Ben Bernanke. Contra Moody’s and Goldman, the Fed chair isn’t sweating the House GOP’s hopes to slice $61 billion in spending this year. “Two percent [reduction in growth] is enormous and would be based on $300 billion in cuts,” Bernanke told the panel in his semiannual report to Congress. “Sixty billion to $100 billion isn’t [...]
Florida’s high-speed rail saga continues: Two Florida senators just sued Gov. Rick Scott in the Florida Supreme Court to stop him from killing a Tampa-Orlando bullet train. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, and Republican Thad Altman of Melbourne said Scott had over-stepped his authority by rejecting the project, which received a green light after a December 2009 [...]
A national Gallup survey released last week suggested that a majority of Americans oppose measures like the one proposed in Wisconsin that would restrict collective bargaining rights for public employees. A New York Times/CBS News poll out today produces almost identical results: 60% say they oppose curtailing bargaining rights of public workers, while 33% favor [...]
Why Obama may do it, and why the administration may not be ready for what follows, here.
Ezra Klein seems to be edging toward a more balanced view of teachers unions. He remains pro-union, but acknowledges that union work rules–like the implacable support for seniority rights–can sometimes be counterproductive. In fact, it will be extremely counterproductive if the coming round of teacher layoffs are conducted on a last-hired/first-fired basis. Ezra semi-praises AFT [...]
