The Living Wage Illusion

By David Nace

Like so many other concepts promoted by the left, self-proclaimed progressives and their allies in organized labor have used the term “living wage” to mislead the public and justify government intervention in this case on behalf of organized labor.  While the term “living wage” evokes sympathy and sounds innocuous, the real objective of the “living wage” in the eyes of organized labor is to use the coercive power of the government to unionize millions of new workers at the expense of the taxpayer and the American economy.

Progressives utilize government intervention to enable workers to receive far more than market value for their services through labor union coercion and collectivism.  The “living wage” concept is closely related to the Marxist theory of surplus labor.  Marx used surplus labor theory to create class envy and create the illusion that workers could never receive the fair value of their efforts.  He used this concept to justify a violent overthrow of capitalism and replacement with worker run communism.  However under communism, workers were constrained to lives of misery in support of Communist Party officials.

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Capitol South 89

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Slaughter Solution is Anti-Democratic, Risky for Dems

By Chris Slavens

The first half of March was marked by a renewed Democratic effort to ram some kind—any kind—of health-care reform down the throats of we, the people, as the ruling party worked to meet President Obama’s meaningless March 18 deadline, the most recent in a string of health-care deadlines that began last year. Artificial deadlines come and go, while the debate goes on.

The voters aren’t buying it. New Rasmussen polls indicate that 57% predict the current plan will “hurt the U.S. economy,” while 55% think Congress should scrap it and start from scratch. This is one of two reasons why House Democrats are considering pushing ahead with the unpopular legislation by resorting to the aptly-named “Slaughter Solution,” which would allow them to “pass” the Senate’s health-care bill without actually voting on it. This option appeals to Democrats who are worried about the November election; they would be able to tell constituents that they did not, in fact, vote for (or against) the legislation.

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Government Spending Does Not Drive the Economy

By Josiah Schmidt

As disturbing new reports come out this month showing that American reliance on government aid is at an all-time high, economists are attempting to quell concerns that the federal spending binge has gone too far.  Government spending, they say, drives the economy, and the stimulus bills have saved the economy from dipping into depression.  These economists have erred tragically, and their prescription will not only fail to prevent, but will actually help ensure that this recession worsens.

It is saving, and not spending, that drives the economy.  By consuming less than we produce, we can plough those savings into the production of factories, machines and technology, which will allow us to produce (and therefore consume) even more in the future.

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Quit Smoking

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What the Tea Party Movement Is Not — A Short Primer

By David Bozeman

Columnist Kathleen Parker recently called tea partiers “the noisiest sector of the GOP.”  She chided members of the movement for attacking newly elected Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, who voted with Democrats in supporting a cloture motion on their $15 billion jobs bill.  Brown, who conceded that the bill was imperfect, added that he hoped his vote would be “a strong step toward restoring bipartisanship in Washington.”

Parker did kindly note that most tea partiers are “not weird.”  Kathleen, you are too kind.  Such obligatory politeness softens the blow to come (and preserves her stature — such as it is — as a conservative columnist).  She proceeds with:  “But some are at risk of flying off into the blood-red zone of wing nuttery” and “the growing libertarian strain [within the party] combined with an anti-RINO (Republican In Name Only) attitude is making life increasingly difficult for moderates such as Brown.”

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GOP Should Learn from Ron Paul’s CPAC Victory

By Chris Slavens

In the days following Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s decisive win over former governors Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, left-leaning networks, predictably, treated the event as further proof that tea party activists are taking over the Republican Party. That was to be expected. Liberal smear tactics, particularly those which rely on outright lies, are never justified; however, their derisive reaction to the poll should be interpreted as a nerve struck. A televised view of a crowd of young, enthused conservatives is bound to disturb the opposition.

But conservative networks—one in particular—have no excuse for their after-the-fact “spin” treatment of the event, portraying it as marginal and irrelevant to the 2012 presidential race. One commentator conveniently neglected to mention that Paul is a Republican, instead referring to him as a “libertarian.”

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