CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. POLITICS
The DC Examiner editorializes on the aggressive tactics labor unions are using to recruit public sector employees.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the perverse incentives involved in bargaining with government workers:
“[The] politicians and agency administrators who negotiate with government employees aren’t paying government workers out of their own money. In the traditional collective bargaining model, employers and employees negotiate to extract the most for less, but in government employment, ‘bargaining’ is nigh impossible when the two sides to the negotiations have the same objective in mind: to extract as much as possible from taxpayers (who aren’t party to the negotiation). Of course, no one familiar with public choice theory should be surprised, so we can expect this trend to continue.”
2. INTERNATIONAL
Congress considers a bill to expand regulation of tobacco products.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the international backlash to parts of the bill:
Indonesia is protesting that the bill to subject the tobacco industry to FDA regulation would violate an international trade treaty. The Jakarta Post reports that the Indonesian government objects to the fact that the bill bans clove cigarettes, which Indonesia produces, while permitting menthol cigarettes. It says that the differential treatment is discriminatory and not justified by health concerns, and thus violates the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Safeguards.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger consults with foreign leaders over new regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the growth of regulatory spending:
“When adjusted for inflation, environmental regulatory spending has grown from $81 million to more than $6 billion in 2000 dollars, or 7,372 percent between 1960 and 2006. Only homeland security-related spending exceeds environmental spending, with federal outlays of more than $15 billion in 2006. However, homeland security spending has only increased by 2,089 percent since 1960—meaning that environmental spending has grown more than three times faster than homeland security spending since 1960. Other categories of spending grew far more slowly than environment. An analysis of the staffing levels reveals a similar story.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].