CEI Weekly: Special Interests Walk Away with Multi-Million Dollar Obamacare Handouts
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up for CEI Weekly, go to http://cei.org/newsletters.
CEI Weekly
May 6, 2011
>>Featured Story
Today, May 6th, is the last day that businesses and unions can apply for the Early Retirement Reinsurance Program (ERRP). ERRP is an Obamacare program intended to help employers cover costs for early retireees. It was 
supposed to last until 2014, but it stopped taking on new applicants far ahead of schedule. That’s probably because groups like the United Auto Workers cashed in early and walked away with millions—in UAW’s case, hundreds of millions—of taxpayer dollars. CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio last week exposed ERRP waste in a National Review op-ed. This week, Vernuccio revisited the issue in BigGovernment to mark the final week of the expensive, short-lived program.
>>Shaping the Debate
Maryland’s BPA Ban Exposes Children to Greater Risks Than the Chemical Itself
Angela Logomasini’s op-ed in The Baltimore Sun
The NLRB Overreaches–Once Again
Iain Murray and Ivan Osorio’s op-ed in Real Clear Markets
Ten Thousand Commandments: How Much Regulation Is Enough?
Wayne Crews’ column in Forbes
Free Trade Agreements Don’t Kill Jobs
Ryan Young’s op-ed in The Daily Caller
The Washington Post’s Junky Rant Against Princess Catherine’s Entrepreneurial Family
John Berlau’s op-ed in The Daily Caller
DOJ’s Poker Shutdown: Holding on to Americans’ Money
Michelle Minton’s op-ed in The Daily Caller
Do Americans Care About Climate Change Anymore?
Myron Ebell’s citation in U.S. News & World Report
Princess Entrepreneur
John Berlau’s citation in The Times of India
>>Best of the Blogs
Progress on Free Trade — With Strings Attached
By Fran Smith
D.C. Councilmembers Propose Taxicab Medallion System . . . Again
By Marc Scribner
Xcel Energy’s Versatile, Profitable Carbon Tax
By William Yeatman
Canadian Election Results: No Cap-and-Trade, No Carbon Tax
by Myron Ebell
>> CEI Podcast
A new study says that high-salt diets may not be as harmful as once thought. Research Associate Daniel Compton takes a look. He also points out that, even if salt is a health hazard, regulating salt intake probably won’t work as planned.