Time To Come Clean On Union Election Spending.

Last week, a federal judge struck down a new Federal Election Commission regulation that would have exempted certain nonprofit groups that advertise on political issues from revealing donors’ names. Those on the Left who naively believe that “secret money” is the root of all evil in American politics, and not merely a symptom of an overly powerful centralized government, were ecstatic. Among them was the New York Times editorial board, which called the Van Hollen v. FEC ruling “a win for clean elections.”

What went unmentioned in the press was that these same groups were spending “secret money” right up through 2002, when McCain-Feingold became law. They have historically been afforded donor privacy because of a 1958 Supreme Court decision that protected NAACP donors from harassment by racist Alabama authorities. There is, however, a serious legal argument that this civil rights precedent does not directly apply, and that transparency should prevail over custom. But if it brings such joy to their hearts to reveal the names of private citizens who support Planned Parenthood or Americans for Tax Reform, why do so many on the Left seem so disinterested in the more substantive campaign finance issues that pertain to organized labor?

Labor unions have long exercised disproportionate influence in the election process, and this disproportionality only grows as unions decline. The problem is not so much one of donors (unions have a captive audience of those) but of political spending. No one knows what unions spend on elections. Politifact, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, once attempted to fact-check claims about union political spending during the 2010 race. It was unable to come up with a concrete number because much of unions’ election money just isn’t reported.

Unions must disclose PAC contributions to candidates and party committees as well as their independent expenditures, but not the money they spend to persuade and organize their membership, register Democratic voters, and get out the vote on behalf of Democratic candidates. This is why the unions’ own boasts of their national political spending, often published in newspaper articles, significantly exceeds the amounts that can be traced through publicly available documents.

For an extreme case of potential influence, consider the United Auto Workers. The UAW has tens of billions of reasons to influence elections, having recently benefited from a large bailout. Although the union has lost nearly half of its members since 2001, its March 30 Department of Labor filing reveals that it still maintains more than $1 billion in assets — four times its annual operating budget and roughly 10 times the amount held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The UAW is not likely to spend all of that on elections this year — perhaps it won’t spend anything. But under the Citizens United precedent, it can spend money on politics from its general fund, and much of that would go undisclosed.

We support transparency, and with the Van Hollen ruling the FEC might now develop a better balance to guarantee it in campaign finance. But it is beyond us why one cannot get a simple and honest accounting of organized labor’s influence on elections.  Source/Credit: Editorial Staff for the Washington Examiner.

The Unemployment Numbers Facade Continues.

Unemployment nationwide edged down to 8.2% in March from 8.3% in February, but the stagnant economy generated just 120,000 new jobs, which is by far the weakest showing in five months, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More workers, but less hours for those that are employed. The average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hours to 34.5 hours in March. The manufacturing workweek fell by 0.3 hours to 40.7 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 3.4 hours.

This means workers aren’t making more money, and therefore cannot spend what they do not make.. In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents, or 0.2%, to $23.39. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.1%.

There were 12.7 million unemployed people nationwide in March. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was unchanged at 5.3 million in March. Those people accounted for 42.5% of the unemployed.

Private-sector jobs gains were strongest in manufacturing (+37,000 jobs), leisure and hospitality (+37,000 jobs), professional and business services (+31,000 jobs) and health care (+26,000 jobs.)

The weakest sector was retail trade, where employment fell by 34,000 in March.

In March, 2.4 million people were considered “marginally attached” to the labor force, a figure essentially unchanged from a year ago. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.  So what does all this mean?  What is means in reality is that true unemployment remains in the 23% range.

The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.

The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

Reporting 8.3% Unemployment Is Fantastical Propaganda.

The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. Yup, they just don’t exist.  True unemployment is approximately 24%. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.  

The U-3 unemployment rate (8.3%) is the monthly headline number you’ve seen bantered about today. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. That number is roughly 15%.  Below are some stats and facts that certainly demonstrate fragile state of our economy.  Very fragile.

 

• Median household income in the United States is down 7.8 percent since December 2007 after adjusting for inflation.
• There are 5.6 million less jobs than there was when the last recession began back in late 2007.
• The U.S. government says that the number of Americans “not in the labor force” rose by 17.9 million between 2000 and 2011.  During the entire decade of the 1980s, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” rose by only 1.7 million.
• In 2007, the unemployment rate for the 20 to 29 age bracket was about 6.5 percent.  Today, the unemployment rate for that same age group is about 13 percent.
• In 2007, 73.2 percent of all young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 that were not enrolled in school had jobs.  Today, that number has declined to 65 percent.
• Back in the year 2000, more than 50 percent of all Americans teens had a job.  This past summer, only 29.6% of all American teens had a job.
• In 2008, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was approximately 2.6 million.  Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.
• The average duration of unemployment in the United States is nearly three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.
• In 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs.  Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.
• According to White House, about 20 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs back in the year 2000.  Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.
• More than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since 2001.
• In 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
• The U.S. trade deficit with China during 2011 was 28 times larger than it was back in 1990.
• About twice as many new homes were sold in the United States in 1965 as are being sold today.
• Home prices in the 4th quarter of 2011 were four percent lower than they were during the 4th quarter of 2010.  Overall, U.S. home prices are 34 percent lower than they were back at the peak of the housing bubble.
• The total value of household real estate in America has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today.
• At the end of 2011, 22.8 percent of all homes in the United States with a mortgage were in negative equity.  That would have been unthinkable a decade or two ago.
• Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
• Total consumer debt in the United States has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.
• Since the beginning of 2009, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by more than 90 percent.
• The number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent since 2007.
• Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.  Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.
• In November 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, 46.5 million Americans are on food stamps.
• The U.S. dollar has lost 96.2 percent of its value since 1900.  You can thank the Federal Reserve system for that.
• In 1950, the United States was #1 in GDP per capita.  Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives direct monetary benefits from the federal government.  Back in 1983, less than a third of all Americans lived in a home that received direct monetary benefits from the federal government.
• In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.
• Federal housing assistance increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
• Medicare spending increased by 138 percent between 1999 and 2010.
• In 1990, the federal government accounted for 32 percent of all health care spending in America.  Today, that figure is up to 45 percent and it is projected to surpass 50 percent very shortly.
• In 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.  It is being projected that Healthcare reform will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
• Today, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
• In 2004, the U.S. government had a budget deficit of a little over 412 billion dollars.  This year, the U.S. government will run a budget deficit of over 1.3 trillion dollars.
• In 2001, the U.S. national debt was less than 6 trillion dollars.  Today, it is over 15 trillion dollars and it is increasing by about 150 million dollars every single hour.
• The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.

Source: Shadow Stats, BLS.