In the spirit of encouraging free markets, limited government, and individual liberty, we at CEI present the following for your viewing pleasure:
January 2012
OPINION
PAUL BUTLER: “Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No”
“IF you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote ‘not guilty’ — even if you think the defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a juror, you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer. The information I have just provided — about a constitutional doctrine called “jury nullification” — is absolutely true. But if federal prosecutors in New York get their way, telling the truth to potential jurors could result in a six-month prison sentence.”
GEORGE F. WILL: “Gingrich, the Anti-Conservative”
“When discussing his amazingness, Newt Gingrich sometimes exaggerates somewhat, as when, discussing Bosnia and Washington, D.C., street violence, he said, ‘People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz’ [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 16, 1994]. What primarily stands between us and misrule, however, is the Constitution, buttressed by an independent judiciary. But Gingrich’s hunger for distinction has surely been slaked by his full-throated attack on such a judiciary. He is the first presidential candidate to propose a thorough assault on the rule of law.”
DAVE WEIGEL: “Ron Paul is Blowing It On the Newsletter Story”
“Nearly five years ago, the New York Sun criticized Ron Paul for an item in his old newsletter, the Ron Paul Political Survival Report, which called ‘the Israeli government’ the ‘most powerful lobby of the bad sort.’ I asked Paul about the item. ‘I’d have to have you show to me that I wrote it because that doesn’t sound like my language, and in campaigns, some things get into newspapers that aren’t actually correct,’ he said. ‘There were some things in a newsletter that wasn’t actually written by me, so sometimes that gets a bit of distortion.’”
Politicians usually love infrastructure projects. But politics has delayed the privately owned Keystone XL pipeline’s construction for three years now. Research Associate David Bier explains the reasons behind the delay, and points out that the pipeline’s real benefit isn’t the jobs it would create; it’s the wealth and value it would create.
With holiday cooking on most of our minds this week, it’s worth celebrating some good news about one of the most beleaguered food ingredients: table salt. For years, consumers and food producers have been bombarded with demands to reduce sodium consumption by nanny state regulators hoping to improve public health, even though the evidence linking high sodium diets and serious health concerns has always been ambiguous at best. But this year alone, several major scientific studies have cast that link in even further doubt.
The folks over at the Salt Institute — the trade association representing salt producers and commercial users — are touting these results as “The Biggest Health & Nutrition Story of 2011.” ”In 2011, half a dozen medical studies quantified the health benefits of salt or revealed the significant risks of low-sodium diets, making it a year of vindication for this essential nutrient and the people who love it. … The latest data should raise fresh questions about the federal government’s effort to put all Americans on a low-salt diet that could do far more harm than good.”
This wasn’t surprising to us. For years, we at CEI have been pointing out that the belief that sodium consumption in the United States has reached extreme and unhealthy levels is mistaken. And, as more and more high-quality research has been conducted on this subject during the past 40 years, the link between high-sodium diets and negative health effects has become more tenuous, not more certain.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recommended a Tolerable Upper Intake Level of just 2,300 mg of sodium per day and an Adequate Intake of just 1,500 mg per day. And regulators are concerned that average sodium intake per person in the U.S. is approximately 3,300 mg per day. Yet decades of scaremongering have had little effect on consumer behavior, as sodium consumption has remained essentially flat since the 1950s. As my colleague Dan Compton wrote nearly two years ago, U.S. sodium consumption isn’t particularly high by global standards. And efforts to reduce the salt content in foods is typically frustrated by consumers who adjust their dietary intake by seeking out foods with more salt — even when they’re not aware that the salt content of the foods they’ve been eating has been reduced.
Minnesota State Senator Mike Parry (R-Waseca) recently caused a stir with strong accusations against Governor Mark Dayton. “It’s no secret that the labor unions helped buy the Governor’s Office for Mark Dayton… he began to return the favor, most recently by trying to help unionize some of Minnesota’s in-home, private child care providers,” said Parry in a fundraising letter.
Sen. Parry’s allegations elicited a strong reaction from Dayton, who called it “inaccurate and deeply offensive.” A review of the facts, however, shows that the real reason the governor is so upset: the truth hurts.
Unionizing Child Care Providers
Since 2005, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have been trying to organize child care providers Minnesota. Associated Press found that AFSCME wrote a $125,000 check to Gov. Dayton’s Recount Fund once restrictive campaign contribution limits ceased. Combined AFSCME and SEIU PACs contributed $14,000 to Dayton during his campaign. The Minnesota Family Council calculates that Big Labor stands to gain up to $3.3 million a year in dues from unionizing child care providers.
On November 15, Gov. Dayton issued Executive Order 11-31, calling an election to unionize all licensed, registered, and subsidized child care providers in the state. In defense of his order, the governor claimed that holding a union election would ensure that union membership would be “voluntary” and that child care providers not eligible to vote for unionization would be unaffected. Opponents countered that union dues will be compulsory and costs will rise.
For the most part, child care providers are self-employed. So how could they be unionized? Dayton and the unions have a simple solution: declare them state employees because they receive state aid to serve needy children. Under their view, anyone who receives any form of state aid qualifies as a state employee.
To push back against this power grab, on November 28, a group of 11 child care providers sued to block Dayton’s executive order, arguing that it violates state and federal laws. The National Labor Relations Act and Minnesota Labor Relations Act do not allow employers to form, join, or assist labor organizations.
The Minnesota Labor Relations Act indicates that a union cannot gain exclusive representation of workers, unless a majority of workers choose union representation. Dayton’s mandate blatantly violates that provision, as it excludes a majority of child care providers from the voting process. Only 4,300 government-subsidized providers will cast ballots, but a vote for unionization could also force the state’s 6,700 non-subsidized child care providers into a union.
As a result of the suit, Minnesota District Court Judge Dale Lindman issued an injunction to postpone the union election. He stated that laws must be passed by the legislature and remarked that the order “strikes me as being very harmful to the parties that are involved.”
However, Judge Lindman’s injunction has not dampened Governor Dayton’s commitment to unionize Minnesota child care providers. Gov. Dayton vowed to continue his effort to unionize child care providers and to challenge the court injunction.
As it stands now, child care in Minnesota is among the least affordable and most heavily subsidized in the nation. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies study shows it can cost up to $12,900 to care for one infant per year in Minnesota.
Becky Swanson, a child care provider for 18 years and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, commented, “Despite the talking points from the governor and union organizers, unionization will affect all childcare providers, but only a select group of providers is being allowed to vote. Since Minnesota is a ‘fair share’ state, non-members can still be required to pay a portion of union dues.” The concerns raised by child care providers have not been answered by either the governor or the unions.
As expected, the European Court for Justice — the EU’s highest court — has ruled that the EU’s plan to charge foreign airlines for their emissions through purchasing carbon permits complies with international law and doesn’t threaten foreign countries’ sovereignty.
As of January, aircraft landing or taking off from EU airports will be assessed carbon emission fees. (See yesterday’s OpenMarket for more background.) The carbon trading scheme is opposed by major economies, including the U.S., Japan, India, China, Brazil, Russia, and many others.
But that didn’t deter the EU or the high court. After all, the Court noted in its opinion, airlines can choose whether to use EU airports:
It is only if the operators of such aircraft choose to operate a commercial air route arriving at or departing from an airport situated in the EU that they are subject to the emissions trading scheme.
It has been reported that Canada and other countries will continue the battle through other channels, notably the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal.
OPINION
JORDAN WEISMANN: “Get Ready for Manufacturing’s Big Comeback”
“In the past year, the conversation about U.S. manufacturing has undergone a quiet but remarkable change. Gone is much of the doom and gloom about the death of American factories. Instead, many now seem certain that industry is due for a comeback here at home.”
JOHN B. TAYLOR: “Want Prosperity? Try Stable Tax Policy”
“The two-month payroll tax cut being debated in Washington reduces to the absurd the recent revival of short-term Keynesian stimulus programs. That such a temporary cut would stimulate the recovery and get employment growing defies common sense. ”
GROVER NORQUIST & PATRICK GLEASON: “Rethink Renewable Energy Mandates”
“Cap and trade failed in 2009, despite the fact that Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House. The recent United Nations summit produced an agreement that means little — with countries like Canada dropping off an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile, high unemployment and economic woes are drawing public attention from environmental issues.”
Comedian Louis C.K. once received a disturbing lesson in “fairness” from his children. As he tells the story in one of his stand-up specials, his daughter once accidentally broke one of her toys, and then demanded that Louis break her sibling’s toy “to make it fair.”
Wow. From the mouths of babes, a perfect example of how the impulse to “fairness” — seemingly so benign in theory — in practice so often leads to disaster.
Nature, of course, is not fair. It dispenses talent, intellect, and luck unequally amongst the populations of the world. As a result, some people will always end up with more than others. When government sets out to impose “fairness” on society, it is therefore faced with a dilemma. It is impossible to make some people smarter, luckier, more talented. It is equally impossible to take away those blessings from those who have inherited them. The only recourse for government then, is to destroy or confiscate the material rewards which so often accrue as a consequence of such qualities. Fairness to all, then, is really punishment for many.
OPINION
GENE HEALY: “Obama and Congress Bring the War on Terror to Your Doorstep”
“Last Thursday—which happened to be the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights—the Senate passed a defense bill that demonstrates just how cavalier Congress can be with our fundamental liberties. Given the opportunity to clarify existing law and confirm that American citizens are not subject to indefinite military detention at the order of the president—Congress punted.”
HOWARD LOVY: “DNA: It’s Not Just For the Living Anymore”
“To people who say that true nanomachines — those that assemble themselves from the bottom up — are impossible, the best answer true believers can give is simply to present their own existence as proof of concept. We are self-assembled out of simple building blocks.”
LEMLEY, LEVINE, & POST: “Don’t Break the Internet”
“Two bills now pending in Congress—the PROTECT IP Act of 2011 (Protect IP) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House—represent the latest legislative attempts to address a serious global problem: large-scale online copyright and trademark infringement. Although the bills differ in certain respects, they share an underlying approach and an enforcement philosophy that pose grave constitutional problems and that could have potentially disastrous consequences for the stability and security of the Internet’s addressing system, for the principle of interconnectivity that has helped drive the Internet’s extraordinary growth, and for free expression.”
Norway, a fully industrialized country and ranked first in the latest Human Development Index, a United Nations’ metric that tries to quantify the quality of life across countries, is suffering through a butter shortage, a common food staple and an important input in the food industry. Food shortages wouldn’t be out of place in places like Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and some poor Sub-Saharan nations; it is almost unfathomable that they occur in one of the most developed nations in the world.
Norwegian authorities seem puzzled by the shortage and subsequent rise in butter prices. They blame a new low-carb high-fat diet craze for the additional demand. Additionally, heavy rains during the summer affected grazing areas for cows, which resulted in reduced milk production. The shortage is especially alarming during the Christmas season, where many traditional recipes rely on significant amounts of the dairy product. Norwegians have actually resorted to churning their own butter, including a restaurant owner interviewed by The Wall Street Journal: “We have to [churn butter]. We can’t get hold of any butter, not any at all. And it’s right before Christmas, so we have a lot of customers. It’s really strange. It takes a lot of time since we use hand mixers.”
While the diet combined with unfavorable conditions for dairies has limited the amount of available domestic butter, it doesn’t address the biggest issue for the limited quantities of the good: trade regulations.
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