CEI Today: Windsorgate, Obama's energy agenda, and the tax-funded Tea Party smear

Washington Examiner Watchdog Article: New Windsorgate emails show EPA collaboration with media 'friendlies'

Officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have released a second batch of emails to and from former Administrator Lisa Jackson using the false name of "Richard Windsor" in apparent violation of federal transparency laws and regulations.

The new emails reveal Jackson and other top EPA officials devoting extensive attention to and cooperation with media, public officials and other "friendlies" whose coverage and commentary put the agency's policies and leadership in a positive light.

The new release also contains page after page of emails in which all or most of the information is redacted on the basis of an EPA claim that it was exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act's fifth, or "deliberative process," exemption.  > Read the Washington Examiner story

> Interview Christopher Horner

> See also: EPA releases thousands of heavily redacted emails from secret account

OBAMA ENERGY AGENDA - MYRON EBELL Globalwarming.org: State of the Union Raises Hope for America President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress on 12th February gives me new hope for America’s economic prospects.  The fact that a president who is so thoroughly misinformed and misguided has not been able to totally wreck our economy is evidence of the resilience of America’s institutions and of the entrepreneurial spirit of its citizens.  The President spent more time talking about energy and climate than any other issues.  He noted that greenhouse gas emissions (which he called “dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet”) have declined in the past four years, but did not mention that economic stagnation is one of the major causes.  Nor did he mention that global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase rapidly because of robust economic growth in China and other industrializing countries. > Read the full commentary > Interview Myron Ebell

TAX-FUNDED SMEAR OF TEA PARTY - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: NIH-Funded Conspiracy Theory Smearing Tea Party Gets Even Wackier Federal cancer research money funded a “laughable conspiracy-theory report smearing” the Tea Party as being created by the tobacco companies and the Koch brothers, which we earlier debunked. The left-wing academics that authored it have “received $7 million” from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. But the senior author of the “study,” Professor Stanton Glantz of the University of California at San Francisco, has now doubled down on his wacky conclusions. He told Fox News that the Tea Party ”pretty much originated with that smokers’ rights stuff.” As a sarcastic Rick Moran notes, if you doubt Glantz’s conspiracy theory, “It’s obvious you’ve missed the thousands of signs at Tea Party rallies calling for an end to tobacco taxes and setting up cigarette vending machines in grade schools.”   > Read the full commentary > Interview Hans Bader

More in the news... CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation Baltic Success Reveals The Folly Of Obama’s Doublespeak

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 Today: Pay disparity, Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Obama recess appointments, and bipartisan reg reform

PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR PAY DISPARITY - MATT PATTERSON

Ocean State Current: Public Employee Pay and Benefits Draw Historical Comparison with Corruption in Roman Empire

The incestuous relationship that exists between union officials and the elected officials they help put into office deserves greater attention and scrutiny, Matt Patterson, a labor policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in Washington, D.C., told the Current.

“The pay disparity between public and private sector workers is one of the great unreported injustices in America,” Patterson said.

“Government-worker unions help hire, make that hire, their own bosses: politicians, who are then unsurprisingly inclined to grant their benefactors generous wage and benefit packages with taxpayer dollars. It’s a little like the later stages of the Roman Empire, when the army would install as Emperor whichever general the soldiers thought would reward them the best. Then as now, such a bargain is a recipe for corruption and incompetence.”  > View the news story on Oceanstatecurrent.com

> Interview Matt Patterson

 

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

NLRB & OBAMA RECESS APPOINTMENTS - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: Appeals Court Hears Challenge To Obama Administration Power Grab Over NLRB This morning, the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in Noel Canning v. NLRB, which includes a challenge to President Obama’s “recess” appointment of two National Labor Relations Board members last January, when the Senate was technically in session, not in recess, and the purported “recess” was very brief, even in the eyes of those who claim there was a “recess.” The Obama administration takes an incredibly expansive interpretation of [the Recess Appointments Clause], arguing that he can appoint officials without the Senate’s consent, not only during any recess, no matter how brief (not just “the” recess between sessions), but also to fill any appointment, regardless of whether the vacancy arose during a recess. Past court rulings have stretched the reach of the Recess Appointments Clause, but never this far.> Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Hans Bader

REG REFORM - WAYNE CREWS Openmarket.org: Beyond The Fiscal Cliff, Bipartisan Regulatory Reform If I’m reading this right, the Progressive Policy Institute wants to roll back some over-regulation. It’s not clear how much, but it does seem to be a visible amount. The PPI’s February 2011 policy report, Reviving Jobs and Innovation: a Progressive Approach to Improving Regulation, calls for a Regulatory Improvement Commission to weed out regulations that have accumulated like “barnacles.” The breakthrough is the bipartisan recognition the federal rulemaking process knows how to add but not subtract.  > View the full commentary at Openmarket.org   > Interview Wayne Crews

More in the news... Victory For Small Business: Lawsuit-Spawning Disabilities Rights Treaty Blocked The Temperance Movement Is Alive And Well When Gridlock Is Good Anti-Immigration Group Repudiates Free Market Principles If You Can’t Beat Him, Join Together

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.

RGA: Maggie Hassan Balanced the Budget on the Backs of Taxpayers

The Republican Governors Association launched a new ad focused on the tax and fee hikes Maggie Hassan pushed to balance New Hampshire’s budget. Visit www.HassanTaxHikes.com to watch the ad.

“Maggie Hassan likes to talk about balancing the state budget, but she rarely tells the whole story,” said RGA communications director Mike Schrimpf. “The truth is Maggie Hassan used the budget bill to fight for 33 tax and fee hikes in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression, even increasing taxes on small businesses struggling to survive.”

“Maggie Hassan isn’t being completely honest with the voters about what she would do as governor either,” Schrimpf continued. “Despite raising taxes and fees by $300 million the last time she held office, Maggie Hassan is eyeing more tax hikes.”

“Maggie Hassan’s record exposes her campaign rhetoric as nothing more than political posturing. The fact is Maggie Hassan believes in higher taxes,” Schrimpf concluded. 

AFPNH - Taxpayers May Get Stuck with $13,000 Bill from Obama Campaign!

Taxpayers in several Southern NH towns will pay a total of $13,000 for costs incurred during the recent Obama campaign visit to Windham.

Analysis of the costs to provide additional security during the campaign visit reveals the “bill” to each town is as follows:

Derry - $2,233.21

Hudson - $397.02

Pelham - $794.03

Salem - $1,588.06

Windham - $5,409.58

This does not include the costs incurred by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department or the NHSP.

Now the Board of Selectmen in these towns must find ways to funnel your hard-earned taxpayer money around in the budget to pay for this purely political visit! Think of how much you pay annually in property taxes and then contact your selectmen to let them know you are not ok with those funds being used for any political stop!

The town of Windham will be the first to tackle this issue at their meeting this Monday, August 27.

I encourage you to call the Windham Board of Selectmen using the contact information below and tell them you don’t think taxpayer dollars should be used for political visits!

Bruce Breton, Chairman

Ross McLeod, Vice Chairman - 603-303-4504

Kathleen DiFruscia - 603-458-5141

Phil Lochiatto - 603-595-6559

Roger Hohenberger - 603-432-9415

This is an issue that affects taxpayers across NH! Even if you are not a resident of Windham, I encourage you to contact the Board of Selectmen and let them know that you don’t think taxpayer resources should pay for President Obama’s campaign stop!

As you may recall, the town of Durham played host to a similar stop for the President’s re-election campaign in late June and has yet to be reimbursed for the $12,998.28 in expenses they incurred to provide additional security for the visit. 

A lot of time remains until the November elections. During that time, there will likely be additional stops by campaigns in the swing state of NH. The next town to be billed by the Obama campaign could be yours! Contact the Windham Board of Selectmen today and put a stop to this!

Sincerely,

Corey R. Lewandowski
State Director
Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire

P.S. Please CLICK HERE to donate to our efforts.

NH House Leaders Comment on Ruling Requiring Local Government Center Repay Taxpayers $52 Million

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien and House Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker today offered the following comments in response to news yesterday evening that the Local Government Center (LGC) has been ordered to rebate taxpayers over $52 million in excess payments.  A hearings officer ruled that LGC overcharged taxpayers for insurance products over the past decade and must repay those funds and reorganize its insurance risk pools to be in compliance with state and federal law, or lose its tax and regulatory exemption under RSA 5-B.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“This ruling is a significant victory for the hardworking property taxpayers across the state.  By overcharging communities across New Hampshire for insurance products, LGC artificially increased tax rates for its member communities.  This ruling should mean a one-time tax rate reduction through this payment, as well as lower rates in the long term, as LGC brings the rates it charges its members more in line with actual costs.  I commend the hard work of Secretary Bill Gardner and the Bureau of Securities Regulation for achieving this important taxpayer win.”

House Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker

“This ruling is an important step to provide property tax relief for the many communities that participate in the LGC.  However, we need to do more to bring structural reform to the quasi-public, pooled risk management programs.  It certainly is disappointing that the House and Senate were unable to come to an agreement on the changes necessary to update our state laws in this session, but we will continue to our efforts next year to bring oversight and accountability to these taxpayer funded groups.”