I have been on travel so I haven’t been active past ten days.  Look for new material starting Monday.  In the mean time, if you go to the main page of the website (http://uscommonsense.net/) you will see that I have uploaded the complete text of “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine, as well as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution.  Let this be your one-stop resource for important U.S. documents.

Senator Chuck Schumer took the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to task this week, accusing them of becoming a partisan organization bankrolling the Republican Party. He makes this claim based upon the organization donating $16Mill to Republican candidates while only $329K to Democrats. At the heart of this is the proposed Employee Free Choice Act that might be passed if the Democrats increase their control of the Senate to 60 or more seats.

For starters, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit organization representing over 3 Million businesses, 2800 state and local chambers, and over 800 business associations with the mission “to advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility.” In short, they are a pro-growth and pro-job advocacy group.

The Employee Free Choice Act is designed to overrule the individual states right to be classified as a right-to-work state and remove the practice of a private ballot within Unions. Right-to-work laws prohibit employers from making union membership compulsory, and also makes it easier for employers and employees to terminate their employment agreements without fear of repercussions. The underlying purpose of this legislation is to benefit the Union lobbies since their enrollment numbers continue to decrease, especially since half of the states in the union have right-to-work laws on their books.

Fearing that the Democrats might gain 60 seats in the Senate as well as Obama wins the election, there would be no way to stop this bill from being passed and enacted into law. This leads to businesses possibly being bullied into unionizing their workforce against their will while states would lose more power to the Federal government. So, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring issue-based ads in key states against Democratic candidates, hoping to help the Republican candidate win the election. As a result, Schumer is claiming that the organization is violating the campaign funding laws though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that issue-based ads are permitted within 60 days of the election.

It is in my opinion that this bill should not be passed. While unions have done many positive things over the decades, the state and Federal labor laws provide many of the protections that the unions of old fought for, so many of the foundations for unions to exist have become antiquated. In addition, union interference has caused industries to struggle and be less competitive with non-union and foreign companies due to unnecessary benefit demands that exceed what much of the private sector already offers. If we really want to see industrial job growth in the United States, we need to ensure the companies have as much flexibility as reasonable in order to control costs while increasing output and revenue.

Related articles:
The Hill – “Schumer rips Chambers of Commerce”
U.S. Chambers of Commerce – Official Website

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that the next President of the United States will only serve one term. No, I’m not talking about conspiracy theories where McCain succumbs to health issues or Obama falls victim to an assassin’s bullet. I’m talking about the sheer number of tough issues facing the next President that he or she will have to address through their four years in office.

The correct decisions will most likely be unpopular, while the wrong decisions will just make the situations worse, so the candidate enters office with the cards stacked against them. In addition, the next President will be running against the clock. Realistically, the President will have two years to push through their decisions before the public goes to the polls to vote for their Senators or Representatives, and following that election begins the next campaign run for the presidential elections. The issues that will spell the end of their re-election runs are the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy reform, and social security reform.

The economy: It does not look like our economic situation, both domestically and globally, will recover within the next year. Financial institutions have fractured foundations and the credit system has come to a near halt. We are on the verge of spending a trillion dollars to keep these systems solvent to stem off the forces of a global recession and possibly a depression. Whoever is elected will not be able to supply much of what they’ve proposed during the primaries and the general election campaign. In addition, the odds are that whatever actions are made won’t show significant impacts on the economy for 2 to 3 years once enacted, meaning that much of their term will be hampered by poor economic quarterly news.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Short wars are popular while long wars are not. After seven years in Afghanistan and five years in Iraq, the public is ready for an end. Unfortunately, whomever wins will have to address these two issues and decide if it is in our nations long-term interest to maintain the current troop levels, increase troop levels, or exit the theatres all together.

Energy reform: We import AND export a lot of oil, much of it unnecessarily when you consider our technology and access to domestic resources. There are regions in our nation with adequate year-round sustained winds that would make wind turbines practical. We have tons of easily accessible oil and natural gas that goes untouched. The government is spending the most ever on hydrogen research and development. Nuclear power development continues to be stymied while other nations flourish on its benefits. U.S. Automotive companies continue to get by on artificially low fuel standards when foreign manufacturers produce cars far more efficient. The next President will have to take on the unions and other special interest groups that hinder our growth.

Social Security reform: As we discussed two years ago, the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. The only way to fix it is to go back and make it the insurance program it was meant to be. Make the system cover only those in need. This is often refereed to as one of the “third rails” in politics, but it is one that has to be addressed. Whomever wins will have to lead Congress into doing what they don’t want to do on their own.

In short, the President will make so many necessary but unpopular decisions that it will be difficult for them to maintain a party and independent voter base large enough to survive a serious challenger. Ideally, such resolve would earn the President credit since he or she will be doing the role of the position; doing what is best for the union. I would like to be proven wrong, but I don’t see it happening.

Under the old website format I was using a year ago, I had a page dedicated to websites that I use to pull articles from under my “Featured” section. Noticing that I never brought that option over into my new format, I’ve decided to create a list of Recommended Websites near the bottom of the page. These are websites that I tend to visit frequently due to the diverse points of views on the issues. So take a moment and give them a look over. If you have a site that you would like me to review and recommend, please leave a note below.

The news of the day hasn’t been focused on the Senate taking up a vote on a revised $850B bailout package (which passed by 74 to 25), but on PBS managing editor Gwen Ifill. She is scheduled to be the moderator for the Vice Presidential debates tomorrow night between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. What has just reached the major news networks today, however, is that Gwen is also an author of a new book to be released around inauguration day where one of the main topics is Senator Barack Obama.

The question regarding this book is if Gwen can be impartial in the questioning of the VP Candidates since she has an implied conflict of interest. It seems obvious that her book sales will be higher if Obama were to win the election in November. So will she provide soft questions to Biden or hard questions to Palin in order to skew the election for her own personal game?

It does not seem that either campaign properly vetted her as a moderator, nor did the commission on debates. However, I don’t think that the campaigns really have anything to worry about here. With the press covering this issue all day, it will be fresh in the minds of the viewers tomorrow night during the debate. If she is viewed as giving Biden a pass while pressuring Palin, then her credibility will take a hit and she will lose potential customers when her book is released. If she is viewed as being fair, her reputation will rise and so too will the potential for her book sales.

So it is really in Gwen’s best interest to be impartial during the debate. For future moderators, however, they should use this case as a point of reference for the future and disclose any work that might be viewed as a conflict of interest and disclose it before being tapped to be the moderator. It removes unnecessary heat from the moderator as well as increases the credibility of the debate as well. May Gwen and the candidates have a good night and all perform well.  The eyes of America will be watching.

Related articles:
The BoBo Files – “Shouldn’t she recuse herself from the debate?”
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler – “Isn’t the Word ‘Moderate’ Somehow Linked to the Title ‘Moderator?’”