The Londoner

News that Michigan became the nation's 24th right-to-work state on Tuesday produced surprise in liberal and conservative circles alike. But this tectonic shift is no surprise to us. It's the result of nearly a quarter-century of advocacy that shows how the politically improbable can become politically inevitable. Unions ruled the legislature here for decades before free-market activists, the Mackinac Center's first president Lawrence Reed chief among them, began challenging their hold over the powers that be. Eventually, the tide began to turn, and in 1995 the Detroit Free Press, the state's largest newspaper, agreed to publish an op-ed by Mr. Reed asking, "Should workers be compelled to join a labor union to hold their jobs?" Over time, brave workers like UAW member Terry Bowman, president of Union Conservatives, stood up and demanded a choice. The West Michigan Policy Forum and Michigan Chamber of Commerce added their voices and influence to

ALTHOUGH America’s fiscal problems are among the worst in the rich world, its policymakers long took comfort that, when it came to demography, its outlook was one of the best. Because Americans have more babies and welcome more immigrants, they had more room to deal with the coming burden of pensions and health care for the elderly. But the savage recession of 2007-09 and its aftermath have not just deepened America’s fiscal hole; they may have diminished those demographic advantages. America’s fertility rate has been falling since 2007, as has net immigration. Compounding this, the share of the population that is active in the labour force has slipped, both because of ageing and because of the recession’s lingering effects. This means that although America’s population is still projected to be among the rich world’s fastest-growing, its edge is diminishing. On December 12th the Census Bureau reported that  America’s projected population would rise 27% to 400m by 2050.

The Times is  reporting today  that, if John Boehner and the White House can’t reach a deal on averting the fiscal cliff, the House GOP is considering passing a bill that would extend the middle-class Bush income tax cuts while enacting low tax rates (possibly even lower than the current rates) for unearned income like dividends, capital gains, and inheritances, and canceling the automatic defense cuts set to begin next year. Without knowing much more about it, this strikes me as a very savvy move for the GOP. The party’s big problem, as  Jonathan Chait has written , is that it has created a whole apparatus for preventing its members for voting for tax increases, whereas in this case the looming tax increases require no votes—simple inaction will result in massive tax hikes beginning on January 1. Chait refers to this as a Maginot Line—a seemingly formidable structure that opponents simply sidestep en route to wiping them out. What the GOP proposa

Four years ago she was beaten and bitter, and now she's practically a shoo-in for 2016. GOP contenders, take note Look at Hillary's shift from sore loser to next-in-line: the way for the GOP to succeed in beating Clinton is learn from her. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images Newt Gingrich 's declaration this week that "the Republican party today is incapable of competing" against Hillary Clinton should she run for president is, most of all, a statement about Newt Gingrich. That he made the pronouncement on NBC's Meet the Press was an indication of just how adrift his party is. The line is a testament to his genius for self-promotion and his ability to attach himself to prevailing winds. I've always presumed that Gingrich would be an excellent ambassador to his predicted lunar colony primarily because he only needs publicity, not oxygen, to breathe. But what does the quote say about Hillary Clinton? Not as much as

Republicans have a major Latino problem, but it didn’t cost them the 2012 election. According to a Fix review of election results, Mitt Romney would have needed to carry as much as 51 percent of the Hispanic vote in order to win the Electoral College — a number no Republican presidential candidate on record has been able to attain and isn’t really within the realm of possibility these days. Latinos did push President Obama over the top in several key states — including Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Pennsylvania — that he would have lost without them. (Obama also would have lost the popular vote without Latinos.) But it was a given that Obama was going to win a higher share of their votes; what mattered was the margin. And in order for Romney to have won the presidency, he would have needed to perform far better than any previous Republican presidential candidate. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks to the Hispanic Leadership Network in

By Katrina Trinko A s college costs rise rapidly in most places, Texas and Florida are trying to implement something that has become a radical notion: a degree that costs only $10,000. Texas governor Rick Perry announced this goal for his state last year. (Perry was inspired by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who had remarked that online learning ought to make it possible for students to pay just $2,000 per year for college.) In November, Florida governor Rick Scott announced that he, too, wanted to see state colleges offer bachelor’s degrees for $10,000 or less. In Texas, ten colleges have signed on (some of them working together in a partnership), while in Florida, twelve colleges — nearly half of the 23 four-year colleges in the Florida community-college system, which includes both two-year and four-year institutions — e

Union chants echoed off the Capitol dome before the Republican-controlled state Legislature's courageous vote on the right-to-work bill: "Whose house?" "Our house!" Not anymore. The Capitol now belongs to all the people of Michigan. For 60 years or so, labor unions have dominated policymaking and politics in this state. Even as their membership dwindled to a sliver of the work force — 17 percent — their stifling influence over Lansing kept Michigan from adopting the common-sense reforms that would have made it more competitive for jobs and investment. Competitiveness is what Gov. Rick Snyder is all about. His decision to lead the right-to-work push stemmed from his desire to give Michigan every advantage possible in competing with other states for economic development. It was not, as his critics charge, a capitulation to big money GOP interests or a hypocritical betrayal of his commitment to relentless positive action. The only hypocrisy at work

You hear a lot about openness and transparency—and the disinfecting power of sunlight—as keys to effective government. But let’s summon at least two cheers for the occasional usefulness of the backroom deal. T he most encouraging news in Washington in ages was the word that Barack Obama and John Boehner were talking—by themselves, and to each other —about how to avoid the series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could send the country over the so-called fiscal cliff. Boehner went to see the president at the White House last Sunday for their first solo meeting since the November election. It’s about time. Because it’s a truth universally understood—if not universally acknowledged—in the capital these days that absolutely nothing important gets done in public. If, as Emerson said, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” transparency has become the mortal enemy of legislative achievement. The fet

At first glance, the British bank HSBC’s agreement to pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe seems like very good news. It is the largest penalty ever imposed on a bank; the U.S. government accused HSBC of transferring funds “through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions.” Furthermore, the settlement is a “deferred-prosecution agreement,” which means that U.S. authorities can resume the case if HSBC does not strengthen internal oversight and avoid similar violations for the next five years. (Most settlements between big Wall Street firms and the U.S. government remove the threat of charges for the violations; the firms then make the same violations again a few years later .) Despite the impressive fine, the settlement still leaves much to worry about as regards Wall Street’s disproportionate power over the government. To begin with, while smaller companies’ executives  are (justly) head

By Steve Benen  -  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) school voucher scheme has been plagued by a series of problems, culminating in a legal defeat in a state court two weeks ago. But in a Brookings speech yesterday, the Republican governor said he still sees his plan as a national model . "I think there is a moral imperative that it's not right that only wealthy parents get to decide where their kids go to school," Jindal told an audience at Washington's Brookings Institution. [...] "To oppose school choice is to oppose equal opportunity for poor and disadvantaged students in America," he said. "What we are putting in motion in Louisiana can be done across the country." This is certainly standard rhetoric from the right. They're not trying to privatize public schools out of existence, the argument goes, they're simply trying to use tax dollars to provide new opportunities to "poor and dis

I t has largely gone unnoticed amidst the hullabaloo surrounding the fiscal cliff, but regardless of what happens with the cliff negotiations, taxes are going up next year. The president may be calling for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes by 2022 in exchange for not driving the country over the cliff, but that does not count Obamacare, which will impose an additional $1 trillion in new or increased taxes over the next ten years, a big portion of which take effect in 2013. For example, we’ve heard a great deal about President Obama’s demand that taxes go up for individuals earning $200,000 per year or families making more than $250,000. But under Obamacare, those families will already be hit with a 0.9 percent hike in the Medicare payroll tax on earnings over these thresholds starting January 1. Roughly 3 million Americans will end up paying more as a result of this hike, which is projected to raise $86 billion. And while $250,000 per year may seem like a great deal of money t

  Mr. President, it’s unbecoming for a columnist to beg, but since you’ve ruled out “ going constitutional ” on the debt limit, and CEOs won’t flex enough muscle to stop Republicans from using it for blackmail again, I’m down on my knees.  You simply have to enlist the press to generate a roar of protest against GOP hypocrisy and recklessness here — or else doom us to lurching painfully (and pathetically) from “fiscal cliff” to “debt cliff” for months. The good news is this can be done with an investment of a mere five minutes of your time. So here’s a plan. The linchpin of the Republican argument is that the debt limit represents their only leverage to curb your insatiable spending appetites — the only way to deny you a blank check that soaks the nation in debt. “We’re not going to let Obama borrow any more money .... until we fix this country from becoming Greece,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.c) in a typical

Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds." He Who Heals advocated "a more civil and honest public discourse" in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre. As usual, though, the White House has granted Big Labor bullies a permanent waiver from the lofty edicts it issues to everyone else. This week, menacing union goons unleashed threats, profanity and punches in Michigan, which is now poised to become a "right-to-work" state. Obama met the initial outbreak of violence with the same response he's given to every other union outbreak of violence under his reign: dead silence. On the floor of the Michigan legislature on Tuesday, Democratic state Rep. Douglas Geiss thundered: "We're going to pass something that will undo 100 years of labor relations, and there will be blood. There will be repercussions!" Geiss referenced th

Working families are taking to the streets, the shopping malls and to Lansing to protest the attempt to enact a law that conveys no rights and provides no work. The past few days of action are only the opening salvo in Michigan's civil war. It is a fight between billionaires who want to turn the Midwest into Canada's Mexico and working people trying to save Michigan's middle class. We didn't want this war, but Gov. Rick Snyder went ahead and provoked it. Knowing what would happen, he jammed through the Legislature a bill that will increase poverty, lower wages and weaken workplace democracy. Snyder and his fellow anti-worker Republicans know right to work for less will harm Michigan's working families. And they know most people know that. Small business owners are speaking out against this attack on their customers. They know lower wages for workers mean less business for them, and that they will go down with the communities crumbling around them.

Yesterday a landmark event happened in Michigan. The Wolverine State–which is not simply home of the United Auto Workers but in many respects is the birthplace of the modern labor movement–has become the 24th state to ban compulsory union fees. Workers will no longer be required to pay union fees as a condition of employment. And if history–and other states, like Indiana–is any guide, this action will not only grant workers freedom but also attract new businesses to Michigan. (Michigan desperately needs this, since it has the sixth-highest state jobless rate in America at 9.1  percent.) This move came after unions once again overshot, having tried to enshrine collective bargaining into the state constitution (through Proposition 2).   “Everybody has this image of Michigan as a labor state,” Bill Ballenger, the editor of Inside Michigan Politics, told  the New York Times . “But organized

Near the end of a column on the Michigan “right-to-work” coup, Jonathan Chait offers an important insight on why Republicans are willing and able to pull these sort of stunts: Last year, the Michigan director of Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing activist group, explained, “We fight these battles on taxes and regulation but really what we would like to see is to take the unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles.” Republicans understand full well that Michigan leans Democratic, and the GOP has total power at the moment, so its best use of that power is to crush one of the largest bastions of support for the opposing party. Obviously, one should always be suspicious of theories that attribute malicious will to power to the other side while absolving one’s own allies of the same. I don’t think Democrats abstain from this behavior (to anything like the degree the GOP employs it) because it’s made of angels. Rather, the Democ

Labor’s clout is in steep decline in the Middle West. In a move that was unimaginable just ten years ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a pair of “right-to-work” bills into law, dealing a serious blow to unions in one of the states that gave birth to the modern labor movement in America. The Wall Street Journal : Gov. Snyder’s willingness to sign the legislation—a reversal of his previous position that right to work was a divisive issue that he would prefer to avoid—highlights the diminution of union clout both in Michigan and nationally. The UAW once had more than one million members in the U.S., and as recently as 2004 had 654,000 active members. Now, after years of cuts by Detroit’s big auto makers and their parts makers, the UAW’s national membership is down to roughly 380,000 members, according to Labor Department filings. In Michigan, about 17.5% of workers were union members in 2011, according to Labor Department figures. Besides the realities o

Is mass migration from Mexico to the United States a thing of the past? At least for the moment, it is. Last May, the Pew Hispanic Center, in a study based on US and Mexican statistics, reported that net migration from Mexico to this country had fallen to zero from 2005 to 2010. Pew said 20,000 more people moved to Mexico from the United States than from there to here in those years. That’s a vivid contrast with the years 1995 to 2000, when net inflow from Mexico was 2.2 million people. Because there was net Mexican immigration until 2007, when the Great Recession began, it seems clear that there was net outmigration from 2007 to 2010, and that likely has continued in 2011 and 2012. There’s a widespread assumption that Mexican migration will resume when the US economy starts growing robustly again. But there’s reason to doubt it. Over the past few years, I have been working on a book on American migrations , internal and immigrant. I’ve found that over the ye

From the outside, it must appear that Washington is gripped by high drama as the country faces the daunting prospect of plunging over the fiscal cliff . Um, not exactly. We’re as bored as the rest of the country. People aren’t chatting about this at the coffee machine or arguing the angles over lunch. The cliff notes are just background noise, humming along at far lower volume than the roar that greeted Robert Griffin III ’s latest Redskins performance. It’s not just that the budget negotiations are far less sexy than, say, Kate Middleton having a baby or David Petraeus’s Gmail account . This is Beltway territory; we thrive on dull-as-dishwater debate s. And it’s not just that sophisticated news consumers have divined that the fiscal cliff isn’t really a cliff, that the country won’t plunge into a recession on Jan. 1 even if taxes go up and spending is slashed, as a compromise can always be hammered out in the following weeks. The real reason f