If passed, EFCA would impose mandatory, binding arbitration by government bureaucrats in the National Labor Relations Board if employers and union organizers cannot reach an agreement.

Once a worksite is unionized through the elimination of the secret ballot, if the employer and union don’t agree to terms in just over three months, a federally appointed arbitrator would impose wages, benefits, hours of work, and other terms and conditions of employment on both the employees and employer.

And what about the rights of the worker? Workers, who didn’t vote on the formation of the union to begin with and lost their right to participate in a secret-ballot election, would now have a contract thrust upon them without their vote or consent.

And the employer? Within days of the union’s formation, the small-business owner would need to find and hire a labor lawyer to attend to the contract negotiations, whether he or she can afford it or not.

Last November, then Senator Obama got 61 percent of the vote, clearly a blue state by the current method of coloring things. But in May, stopping taxing and spending in Sacramento got 64 percent of the vote and gave us an example of the great challenge facing the Republican Party. Think about this, 64 percent of the people of California said Sacramento is such a mess they rejected raising taxes and raising spending. They wanted fundamental change in Sacramento.
And..
This vote is the second great signal that the American people are getting fed up with corrupt politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, greedy interests and incompetent, destructive government.
The elites ridiculed or ignored the first harbinger of rebellion, the recent tea parties. While it will be harder to ignore this massive anti-tax, anti-spending vote, they will attempt to do just that.

If China gets it, why don’t we?  From Reuters:  “China paper urges new currency order after ‘financial tsunami’” 

Threatened by a "financial tsunami," the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Wednesday. 

If that’s not enough of a wakeup call, try this:

"The eruption of the U.S. sub-prime crisis has exposed massive loopholes in the United States' financial oversight and supervision," writes the commentator, Shi Jianxun.
"The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States."

Can you imagine a world where the United States of America is not the dominant currency?  Not the central hub of finance and capital?  Not the most powerful economy in the world?  The Chinese apparently can, and they have just enough economic clout to begin to make that happen.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  We do not need to continue spending ourselves into oblivion. 

Newt has authored a few pieces on this topic that are essential reading.  They detail where we are, how we got here, and offer long-term solutions to our biggest economic woes.  As we approach Solutions Day 2008, give them a read and get up to speed!  Your country needs you now more than ever.
 
Get Politicians Out of the Economy: Recipe for Sound Economic Growth
Before D.C. Gets Our Money, It Owes Us Some Answers

All right class, settle down and pay attention.  This information will be on the test.

An SFGate.com editorial entitled A Hard Number on Dropouts examines the quiet release this week of new high school dropout numbers for California, and the results are shocking:

• 24.2% of all California students who enter high school do not graduate
• 41.6% of black students who enter high school do not receive a diploma
• 30.3% of Latino students never wear a cap and gown.
  

Those numbers are appalling and inexcusable, but not a single bureaucrat will ever lose his or her job as a result of this study.  Unfortunately, we live in an age where, as Newt has explained, the bureaucracy has decided that its primary duty is to deliver paychecks instead of an education, and it is stunningly efficient at delivering paychecks. 

California has failed these children, sentencing them to a lifetime of less: less income, less opportunity, less ability.

A very important component of this article concerns the use of metrics.  Before using this new method to accurately measure the dropout rate, the number was conveniently assumed to be half of what it actually is.  

Until this week, the state had set the dropout number at 13.9 percent. This figure was considered an educated guess because schools undercounted to deflect criticism, official records were haphazard, and other educators computed their own numbers that were upward of 30 percent.

The new rate was created via a nine-digit ID number that stuck with each student through family moves, school switches and other changes that were hard to track in the past. This identifier could have tremendous use in understanding why teens leave school, the worth of dropout prevention programs or where extra money or reform energy should be spent. State schools chief Jack O'Connell, who announced the statewide numbers, should keep at it.

Using metrics to discover which kids are dropping out, and why, are very important steps, but if California only uses these results as a justification to spend money, they would be missing the point.  Metrics are not only good at measuring failures, they are excellent for measuring success.  Now that California has a grasp on the severity of this problem they should set a goal for improvement and choose metrics to measure their success in reaching that goal, so they can just as easily see that their reform money is well spent.  If the numbers indicate they are still failing, then the effort can be changed to reflect the new data, in a continuous effort toward improvement.  Do this, and society benefits greatly.

Parents already use a natural system of metrics when choosing to send their children to private or charter schools.  When parents get involved in their child's education, shopping for schools and interviewing teachers, it is a great example of metrics in action.  With stellar graduation rates and very high numbers of kids who go on to college after high school, alternative education runs rings around the public school system, and when mom and dad see better grades and a smiling student,  they know their money is being well spent. 

If the bureaucrats truly want to fix the school system, they only have to examine the successes enjoyed by charter schools and parents fortunate enough to participate in voucher programs.  We cannot afford to give up on a 24.2% of our population.You may apply for extra credit by clicking the Comment button below.

Class dismissed.
 

Augmenting the results of an American Solutions poll (69% of Americans think the income tax system is unfair), a timely and convincing survey released by Rasmussen Reports (America's Best Days) notes that "62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes.  The internals are even more positive:

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of politically moderate voters prefer smaller government.  A separate survey found that most adults (56%) are worried that the next president will raise taxes too much. 

Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters think American society is generally fair and decent. Twenty-seven percent (27%) think it is unfair and discriminatory. Those numbers have become slightly more positive over the past month.

Three quarters of voters (75%) think people who move to America from other countries should adopt the nation's culture. Just 13% think they should maintain their home country's culture.

Forty-three percent (43%) of voters think the nation's allies should do what the United States wants more often. Last month, 47% held that view. Twenty-eight percent (28%) think the U.S. should do what the allies want more often. A related survey found that most voters say bringing the troops home from Iraq should be a higher priority than winning the war.

Finally, nearly half of voters (47%) say American's best days have come and gone. That number has not changed since last month. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of voters think the nation's best days are still to come.

For conservatives, this survey confirms that either the message of Goldwater, Reagan, and Gingrich has resonated with the American people, or that a lot of people grew up reading National Review.  It confirms the research of American Solutions, and seemingly repudiates the viewpoint of the far left, who generally believe we can tax ourselves into prosperity.

That people think bringing the troops home is a higher priority than winning the war could be a sign of the overwhelming negative journalism regarding the failures in Iraq, or the underwhelming reporting of the successes our troops have achieved.  We know that people believe that it is important to defeat our enemies from research done by American Solutions, and Rasmussen research also shows that, of people who think victory is important, "victory is at least somewhat likely if McCain is elected."    For the record, 52% of men surveyed believe that victory is, indeed, the best course of action, while two thirds of women wanted the troops to come home.

Lastly, if 47% of Americans believe our best days are gone, is that a reflection of their lost faith in government, or a sign of the times?  Or both?  As our problems mount (debt - economy - foreign relations - immigration), and our government fails to reform itself (or seriously address those issues in a meaningful way), do people become cynical?  If people are so clear in their beliefs, why is our government so divided on these same issues?  Could this explain the 13% approval rating of congress?

How long before we insist that our elected officials begin to implement real change?  Or will we have to implement a policy of really changing our representatives?  What do you think?

A fun look at education in America:  It's almost that time of year again, when the big, yellow buses are put away for the summer and kids trade their pencils for popsicles, Pixie Stix, and.....  books.  That's right, mom and dad, your kids have likely been assigned books to read over the summer, so don't let them fritter all their time away catching frogs and playing with dogs, or sitting around the house like bumps on logs.

Many states release their reading lists via the World Wide Web these days, and it is always instructive (pun intended) to take a peek at what the kids you'll soon see running around the mall are supposed to be reading.  From the  Indiana Department of Education's website   we can see that while times may have changed, a lot of the titles we read for school really haven't.  The Ugly Duckling, by Hans Christian Anderson is still there, along with a few contemporary titles like Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, both for the kindergarten through second grades. 

The middle school kids can relax with Jessamyn West's classic, Friendly Persuasion, or walk the streets of revolutionary Boston with Esther Hoskin Forbes' powerful Johnny Tremain.  Of course, what 8^th grader's summer would be complete without reading The Hobbit, or The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe?  Oh, to be a kid again.

The high school kids have it a little tougher, but oh what treasures abound!  The old standbys are there, like The Scarlet Letter, A Tale of TwoCitiesor Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, along with some of the best works of William Shakespeare and Herman Melville.  Wasn't it Shakespeare that wrote, "If you prick me, do I not bleed?  If you overload me with reading, do I not procrastinate?  Nay!  I read, for it soothes the soul..." or something like that.

Of course, you might also consider swinging by the Books By Newt link to pick up something for yourself.  Newt has writen some exceptional books on topics ranging from American and world history, to politics, religion, and the environment.  A good education is a well-rounded education, after all, and do we ever truly stop learning? 

Class dismissed.

A lot, apparently.

For those whose heads are still spinning in sync with the spiraling gas and oil prices, here’s an article from Forbes.com entitled STRANGE BEHAVIORby Christopher Helman.   He makes his way through the broader issues, but be sure to read the section regarding how China subsidizes the price of fuel, and the results.  A snippet of the article:

“Even at $3.50 a gallon, fuel makes up just a fraction of car ownership costs. The U.S. Dept of Transportation figures that insurance, license, registration, taxes, depreciation and finance charges on the average car come to $5,600 a year. Gas to drive an average 15,000 miles a year will set you back only $2,300. That makes gassing up just 29% of the total cost of driving.”

It’s interesting to think that the other costs, most of them government related, are more than twice the price of gas.  Maybe we’re complaining about the wrong thing here?  Perhaps a more efficient government could lower vehicle costs more than enough to make up for the rising price of fuel?

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With one of the world’s best “geek” smiles, Claudine Beaumont posted an article regarding the ever-changing world of laptops, hard drives, online software, and the ubiquity of wireless in the Telegraph.co.uk article “Hard drives are drifting into the cloud,” which is most likely the British version of “going the way of the dodo.”  As smaller, lighter, faster compact flash drives come of age, combined with managed online storage, the way we store data will eventually change.  Writes Claudine:

“Rather than having to install Microsoft Office on your computer, along with all the letters, spreadsheets and presentations you might create, you instead write and edit online, as is the case with programs such as Zoho and Google Docs; your entire music collection could be stored on the web instead of your computer, giving you the chance to listen to it on any computer, anywhere in the world; and even your emails, your work and social calendar, your contacts and address book could all be freed from the shackles of a single hard drive, and allowed to float freely online, willing to answer your beck and call whenever you need them. Everything is stored remotely, yet is accessible immediately via the internet.”

If technology such as this were employed in non-sensitive government agencies (federal and state), it could reduce the burden for large equipment purchases (file servers and IT personnel) and expensive software packages.  Since the information would be completely location independent, workers could move around more freely and be more efficient.

That sounds like progress, so long as the security measures are up to snuff.  If our secrets to efficient, effective government were to get out to the rest of the world, we might have to stop making fun of France...

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While there can be no doubt that our economy lacks the impressive strength it had just a few years ago, it managed to eke out a growth rate of 0.6% in the first quarter, according to government released numbers at the end of April.  A review of the day’s headlines (links below) show concern in the media that, despite this seemingly good news, there may be fundamental problems with our economic engine of commerce that are more noteworthy:

US economy avoids outright contraction
Fed cuts key interest rate as economy crawls
Fed cuts rates as economy slumps, hoping to stop recession
Low spending is taking toll on the economy
Economy grows by only .6 perc ent in first quarter

One thing that is apparent: a good majority of our economic woes are self-inflicted.  Our government is bloated and inefficient, our energy policy is a large portion of the rising price of gas, and consumers are being hit with higher prices for goods and services.  Money redirected towards higher gas prices and other commodities whose price is on the rise is money taken away from movie theaters and restaurants, big-box stores, or new car purchases.   While costs are rising rapidly, wages are slower to respond.

State and local governments are also feeling the pinch from a drop in tax revenue generated by real estate as the housing market reaches for a distant, elusive bottom.  With the housing market in a slump and growing pockets of unemployment spreading, those states hardest hit (California and Florida come to mind) find it difficult to find the money to continue to operate without cutting vital services or incurring debt.  There are proposals being offered to raise taxes to compensate for these budget shortfalls, which would be devastating to a citizenry already feeling the pinch.

But there is no reason to panic.  All of our problems are reversible, as we saw after the 9/11 attacks.  If our government would simply act as it did then to lower taxes, to put money in the hands of individuals and let them spend it to grow our economy, America would be on a new path to prosperity in short order.  It works every time it is tried.  Bureaucrats are doing some of these things, but at the typical snail's pace of a broken system that cannot even pay its own bills with its own money.

For now, it looks like we’ll have to settle for a government handout (tax rebates), lower interest rates and election year finger pointing.  In the World that Works, wouldn’t it be better to have an active, engaged government taking responsible action to curb its own spending, to increase the supply of domestic energy, and to support our sagging currency?  Rather than multi-billion dollar bailouts, wouldn’t it make more sense to simplify our tax code and regulatory burden, freeing up the market to move and expand us out of this slump?  Good fiscal policy, combined with mature (not partisan) representation would take us much closer to the desires of the American people, and a solvent economy.  What do you think?

Forbes
November 15, 2007

by Peter Ferrara
 
"How important is it for the president and Congress to address the issue of Social Security in the next few years?" When recently polled on this question, a shocking 96% of the American people said it was important, with 86% saying very important. Only 2% said it was not important. Just about everyone in Washington is completely out of touch with the American people on this issue.
 
This result comes from voluminous polling data released this week by Newt Gingrich. The polling was conducted by six different major firms over recent months for American Solutions, the new organization Gingrich leads. The focus here is on the results for Social Security.
 
Another question asked, "Do you agree or disagree that the current Social Security system is broken and if it isn't reformed, future generations will no longer have it as a safety net for retirement?" Some 80% agreed, including majorities of two-thirds or more for every age group. Only 19% disagreed.
 
After describing a reform proposal similar to the bill introduced in Congress last year by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., which allowed workers to substitute personal accounts for at least part of their future Social Security benefits, two-thirds of those polled supported the plan, with a slightly larger number favoring allowing workers the freedom to choose such personal accounts.
 
Two-thirds also favored such a personal account option with a federal guarantee that the worker's retirement benefits would be at least as high as Social Security would pay them in the future under current law. This would maintain the current Social Security safety net in full. Such a federal guarantee was included in the Ryan-Sununu bill. It works because the market investment returns that the personal accounts would earn would be so much higher than Social Security even promises, let alone what it can pay.
 
President Bush failed completely in trying to win enactment of personal accounts for Social Security in his second term. For over 10 years now, numerous polls have shown that nearly two-thirds of the public supported a personal account option for Social Security, just as Gingrich's polls found. And over that period, real world candidates in real world elections who have advocated such a personal account option have been overwhelmingly successful.
 
Just about everyone in Washington who discusses Social Security these days starts with the assumption that the public rejected personal accounts when Bush sought to enact them. But the truth is that personal accounts for Social Security have long been a broadly popular idea, and continue to be. With a couple of exceptions, it is every other policy option for Social Security that is overwhelmingly opposed by the public.
 
Bush's mistake was to combine the broadly popular personal accounts with these other detested policy options for cutting future promised benefits or raising taxes, which he insisted on "putting on the table" after he was reelected. His advisers told him that was the way to get something through Congress. But it just took the focus off of all of the enormous benefits for working people that would be produced by personal accounts, and confused the public, leaving the President with no grassroots support. By the fall of 2005, polls were showing that barely a quarter of the public supported "the President's plan" on Social Security.
 
President Bush, in fact, never even offered the public a specific proposal for personal accounts. But in September 2005, he went on national television to announce support for something called “progressive price indexing.” That idea would change the basic Social Security benefit formula so that over time the future promised benefits of everyone earning over $25,000 per year would be cut by close to 40%.
 
Eventually it would push the effective rate of return promised by Social Security into the negative range for everyone earning more than $25,000 a year as well. The percentage of pre-retirement income replaced by Social Security benefits for these workers would decline each and every year in perpetuity!
 
The president was told by his staff that Democrats would support personal accounts if only he would support this progressive price indexing plan. But not one elected Democrat has risen to support either since the president followed this advice. The failure of Social Security reform was not due to personal accounts, but to the confusion on the issue exhibited by President Bush and his staff.

Vivek Wadhwa in Business Week tackles the tough question of how to prevent visa fraud without discouraging highly skilled workers from coming to the U.S. 

Unlike many of the problems facing the U.S., this one isn't hard to fix. All we need to do is increase the number of visas that are available for international students who get job offers from U.S. companies. An even better solution is to offer these students permanent-resident visas rather than H-1Bs. In the new global landscape, we need the world's best talent on our side.

Read More

What do you think?

David Freddoso writes at NRO about a recent fight in the Michigan legislature over a proposal to raise taxes in order to close the state's budget deficit:

"Democrats, who hold a 58-52 majority in the state House of Representatives, are hell-bent on raising taxes by $1.2 billion in order to cover a projected $1.7 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year. If they succeed, the measure will become law. But House Democratic leaders cannot convince enough of their own members to support their own tax hike. They know there are consequences to such a vote, and they want Republicans to bail them out politically by supporting their tax hike.

...

Michigan has now lost net jobs two years in a row. Its unemployment rate is a staggering 7.2 percent, the highest in the nation (only Mississippi comes close with 6.7 percent). Between June and July, the state lost 20,000 jobs. It has lost 70,000 since July of last year. Michigan also ranks third in home foreclosures, with almost 14,000 new filings in July."

The Mackinac Center has a list of budget cuts that would close the $1.9 billion deficit here.  Raising taxes has been tried again and again in Michigan- yet the economy continues in a recession.  What can turn Michigan around?

Newt will be speaking in Michigan this weekend at Mackinac Island on the topic of moving forward to a "New Michigan" and the solutions required to do so.  Check newt.org for more details about the speech.

The Mises Institute has a profile of the popularity of homeschooling:

"Above all, the merit of homeschooling is that it allows for experimentation, flexibility, and trial and error. Here is the great contrast with state-provided education. As with all systems hammered out by bureaucracies, public schools get stuck in a rut, perpetuate failures, respond slowly to changing times, and resist all reforms. Errors are not localized and contained, but all consuming and system wide. It's bad enough when such a system is used to govern labor contracts or postal service; it is a tragic loss when it is used to manage kids' minds."

It's not surprising to see parents seeking new avenues for their children's education when too often today bureaucracies fail our children.  Against entrenched union bureaucracies, many parents simply cannot create meaningful change.  One example of public school failure is Detroit, which in the past few years has had as few as 22% of its high school students graduating on time.  Find out more about failures, as well as solutions, here.