In an interview with CFIF, Trey Kovacs, Policy Analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, discusses Obama’s new overtime rule, why it was never intended to raise wages, and how it threatens flexible work arrangements and paths to success.
Quin Hillyer, CFIF Senior Fellow and Senior Editor of The American Spectator, discusses why President Obama’s nomination of Thomas Perez to be Secretary of Labor must be blocked.
Listen to the interview here.
Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who did yeoman’s work in helping expose the racialist agenda of the Holder Justice Department and especially its Civil Rights Division under Thomas Perez, has now come out with a scathing letter expressing serious reservations about Barack Obama’s nomination of Perez to be Secretary of Labor.
Kirsanow writes that the nomination “merits extremely close scrutiny by senators from both parties, for several concerns about Perez’s record as head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice transcend partisanship and ideology.”
And:
The Civil Rights Division refused to answer 18 separate interrogatories pertaining to the substance of the [New Black Panther voter intimidation] case. The Division also failed to provide witness statements for 12 key witnesses and refused to respond to 22 requests for production of documents. Further, DOJ barred two Civil Rights Division attorneys from testifying before the Commission (the two later defied the Department and testified at considerable risk to their professional careers). The Department refused to turn over a number of requested documents, asserting a variety of specious privileges. In response, the Commission requested a privilege log, i.e., a list of those documents DOJ maintained were protected by privilege and therefore not subject to production. DOJ failed to produce such a log.
After a lawsuit finally forced production of the log, the record was such that,
As Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia diplomatically stated in his opinion, DOJ’s internal documents “appear to contradict Assistant Attorney General Perez’s testimony [before the Commission] that political leadership was not involved” in the decision to dismiss the NBPP case.
After detailing even more concerns about Perez, Kirsanow concluded: “All of these things should be of tremendous concern to all senators, regardless of party, when considering the president’s choice of Thomas Perez for labor secretary. They should, at minimum, be the subjects of extensive questioning of the nominee.”
The battle over Perez’ nomination promises to be very contentious, indeed.
Thanks to The Daily Caller’s Nicholas Ballasy for posting an extended exchange between House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and two officials from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on what occupations count as “green jobs.”
REP. DARRELL ISSA: Well, let me — let me run you through some questions here because you’re here because we’re having a green jobs counting discussion.
Does someone who assembles turbines — is that a green job?MS. JANE OATES: Wind turbines?
REP. ISSA: Yeah. Wind turbines.
MS. OATES: I think we would call any kind of sustainable manufacturing –
REP. ISSA: OK.
MS. OATES: — fitting the definition that was –
REP. ISSA: Does someone who sweeps — does someone who sweeps the floor in a facility that makes solar panels, is that a green job?
MS. OATES: Solar? I’ll give that to –
REP. ISSA: To Galvin?
MS. OATES: — if you don’t mind.
MR. JOHN GALVIN: We define — we have a two-part definition –
REP. ISSA: We already had the briefing on that. So just answer the question. If you’re sweeping the floor in a solar panel production facility, is that a green job?
MR. GALVIN: If you ask me for the number of health care jobs in the United States, I’ll give you the employment from the health care industry.
REP. ISSA: Look, Mr. Galvin –
MR. GALVIN: — nurses and doctors –
REP. ISSA: You did not want to come here as a witness. You are not a delighted witness. So let’s go through this. I asked you a question. You know the answer. Would you please answer it.
If you sweep the floor in a solar panel facility, is that a green job?MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: Thank you. If you drive a hybrid bus — public transportation — is that a green job?
MR. GALVIN: According to our definition, yes.
REP. ISSA: Thank you. What if you’re a college professor teaching classes about environmental studies?
MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: What about just any school bus driver?
MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: What about the guy who puts gas in the school bus?
MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: How about employees at a bicycle shop?
MR. GALVIN: I guess I’m not sure about that.
REP. ISSA: The answer is yes, according to your definition. And you’ve got a lot of them.
What about a clerk at the bicycle repair shop?MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: What about someone who works in an antique dealer?
MR. GALVIN: I’m not sure about that either.
REP. ISSA: The answer is yes. Those are — those are recycled goods. They’re antiques; they’re used.
What about someone who works at the Salvation Army in their clothing recycling and furniture?MR. GALVIN: Right. Because they’re selling recycled goods.
REP. ISSA: OK. What about somebody who opened a store to sell rare manuscripts?
MR. GALVIN: What industry is that?
REP. ISSA: People sell rare books and manuscripts — but they’re rare because they’re old so they’re used.
MR. GALVIN: OK.
REP. ISSA: What about workers at a consignment shop?
MR. GALVIN: That’s a green job.
REP. ISSA: Does the teenage kid who works full time at a used record shop count?
MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: How about somebody who manufacturers railroads rolling stock — basically, train cars?
MR. GALVIN: I don’t think we classified the manufacture of rail cars as –
REP. ISSA: 48.8 percent of jobs in manufacturing, rail cars counted, according to your statistics. About half of the jobs that are being used to build trains.
OK. How about — just one more here. What about people who work in a trash disposal yard? Do garbage men have green jobs?MR. GALVIN: Yes.
REP. ISSA: OK. I apologize. The real last last is, how about an oil lobbyist? Wouldn’t an oil lobbyist count as having a green job if they are engaged in advocacy related to environmental issues?
MR. GALVIN: Yes.
In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino comments on the U.S. Department of Labor’s new smart phone app, designed to help outdoor workers prevent heat illness by informing them of… well… the temperature outside. The Labor Department is not yet able to calculate its costs to taxpayers. “Yes, that’s your government at work,” says Giachino. “They can tell you what temperature it is outside, but not how much it cost them to tell you. Maybe there should be an app for that.”
There are two kinds of licensed professionals you don’t want to see the word “creative” describe: accountants and lawyers. Unfortunately, the top lawyer at the Obama Labor Department just released a to-do list that could double as a well-conceived strategy memo for business-hating bureaucrats concerned they may not have enough power.
In Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund’s recent article the solicitor at Labor proposes the following actions to increase the regulatory burden on private enterprise:
With the workforce experiencing 9.8% unemployment, this kind of strategy – and heaven forbid, enforcement – will only make matters far worse.
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