Monday Notes: Card Check, States' Rights, Pork, Banking
Card Check: President Obama has finally publically called for ending secret-ballot union elections. Kentucky Club for Growth Chairman Warren Rogers has pointed out the dangers of this widely unpopular proposal.
Fighting the Stimulus: State legislatures around the country are fighting back against the overreaching federal stimulus spending package and its onerous and probably unconstitutional requirements on the states. This article rounds-up some of the efforts across the states, and mentions Kentucky Representative John Will Stacy's (D-Morgan, 2008 Rank #78)HCR 168, to "Declare state sovereignty over powers not given to the the federal government by the U. S. Constitution."
Pork: The Club for Growth lists the top ten porkers in the US Senate, and Kentucky's McConnell is #9:
SENATOR -- EARMARK $$
Byrd (D-WV) -- $122,804,900
Shelby (R-AL) -- $114,484,250
Bond (R-MO) -- $85,691,491
Feinstein (D-CA) -- $76,899,425
Cochran (R-MS) -- $75,908,475
Murkowski (R-AK) -- $74,000,750
Harkin (D-IA) -- $66,860,000
Inhofe (R-OK) -- $53,133,500
McConnell (R-KY) -- $51,186,000
Inouye (D-HI) -- $46,380,205
Banking Was Considerably Worse Off in Early 1990's: Economist Mark J. Perry points out on his blog that the banking crisis of the early 1990s involved more than 4x the number of problem banks and over 5x the amount of assets in those problem banks than the current crisis. View the charts.
