Under the Government’s Wing
I see, in the paper that cannot be linked, that Senator Whitehouse is leading the charge on legislation that would increase the difficulty of development in some coastal areas of Newport and Middletown “to prevent habitate and property damage”: The protections under the Coastal Barrier Resource System would be extended to an additional 45 acres…
Small business president Gerry Auclair has observed an interesting conundrum arising from the effect of government subsidies in society. He participated in a program through Workforce of Rhode Island to hire and train an employee as a sewing-machine operator, which essentially provided a $5,000 subsidy for the company’s cost of employing her, but: Then, in…
Reading about Rhode Island’s effort to return its unemployment fund to solvency in yesterday’s Providence Journal, I got the impression of a system so counterproductive that only government officials could conceive of it (and getting worse): The employers’ payments are determined by the number of former workers qualifying for payments; those paying the highest taxes…
Yes, the story isn’t as simple as a gut reaction allows, but broken down into a summary, this story feels like a cautionary tale of the leviathan state: David Whitaker’s cooperation with the Google investigation was called extraordinary several times during his sentencing [for Internet fraud crimes] in U.S. District Court in Providence. Assistant U.S.…
So, the Obama administration has given Rhode Island another $58 million to work on its government-run healthcare exchange, along with compliments for being so resourceful as to skip the legislative process in its implementation. At this point, the federal government shuffling around money that it doesn’t have is hardly news, nor is the Obama administration’s…
It’s a substantially different issue from the banalization of Christmas trees, in a number of ways, but I think there’s something of the same mentality as emerged from Morgan Hill, CA, here summarized by Glenn Garvin: … When a federal judge in San Francisco ruled earlier this month that school administrators in a California town…
Some have accused me of having an “obsession” with the Occupy protesters. Many think I have contempt for them. However, upon introspection, I don’t think this is true. I think “frustration” might be a better word. I think we can all agree that the government is broken. Much of our system is broken. I like…
In a Providence Journal op-ed (which now apparently inevitably means “not online”), Sandy Riojas and Daniel Harrop argue in favor of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. The first part of their argument is that President Ronald Reagan would have supported their side of the debate. As admirable and iconic as Reagan may have been, a…
Let’s state, right up front, that I don’t think most people who receive food stamps are living in the lap of luxury. Yes, one often hears of folks who’ve got the whole system figured out and seem to do pretty well making a job of milking the system, but presenting them as a majority of…
Moderate Party founder Ken Block has been circulating an interesting letter: I have been waiting for someone to call out Bob Walsh on his comments in the September, 22, 2011 Providence Journal article “Business Coalition Backs R.I. Pension Reform.” Since no one else has yet taken Mr. Walsh to task, I will now do so.…