Why so many want to secede from the southern part of the state: Click here to view this email as a web page Newsmax Insider Report from Newsmax Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Federal Employees Working Full-Time for Their Unions 2. California Suffering From Misplaced Priorities 3. Al-Qaida in Yemen Joining Forces With ISIS 4. Mississippi Offers Biggest Bang for the Buck 5. GOP Backers Funding Attacks on Sen. Begich in Alaska Get the Cap – Send Obama a Message! 1. Federal Employees Working Full-Time for Their Unions Hundreds of federal employees are working full-time for their unions rather than the agencies that pay their salaries. At the IRS, 286 full-time staffers worked exclusively for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) while collecting federal paychecks in 2012, the latest year for which statistics are available. The IRS provides not only salaries but also office space and equipment to NTEU agents representing 92,000 IRS workers, the Washington Times reported. The IRS deputy commissioner calculates that these union workers spent 573,319 hours on NTEU business that year, the equivalent of 286 full-time employees performing only union labor. Taxpayers also shelled out $687,400 in travel expenses for the union operatives. The union naturally wants greater benefits, bigger salaries and more handsome bonuses, so Congress pays the union to do it, the Times reported. More than 90 percent of NTEU campaign contributions go to Democrats, according to Kenric Ward, a reporter for Watchdog.org. And the unions president is Colleen Kelley, an Obama appointee to the Federal Salary Council, which consults with the government on how much to pay federal workers. Theyre not working for taxpayers. Instead, theyre working against the agency by bringing grievances and trying to increase the cost to taxpayers through collective bargaining agreements, Nathan Mehrens, president of Americans for Limited Government, told Watchdog.org, a project of the nonprofit Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. The IRS is not the only federal agency where employees work full time on union business. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 250 employees are working full time for one of four unions, according to Mehrens organization. At the Department of Transportation, 35 employees work exclusively for a union, some receiving annual salaries of more than $170,000. The Environmental Protection Agency pays more than $1.6 million a year to employees who work full time for their union. Altogether, taxpayers spent around $156 million on federal employees who did no federal work at all in 2012, Mehrens said. Amy Kremer, former chair of the national Tea Party Express, told Watchdog: Ive always said that no taxpayer money should go to fund any union activity whatsoever, especially partisan politics. Editors Note: 9 Overlooked Free Benefits for People Over 50 2. California Suffering From Misplaced Priorities The nations most populous state is battling double-barreled calamities — Californias agriculture is in a downward spiraling due to drought, and its debt is soaring amid increasing immigration and staggering pension obligations. But perhaps an even bigger problem facing the state is misplaced priorities, according to Forbes contributor Thomas Del Beccaro. California has seen a wave of immigration over several decades and now has more than 38 million residents, with an equal number of Latinos and non-Hispanic whites. But projections show that the population will continue to grow due to immigration and could reach 50 million within two decades. That should mean Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown would place a high priority on job creation. But that is not the case today, according to Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party and a frequent radio and television commentator. California has one of Americas highest unemployment rates. And with 12 percent of the nations population, the state has 30 percent of the countrys welfare recipients. Debt at the state and municipal levels stands at more than $1.1 trillion, much of that tied to pensions. Gov. Brown recently signed a large tax increase with a top rate of 13.3 percent, and California taxes are 42 percent higher than in Texas. The Golden State also has implemented a 15-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase to fight climate change — all factors not likely to spur new job creation in the state. On top of that, California is in the midst of a three-year drought that is estimated to result in economic losses of $2.2 billion in the states agriculture industry this year alone, plus the loss of more than 17,000 jobs. But rather than focus on these problems, Del Beccaro writes that Gov. Brown has focused his energies on bringing high-speed rail to the state. He rejected an $11.3 billion water bond proposal, insisting it was too expensive, but sought $68 billion for high-speed rail despite the lack of consumer demand. The rail line would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco and allow for future connections to San Diego and Sacramento. But studies by several independent observers estimate that far fewer riders will use the rail line than the rail authority projects. Gov. Brown did ultimately agree to a $2.5 billion bond for water storage, a figure woefully short of what is needed, Del Beccaro asserts. He concludes: By emphasizing high-speed rail over water and failing to deal with its debt crisis, California poses a long-term threat to our national economy and is on an economic collision course with increased immigration and lack of water.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 14:34:29 +0000
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