CEI Today: Obama recess appointments, cheese ban protests, and how unions harm workers

OBAMA RECESS APPOINTMENTS – JOHN BERLAU

Openmarket.org: Did Hensarling Force Obama’s Hand On “Recess” Appointments?

They called it a “stunt” early last week when House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) refused to allow Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Richard Cordray to testify due to the constitutional cloud over Cordray’s appointment. But this “stunt” just may have forced the Obama administration’s hand in submitting a brief later in the week urging the Supreme Court to resolve the issue.

CHEESE BAN – HANS BADER

Openmarket.org: U.S. Government Bans French Cheese Based On Food Prejudices

The U.S. government is banning a standard, normal-smelling French cheese based on its own squeamishness. The cheese in question is Mimolette, a commonplace, orange French cheese. The ban has triggered protests in New York City.

Who cares if it has tiny, invisible mites in it? The cheese mites in Mimolette are there to enhance its flavor: as Wikipedia notes, the “crust of aged Mimolette is the result of cheese mites intentionally introduced to add flavor by their action on the surface of the cheese.”

LABOR UNIONS – IAIN MURRAY

National Review: The Life of Julius

Remember the White House’s poster child for welfare dependency, Julia? Meet Julius. Julius is the star of a new original production from my team at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and narrated by AlfonZo Rachel, “The Life of Julius: How Unions Hurt Workers.” Julius is a fictional character, but his aspirations, hopes, and values are shared by every American. He wants opportunity and economic security. He wants his years of hard work to mean some level of comfort in his retirement.

Unfortunately, labor-union bosses, and the politicians and laws they support, continually frustrate Julius’s prosperity in ways both large and small, both obvious and subtle.

You can see Julius’s story, and learn more about unions’ effects on the economy at WorkPlaceChoice.