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Feb. 8, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications

Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank
Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate
Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights?
Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype
Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too
Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license
The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics
Feb. 6, 2013

Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA
Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran
Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner
Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll
Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker
Feb. 4, 2013

Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel?

David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders
Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted
Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA
Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do
Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss
The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert
Feb. 1, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption

Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home
Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow
Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years
Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid?
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't
Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO)
The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish
January 30, 2013

Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day'

America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans!
Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown!
Germany remembers Hitler rise to power
Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats
Ballot riles Guinness World Records
The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin
January 28, 2013

Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos

Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback'
Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer
Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating?
David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied
Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends
David Clark Scott Lego Racism?
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south


Jewish World Review June 8, 2012/ 18 Sivan, 5772

Scott Walker's win should propel big reforms, stiffen pols' spines

By Deroy Murdock


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's victory over Milwaukee's Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett in Tuesday's recall election, by a margin of 53 to 46 percent, is this century's Proposition 13.

In 1978, California's famous property-tax-cut referendum ignited the supply-side tax-relief movement. Similarly, Walker's win will encourage elected officials to demand that taxpayer-funded government employees earn realistic wages and pay their fair share for benefits. Likewise, Walker's triumph should stiffen politicians' spines so that they insist that government union bosses live by the same rules as the rest of us.

Leaders who are inspired by Walker's mix of principled policy and prize-winning politics should enact these proposals:

  • Government workers should pay their fair share for health and pension benefits. On an hourly basis, private-sector employees' benefits cost their companies $2.15. State and local government workers cost taxpayers $4.72 an hour -- 219 percent more. For retirement benefits, the private-sector figure was $1.02 an hour. The state and local workers' sum: $3.37 an hour -- a 330 percent premium.

    These figures also are staggering in Washington. In 2009, according to USA Today, total wages and benefits among private-sector employees stood at $61,051. Among federal civilian employees, it was $123,049 -- almost precisely double.


    • Government workers should stop pension-spiking. Their retirement payments often are based on their last two or three years of earnings. So, many work maximum overtime hours to send those amounts sky-high. Public pensions should be based on career-long compensation. Period.

    • Government workers should be fired for inefficiency, incompetence and criminality. Short of raping or killing someone on camera, it seems nearly impossible to fire government employees. If private-sector workers can get sacked in seconds, so should those who serve taxpayers.

    • Government workers should trade defined-benefit retirement plans, with artificially guaranteed returns, for defined-contribution plans, like 401(k)s. True, private-sector employees face the potential gains and losses of the financial markets. But if those who pay taxes confront such risks in their own pensions, so should those who consume their taxes.

    • Government workers' retirement ages should rise to match those in the private sector, especially as life expectancy grows. As the Manhattan Institute's PublicSectorInc.org website observes, some truly brave California cops and firefighters can retire after 20 years of service while earning 90 percent of their salaries. Average taxpayers in their 40s do not see such sweetheart deals, nor should average tax consumers.

    • Government workers should pay unions dues only if they wish, and only after unions bill them directly. Walker stopped Wisconsin's automatic dues collection on behalf of unions such as the Wisconsin Educators' Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Private bosses do not collect rent for their employees' landlords. They do not subtract auto dealers' car payments from their staffers' paychecks, nor do they deduct workers' credit-card obligations from their wages and transfer them to Visa or American Express. So, why should unions grab dues money even before workers see their paychecks? Unions should bill members for their services, without their employers' assistance, just as every other vendor does.

    • Government workers only should belong to unions voluntarily. AFSCME's Wisconsin chapter, for instance, has plunged from 62,818 members pre-Walker to 28,745 today. This strongly suggests that, of its previous head count, 34,073 (54.2 percent) were hostages rather than members. Like unlocking the doors at a rap concert, those who feel like guests can remain. Those who feel like captives can leave. This is called freedom. Government-union bosses should look into it.

    Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

    Comment by clicking here.

    Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.



    Previously:

    06/01/12: Regulators regulate, and that's a problem

    05/25/12: WWII hero Karski to receive U.S. Medal of Freedom

    05/18/12: Not the behavior of normal Americans

    05/18/12: Spacemen to NASA: Cool it on global warming

    05/04/12: Libs want to plunge the penthouse

    04/27/12: Obama and company are pushing hard on the pedal for deadlier cars

    04/20/12: We don't need no stinkin' budget?

    04/14/12: New Reasons to Hate Obamacare

    04/06/12: Team Obama plays energy policy for laughs

    03/30/12: Twitchy Dems need to let workers put tax-cut money in retirement funds

    03/23/12: Why not $100-an-hour minimum wage?

    03/15/12: The real (high) cost of Obama's health care act

    03/09/12: Race-baiting Dems oppose voter ID

    03/02/12: Forget kids --- today's debt hurts adults

    02/24/12: Dems arise against Obamacare

    02/17/12: The voting dead are understated

    02/10/12: Holder takes on 'racist' photo-ID cards: Prejudice is widespread --- even Obama backed them

    02/03/12: On tax plans, Gingrich trumps Romney

    01/27/12: Photo IDs can protect elections, let dead rest

    01/20/12: Romney runs hot and cold on global warming

    01/13/12: Economic freedom declines in U.S.

    01/06/12: Time to yank off Mitt's mask

    12/23/11: Boehner hands Dems a gift

    12/15/11: The U.S. could learn much from Hong Kong

    12/09/11:$687 billion is available to Congress free of strings

    12/02/11: Obama criticizes Wall Street but takes money from it

    11/18/11: Puerto Rico shows Washington the way

    11/11/11: Take heed, America: In Ohio even left-wing unionists voted to repeal ObamaCare

    10/28/11: Thanks, Netanyahu, for surge of hardened terrorists

    10/24/11:The Obama Spend-O-Rama

    10/17/11: Cain stakes his viable claim just by showing up

    10/07/11: Green jobs are national scandal

    10/04/11: Obama proudly declares class war

    09/23/11: Obama wrong about ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress

    09/16/11: Obama needs Ryan's vision on jobs

    09/09/11: Reaganomics trounces Obamanomics

    09/02/11: Labor leaders to Obama: Stop killing jobs

    08/26/11: Pro-market Perry vaults over Romney in GOP race

    08/19/11: Some rich Americans will not rest until Washington boosts their taxes

    08/12/11: Hope, change and free birth control for all

    08/05/11: Debt deal does virtually nothing

    07/21/11: Dems pro-choice on abortion but little else

    07/15/11: Debt deception: If only Dems were honest and GOPers were courageous

    07/08/11: Congress' war on light bulb blows up





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