Pro-Business versus Pro-Market

In What Principles Rule the GOP?, Jonah Goldberg reminds GOP leadership of the distinction between being "pro-business" and "pro-market," and says party leadership's understanding of that distinction will be put to the test when they consider reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank next year.

Just to clarify, the difference between being pro-business and pro-market is categorical. A politician who is a "friend of business" is exactly that, a guy who does favors for his friends. A politician who is pro-market is a referee who will refuse to help protect his friends (or anyone else) from competition unless the competitors have broken the rules. The friend of business supports industry-specific or even business-specific loans, grants, tariffs or tax breaks. The pro-market referee opposes special treatment for anyone.

Goldberg argues the GOP can't play the crony capitalism game of the Democrats any longer.

GOP politicians can’t have it both ways anymore. An economic system that simply doles out favors to established stakeholders becomes less dynamic and makes job growth less likely. (Most jobs are created by new businesses.) Politically, the longer we’re in a “new normal” of lousy growth, the more the focus of politics turns to wealth redistribution. That’s bad for the country and just awful politics for Republicans. In that environment, being the party of less — less entitlement spending, less redistribution — is a losing proposition.

Also, for the first time in years, there’s an organized — or mostly organized — grassroots constituency for the market. ... Now, there’s an infrastructure of tea-party-affiliated and other free-market groups forcing Republicans to stop fudging.

Video - The Groundhog Day Debt Limit

The Heritage Foundation has put together a little video to illustrate the Groundhog Day nature of debate on the federal debt ceiling in Washington.


http://youtu.be/pNG3IAKCUSM

Gender Wage Gap Myth

"If women were paid 77 cents on the dollar, a profit-oriented firm could dramatically cut labor costs by replacing male employees with females," write Mark Perry and Andrew Biggs. But they don't, because the claimed gender wage-disparity doesn't exist.

Progressives' perpetuation of the gender wage-disparity and their proposed solution—to make it easier for women to sue employers for equal pay—are designed to enrich lawyers, not women. Worse, the authors' note, progressives' proposal would "create a disincentive for firms to hire women."  [Update: See also Scott Johnson's post, Obama's War on Science and Gullible Women.]

Researchers: Tobacco Plant Key to Beating Cancer?

"The tobacco plant’s natural defence mechanisms could be harnessed to kill cancer cells in the human body," reports the UK Daily Mail.

Scientists have identified a molecule in the flower of the plant that usually fights off fungi and bacteria - and were stunned to find it also has the ability to identify and destroy cancer.

Called NaD1, it works by forming a pincer-like structure that grips onto lipids present in the membrane of cancer cells and rips them open, causing the cell to expel its contents and explode.

‘There is some irony in the fact that a powerful defence mechanism against cancer is found in the flower of a species of ornamental tobacco plant, but this is a welcome discovery, whatever the origin,’ Dr Mark Hulett of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science in Melbourne said.

The next step is to undertake pre-clinical studies to determine what role NaD1 might be able to play in treating cancer.' The preclinical work is being conducted by the Melbourne biotechnology company Hexima. 'So far the preliminary trials have looked promising,' said Dr Hulett. ...

The results are published in the journal eLife today.

‘One of the biggest issues with current cancer therapies is that the effect of the treatment is indiscriminate,’ Dr Hulett said.

‘In contrast, we’ve found NaD1 can target cancerous cells and has little or no effect on those that are healthy.’

Percent Uninsured Worse Under Obama than Bush

Commenting on Gallup's graphic of the percentage of uninsured people (right), Charlie Martin at PJTatler writes:

At the start of the Obama Administration, the rate was 15.6 percent; the peak was 18 percent — in roughly the third quarter of last year. Remember that, when people were objecting because they'd had their insurance canceled? Harry Reid said all those people were lying, but Gallup says different. In fact, 1 percentage point on this chart is, roughly, 3 million people. The change from Q1 to Q3 was about 2 percent — or roughly 6 million people who became uninsured.

And now for the punchline: Since Obama was inaugurated in 2009, the net change is from 15.4 percent uninsured to 15.6 percent. So the net effect has been that by the Gallup Survey the number of uninsured has improved in the last year, but gotten worse since Obama was inaugurated, and is 1.2 percent worse than under Bush.

Unmarried Women Voters

"Unmarried women made up a quarter of the electorate in 2012 and gave two-thirds of their votes to President Obama," writes Democracy Corps, a literal organization founded by political consultant James Carville and pollster Stan Greenberg.

But unmarried women are not happy right now, and liberals are worried.

When we asked last March whether the national political debates were addressing the issues most important to them, 60 percent of unmarried women said, “no,” and did so with real intensity. As we learned in 2010, these voters are critical to Democrats’ fortunes, but they are unlikely to vote, and less likely to give Democrats big margins, if Democrats are not laser focused on the issues that matter most to them.

So Democracy Corps (DC) joined with Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund to identify a women's economic agenda (below) that they hope liberals can use to get unmarried women energized this fall.

Perhaps we're mistaken, but this looks like the same old liberal agenda to us. (Cue the violins...)

Women succeed with pay equity and equal health insurance:
Help women succeed by passing legislation to make sure women
get equal pay for equal work and make sure insurance
companies no longer charge women more than men.

Help working mothers by protecting jobs, paid leave and
childcare: Finally recognize that working mothers need help by
protecting pregnant workers and new mothers from being fired
or demoted, making sure they have paid sick days to care for
their children and access to affordable childcare.

Raise wages for working women with equal pay and increased
minimum wage: Raise wages for working women by passing
paycheck fairness legislation and raising the minimum wage to
$10.10 an hour and increase it with inflation.

Help with higher pay by increased minimum wage, scholarships
and affordable college: Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 and
expand access to scholarships and get school costs down so
working women can continue their education and train for
better jobs with higher wages.

Help to be good parent and worker with child care, paid leave
and sick days: Ensure that you can be a good parent and good
employee by expanding access to high-quality affordable
childcare by ensuring people have paid leave to care for a new
child or to recover from a serious illness

When is Your Tax Freedom Day?

"Tax Freedom Day is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay its total tax bill for year," writes the Tax Foundation, which does the calculations each year.

In 2014, Americans will pay $3.0 trillion in federal taxes and $1.5 trillion in state taxes, for a total tax bill of $4.5 trillion, or 30.2 percent of income.

This year, Americans' federal "Tax Freedom Day falls on April 21, or 111 days into the year," but their state tax freedom day varies widely.

The 10 states with the smallest tax bite, and earliest Tax Freedom Day, are:

• Louisiana - Tax Freedom Day is March 30
• Mississippi - April 2
• South Dakota - April 4
• Tennessee - April 5
• Alabama - April 7
• Kentucky & New Mexico - April 8
• South Carolina - April 9
• West Virginia - April 10

The 10 states with the biggest tax bite, and latest Tax Freedom Day, are:

• Connecticut & New Jersey - May 9
• New York - May 4
• California - April 30
• Massachusetts & Minnesota - April 29
• Illinois & Maryland - April 28
• North Dakota & Washington - April 25