The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. CONGRESS
The Senate takes up legislation raising the minimum wage.
“Politicians love the minimum wage. It is a perfect issue on which to demagogue, since it promises benefits to the public while requiring no tax dollars to be spent, because the costs fall entirely on private businesses. And its costs on workers are hidden — there is no organized political pressure group of people who would have occupied jobs that an increased minimum wage kept from coming into being. But policies that create good political opportunities for populist grandstanding are often bad policy, and that’s true with the minimum wage. It is economic nonsense, premised on the idea that government can mandate a free lunch: It would be nicer for everyone to make more money, so there ought to be a law!”
2. LEGAL
The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a case challenging the use of eminent domain to condemn private property for commercial development.
“The Court’s decision contradicts the language and intent of the Fifth Amendment. The Constitution says you can’t take private property except for ‘public use.’ But when government seizes land and hands it over to business interests to jack up tax revenue, the public isn’t ‘using’ the land.”
3. FREE SPEECH
Democrats in Congress propose reviving regulation of the “fairness” of media content.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Economic Policy Fellow John Berlau on the unpleasant results of the “Fairness Doctrine”:
“The Fairness Doctrine, initiated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949, mandated that radio and television stations ‘provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrasting viewpoints’ on ‘vitally important controversial issues.’ But since there are contrasting views as to what’s ‘fair,’ broadcast stations were left with a few unpleasant options. They could a) provide equal time to overtly liberal and overtly conservative opinions—regardless of the advertising dollars they draw b) be deluged with demands for free response time by aggrieved listeners, or c) shy away from addressing controversial issues. That last option was the one often chosen. The Fairness Doctrine was decried across the political spectrum—by free marketeers and by genuine free-speech liberals such as CBS News president Fred Friendly—for its chilling effects on discussion of issues.”