout the world. This week, Horner published a newly uncovered memo between the IPCC and EPA. Greenpeace has repeatedly targeted Mr. Horner, by stealing his garbage on a weekly basis, issuing press releases announcing with whom he dines and including him in various other hysterical publications including most recently “A Field Guide to Climate Criminals” distributed at the UN climate meeting in Montreal in December 2005. If you haven’t purchased his new book, The liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information “Criminal,” you should do so today! Follow him on Twitter @Chris_C_Horner. > View the United Liberty interview with Chris Horner by Matt Naugle

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.