Daily Catch: Defending the Sweetser Speaker, Medicaid Keynesianism, Big Labor’s Big Loss

Liberals rush to protect the Sweetser Speaker: After 26 House Republicans signed a letter asking House Speaker Mark W. Eves (D-North Berwick) to recuse himself from the Medicaid expansion debate due to a potential conflict of interest, the main stream media has finally caught notice. (It might also help that the Speaker’s crude attempts at intimidating his GOP colleagues became public: Report: Speaker Eves coming unglued over conflict allegations.) Rather quickly liberals have emerged to protect the top advocate for expansion. The reliably left-wing Ethan Strimling and somewhat less opinionated Steve Mistler both brought forth their best defenses for the Sweetser Speaker.  For the record, passing Medicaid expansion would mean a surge of more than $20 million for Sweetser, where Eves serves as Director of Business Development – talk about developing business!

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Long v. MECEP: Rep. Ricky Long (R-Sherman) takes liberal think tank director Garrett Martin to task over his “pie-in-the-sky” economic predictions regarding Medicaid expansion: “Democrats sold us some similar snake oil years ago when they said expanding Medicaid would reduce emergency room usage, charity care and the number of uninsured. Instead, all of those promises fell flat, and we were left with a $500 million hospital debt and annual budget shortfalls that left thousands of disabled Mainers on waitlists and crowded out funding for education and other priorities.”

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“Who Benefits from a Higher Minimum Wage?”: The Wall Street Journal assesses President Barack Obama’s executive order to raise the minimum wage under federal contracts to $10.10 per hour. Using census data, WSJ shows that 55.5 percent of people benefiting from the increase earn more than $35,000 per year

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Who’s buying political influence?: If you’ve spent a few minutes talking with a progressive, you’ve probably had to listen to some conspiracy theory about the “evil” Koch brothers spending millions of dollars to thwart champions of hope, change, and progressive policies. As Jim Hoft over at TheGatewayPundit.com notes, “Democrats hate the Koch brothers. They believe the Koch brothers are the root of all evil because they donate to Republicans and conservative causes.” But Hoft goes on to show that the Kochs actually rank 59^th in political donations behind 18 different labor unions. The biggest source of political spending? The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees – a union comprised entirely of taxpayer-funded government employees. “Remember this the next time you read an article by some leftist demonizing the Koch Brothers,” Hoft concludes.

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Big Labor suffers defeat in Tennessee: The United Auto Workers suffered a tremendous defeat on Friday, as employees at a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Volkswagen plant rejected union representation by a vote of 712-626. Even though the collective bargaining agreement was not openly opposed by Volkswagen, employees still decided UAW representation was not valuable. “If the union can’t win [in Chattanooga], it can’t win anywhere,” said Steve Silvia, an economics and trade professor at American University, according to the Wall Street Journal. As BusinessWeek.com notes, the legacy of Detroit continues to haunt unions.

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Buyer’s Remorse: A new poll from Economist/YouGov.com shows 71 percent of Obama voters, including 55 percent of Democrats, “regret” voting for President Obama’s reelection in 2012. The poll asked, “Do you regret voting for Barack Obama?”

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Sebelius Denies O’Care Job Loss: “There is absolutely no evidence, and every economist will tell you this, that there is any job-loss related to the Affordable Care Act,” Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters in Orlando, Fla., on Monday. Sebelius’ comments stand in stark contrast to a report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which said the health care law will cause Americans to cut work hours. The reduction in work hours will equal 2 million fewer full-time jobs in 2017 and is predicted to grow as Obamacare’s implementation continues and more American’s react to his work disincentives.

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Chihuahuas Gone Wild: Roaming bands of stray Chihuahuas are wreaking havoc in Arizona.