Blog
Most Transparent Administration History Won’t Release Cost of Union Subsidy
U.S. citizens should easily be able to find out how their tax dollars are spent by the federal government. Yet under the Obama administration, the…
Blog
Union Deauthorization and Recertification Gains Employees Freedom in the Workplace
In today’s highly fluid workforce, employees require the freedom to associate or disassociate with labor unions in a timely manner. But for disgruntled union employees,…
Blog
Maya Angelou, Herb Jeffries, and the Freedom to Prosper
Competitive Enterprise Institute President Lawson Bader has said, "What CEI does, on a daily basis and at its core, is to celebrate and defend…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 3, 2014: EPA Proposes Major Carbon Emission Regulation
Senior Fellow William Yeatman breaks down a proposed EPA regulation intended to significantly reduce carbon emissions in the U.S.
Blog
Airline Pilots Union’s Questionable Ad Campaign against Low-Cost Foreign Airline
In a previous post, I document labor unions and their history of advocating for discriminatory policies like the Davis-Bacon Act and Project Labor Agreements.
Blog
The Doctor Will Release You Now: How Official Time Contributed to the VA Scandal
Socialized medicine and union corruption are a potent combination and, in the case of the VA, a deadly one. The VA scandal has brought the…
Blog
The NLRB and the Department of Labor: Exemplars of Activist Bureaucracy
When one thinks of American bureaucracy, notions of political neutrality, professionalism, and disinterested arbitration come to mind. Well, maybe not… but at least those are…
Blog
33 House Republicans Join ALPA to Restrict Competition and Soak Consumers
I previously wrote about the campaign from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) against Norwegian Air International's (NAI) attempt to offer low-cost flights from the U.S.
Blog
Seattle Minimum Wage Hike Already Hurting Businesses
What did they think would happen? Seattle is likely to lift its minimum wage to $15 an hour. The move, supported by leftists and labor…
Blog
Federal Government Mismanagement and Union Official Time
Mismanagement within the federal government may not be at an all-time high, but it is close. The latest blunder is the Department of Veterans Affairs…
Blog
The Funnel of Gov — OMB’s 2014 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations
Over the weekend the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the 2014 Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and…
Blog
House Intel Committee Chair Ignores Report Calling NSA Surveillance Illegal
At a recent event titled “A Statesman Forum on Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy” at George Washington University, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)…
Blog
Unions Gain Obamacare Exemptions after Complaining about Lack of Privileges
The Obama administration is exempting many labor unions from provisions of the new health care law after all.
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
62 new regulations, from electric motors to handling kiwifruit.
Blog
How State Governments Can Stay in the Black
A study by the University of California, Berkeley’s Sarah F. Anzia and Stanford University’s Terry M. Moe finds that public sector unions greatly increase costs…
Blog
Are My Ten Thousand Command “Mints” to Be Regulated?
The Food and Drug Administration FDA wants to regulate serving size of breath mints. That's right. This rule was issued March 2014:…
Blog
CEI Labor and Employment Scorecard: Insourcing Amendment to Intelligence Authorization Act
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will score a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in its consideration of the Intelligence Authorization Act…
Blog
CEI Labor and Employment Scorecard: Insourcing Amendment to Intelligence Authorization Act
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will score a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in its consideration of the Intelligence Authorization Act…
Blog
Reihan Salam’s Argument for Alcohol “Prohibition Lite” Doesn’t Hold Water
In Slate recently, Reihan Salam argued that as America eases up on the criminalization of marijuana use it ought to consider ramping up the war…
Blog
Obama’s New Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations Shows Big Rules Are Growing
In the just-released Spring 2014 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations, published twice a year by the Office of Management and Budget,…
Blog
21 Chicago Aldermen Introduce $15 Minimum Wage Bill
Proponents of a government-imposed wage hike in Chicago are gaining steam. On May 28, 21 of the city's 50 council members signed on as co-sponsors…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 29, 2014: Rachel Was Wrong
Seeing as Carson's book set malaria prevention back decades, CEI Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini thinks there are other figures more deserving of such tributes.
Blog
Chattanooga Mayor Berke Delivers City Employees to SEIU
In today's Chattanooga Times Free Press, Matt Patterson, executive director at the Center for Worker Freedom, draws attention to the behind the scenes deal between…
Blog
NLRB Rules That Employees Have the Right to Be Disrespectful to Fellow Employees
The NLRB has ruled, once again, that a company’s employee handbook cannot require its employees to be courteous to fellow employees.
Blog
How Policy Makers Should Approach Google’s Driverless Shuttles
Yesterday, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, wrote a post for the company blog describing Google’s newest prototype: fully automated vehicles that…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: U.S. Regulation Compared to the World’s Largest Economies
This is Part 7 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Phoenix Ends Pension Spiking
Most state constitutions contain a little-used provision known as the "gift clause," which prohibit certain public expenditures to private entities. Unfortunately, only the Goldwater Institute,…
Blog
Do Home Care Workers Really Rely on Unions?
Ai-Jen Poo has made the case that home care workers benefit from union representation:…
Blog
Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment Drives Up Costs on Memorial Day and Every Day
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Big Retail lobby created a dubious driving distraction. The Merchants Payments Coalition, whose members include retail giants like Walmart and…
Blog
Senate Leaders Kill Patent Reform, Once again Thwarting Democracy to Protect Special Interests
Hundreds of moderate and conservative bills have passed the House of Representatives, often overwhelmingly, only to die in the Senate without even being voted…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
66 new regulations, from Panama to refrigerants.
Blog
No, Gov. Perry, a Ban on Internet Gambling Won’t Protect the Internet or Individual Freedom
In an attempt to save face, Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to justify his support for a federal online gambling ban by claiming that it’s the…
Blog
CEI Labor Scorecard: National Defense Authorization Act
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government, will score a vote…
Blog
IRS Employees Conducting Union Activity Costs Taxpayers $23.5 Million in FY 2013
Union "official time" is a massive taxpayer subsidy to government unions, which releases federal employees from their regular public duty, without suffering loss of pay,…
Blog
Punishment First, Trial Later, or Never: The Education Department’s Investigation of Tufts University
Imagine if you could be expelled from your dorm, or a class, just because someone accused you of something -- even if the accusation was…
Blog
Export-Import Bank Subsidizes the Western World
On its “About Us” page, the Export-Import Bank gives us its purported mission: “Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders but provides…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: The Federal Government “Eats” 31 Percent Of The U.S. Economy
This is Part 6 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Congress Must End Department of Transportation’s Abuse of “Unfair and Deceptive Practices” Authority
The Department of Transportation is opening a rulemaking proceeding to, among other things, require airlines and ticket agents to include ancillary fees (for, e.g.,…
Blog
CEI Labor Scorecard: National Defense Authorization Act
This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government, will score a vote…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 20, 2014: Phones on a Plane
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner supports the FCC's attempt to lift a ban on in-flight cell phone use.
Blog
A Recipe for a Hostile Work Environment, Courtesy of the NLRB
The NLRB has forced the Fund for the Public Interest to reinstate one of its terminated union employees after the employee went to a local…
Blog
NLRB Okays Union Campaign Deception
A responsibility of the National Labor Relations Board is to protect employees' right to a free and fair choice of labor representatives. Given that, it…
Blog
Consumers Will Win in Combined AT&T-DirecTV
AT&T agreed Sunday to purchase DirecTV for $67 billion in cash, stock, and acquired debt. If federal regulators approve the deal, the combined firm…
Blog
Attorney General’s School Discipline Push Will Backfire on Students and Reinforce Segregation and Zero Tolerance
In a speech Saturday, Attorney General Holder made a very ironic claim: blaming racial disparities in school discipline on "zero-tolerance" policies, even though such policies…
Blog
The Premises of Net Neutrality
In the electric power industry, if you run an extension cord across the street to serve another, you go to jail. The local utility has…
Blog
Attorney General Holder’s Deceptive Attack on Chief Justice Roberts
In a speech this weekend, Attorney General Eric Holder said that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from cotton grading to walk-in coolers.
Blog
Failed Obamacare Exchanges and No-Work Contracts Drive up Obamacare Costs
Politico tallies the rising costs for "four failed Obamacare exchanges," reporting: Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four …
Blog
No, the FCC Did Not Allow “Fast Lanes” on the Internet, Yet
This week, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) held an Open Meeting to propose new rules regarding regulation of Internet service providers (ISPs), such as Verizon and…
Blog
Missouri Union Protests by Placing Giant, Inflatable Rat by Funeral Home
I wish I was making that up, but Laborers Union Local 110 actually placed a huge, inflatable rat in front of the Kutis Funeral Home…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Cost More than Federal Income Taxes
This is Part 5 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
Insurance Premiums Rising More Due to Obamacare
There are "rate hikes for all" coming due to Obamacare, predicts The Daily Caller, citing state insurance filings: Virginians will see upped health insurance premiums…
Blog
Unionization Obstructs Workplace Diversity
Executive editor at The Nation, Richard Kim, claims diversity at the liberal publication is being stifled due to its unionized workforce. Kim, in a recent…
Blog
Johnson-Crapo Is Fannie and Freddie on Steroids
Today, after delays and much opposition from many quarters on different grounds, the Johnson-Crapo housing finance overhaul is set to be voted on by the…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Regulations Catching Up to Government Spending?
This is Part 4 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 14, 2014: Federal Ban on Online Gambling?
CEI Fellow Michelle Minton discusses why a federal ban on online gambling would be counterproductive.
Blog
European “Right to Be Forgotten” Eats Free-Speech Rights of Google and Its Users’ Rights Too
In America, you can't invoke a "right to be forgotten" to suppress other people's speech on newsworthy (or even not-so-newsworthy) topics, as court rulings like…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Reckoning the Dollar Cost of Federal Regulation
This is Part 3 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
EPW Drops Highway Bill Nothing Burger, Attempts to Bail Out Sinking Ship with Leaking Bucket
Yesterday evening, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee’s “big four” (Democrats Barbara Boxer and Tom Carper, and Republicans David Vitter…
Blog
Massachusetts Seeks Millions More from Taxpayers as Its Obamacare Exchange Fails
Massachusetts' Obamacare exchange has failed, even though Massachusetts adopted an individual health-insurance mandate in 2006, and thus had a built-in advantage over other states in handling Obamacare's requirements.
Blog
Maryland Unions Asks Politicians for Donations
Hollywood is currently reviving Star Wars, a classic 1970s series. Perhaps they should revive another 1970s series, The Godfather, with a fourth film centered on…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Tardy Bureaucrats Gone Wild
This is Part 2 of a series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
Despite nearly 60 new regulations and more than 1,300 Federal Register pages, regulations remain on a below-average pace this year. On to the data: Last…
Blog
Red Tapeworm 2014: Guess Which Is the Largest Government on Earth?
This is Part 1 of a new series taking a walk through some sections of Ten Thousand Commandments: An…
Blog
PA Unions Still Exempt from Harassment, Continue Harassing with Impunity
A couple of months ago, the FBI unsealed an indictment against a combination of 10 Philadelphia Ironworkers members and officials, which exposed a loophole in…
Blog
Climate Salvationism: Can Government Make Renewable Energy Turn a Profit?
CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner on Fox Business “Cavuto” last night discussed whether making renewable energy profitable is a legitimate government goal. Watch the interview:…
Blog
Gawker Article Says “Unions Should Buy a Fast Food Franchise”
But would workers really be better off if a union owned a fast-food franchise or any other kind of business? Gawker author Hamilton Nolan thinks…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 8, 2014: The Future of Self-Driving Cars
Marc Scribner talks about his new paper, "Self-Driving Regulation."…
Blog
Air Line Pilots Association Launches Super-Xenophobic Ad against Low-Cost Foreign Airline
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently considering whether or not it will honor its EU-U.S. open skies treaty in the case of Norwegian Air…
Blog
UAW Teams Up with Big Brother
The UAW wants to organize a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, and has asked the State Department to mediate its discussions with the auto maker,…
Blog
OPM Director Archuleta Promotes Public Service Recognition Week, Quiet on Federal Employees Performing Union Business
Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuelta is one of several high-level bureaucrats that are promoting Public Service Recognition Week, and will participate in a…
Blog
California’s Latest Anti-GMO Push
Two years ago, voters in California narrowly defeated Proposition 37 , a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of most --…
Blog
Washington, D.C., Imposes One Percent Obamacare Health Insurance Tax
The costs of Obamacare keep rising. The Council of the District of Columbia has imposed a one percent tax on all health insurance policies…
Blog
California Hospital Association Submits to SEIU Demands, Signs “Labor Peace Agreement”
On May 5, 2014, after months of applying public pressure on the California Hospital Association, the SEIU-UHW won its coveted "labor peace agreement," which would…
Blog
Labor/Employment Scorecard Now Includes Votes on David Weil to Head DoL’s Wage and Hour Division
In our scorecard of the United States Senate’s labor and employment votes, CEI's WorkplaceChoice.org has included voting on the movement of David Weil’s confirmation…
Blog
The NLRB Strikes Again
The NLRB has just forced nine Brooklyn condo workers to continue another year’s payment of union dues after they attempted to de-certify their union (United…
Blog
Federal Financial Aid Policies Punish Marriage
At the economics website E21, Jared Meyer describes the massive marriage penalties found in student financial aid programs, and how federal…
Blog
Voxplaining Pew Charts on Highway Funding and Ignoring Transit’s Decline
Over at Vox.com, former WaPo blogger Brad Plumer wrote a post about highway funding, largely relying on the good folks over at the Pew…
Blog
Warren Buffett: “During the next decade, you will read a lot of news – bad news – about public pension plans.”
Thus warns Warren Buffett in his latest message to investors, part of Berkshire Hathaway's annual report. And when the Oracle of Omaha speaks, most of…
Blog
UAW Continues VW Unionization Campaign, Violates Neutrality Agreement
Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted against UAW representation in February. But the UAW still hasn't gotten the message.
Blog
Operation Choke Point Targets Porn and Firearms, Potentially Violating the Constitution
In Operation Choke Point, the Justice Department is targeting lawful industries with investigations designed to inflict economic pain and…
Blog
CEI Files Lawsuit against Office of Science and Technology Policy
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute sued the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for flouting the Freedom of Information Act. CEI’s…
Blog
Minnesota Law Gives Public the Cold Shoulder
Minnesota’s Government Data Practices Law allows Minnesota public agencies to charge for public information that many other states give out for free. According to section…
Blog
SEIU Deploys Top-Down Organizing Tactics against California Hospitals
Labor unions no longer gain worker support prior to kicking off organizing campaigns. Now they find it much easier to apply public pressure and intimidate…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation
77 new regulations, from gooseberry imports to preventing collisions at sea.
Blog
Regulate-First-Think-Later Approach to Harm Honeybees
European bureaucrats placed a two-year ban on a class of pesticides in the name of “protecting honeybees” when in fact, as one EU official recently…
Blog
Finally Free to Leave SEIU, Michigan Home Care Workers Do Exactly That
Michigan becoming the nation's 24th right to work state in 2012 appeared to pose a challenge to major industrial private sector unions like United Auto…
Blog
Opening brief in Redman v. RadioShack
RadioShack committed the sin of printing credit-card receipts with expiration dates on them, which exposed it to possible liability of $100 a receipt ($1000 if…
Blog
Congressional Scorecard Update: Minimum Wage Fairness Act of 2014
Today, the Minimum Wage Fairness Act of 2014, a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, failed to gain enough support…
Blog
Sketchy Super PACs
The labor battle in Missouri is becoming supersized because of union super PACs. Unions can support politicians (just Democrats, of course) and policies through super…
Blog
This Minimum Wage Hike Will Kill Jobs
The key thing you need to know about a minimum wage hike is that it will kill jobs. About 80 percent of economists surveyed…
Blog
Obama Administration Attacks Cross-Examination and Due Process Rights in Campus Guidance
Justice Brandeis once observed that “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” However…
Blog
Johnson-Crapo Delayed; CEI-Coordinated Coalition Letter Cited as a Factor
Today, in a surprise move, the Senate Banking Committee postponed the vote it had been set to mark up for Johnson-Crapo. Reports vary as…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 29, 2014: Ten Thousand Commandments
Wayne Crews talks about the new 2014 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments…
Blog
Kings, Contracts, and the Rule of Law: Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital
Co-authored with John Norton Moore and Robert F. Turner Last Monday, April 21, the Supreme Court heard argument in a major case involving issues at…
Blog
Congressional Scorecard Update: Confirmation of David Weil to Wage and Hour Division
On April 28, 2014, the U.S. Senate confirmed another ardent Big Labor supporter, David Weil, to serve as the administrator of the Wage and Hour…
Blog
Ten Thousand Commandments 2014
The 2014 edition of Wayne Crews’ annual Ten Thousand Commandments report comes out today…
Blog
May 8 debate in Washington DC
I’ll be debating Professor Brian Fitzpatrick in Washington, DC, the morning of Thursday, May 8. Registration and details at the e21 site.
Blog
Republican Internet Gambling Ban Undermines States’ and Individual Rights
Despite rhetoric that we need to “restore” the Federal Wire Act in order to protect states’ rights, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that…
Blog
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Approach 700,000 Miles of Crash-Free Driving
In a report released last week for CEI, I noted that developers need to be able to demonstrate automated vehicle safety benefits in order…