The Heritage Insider: The President is still not a king, tax cut options, mandatory collective bargaining costs you, Garland's record, and facts on the pay gap

April 16, 2016

 

 

This coming week, the Supreme Court will hear the challenge to the President’s immigration order. The case raises the same question that confronted the English at Runnymede. Tax cuts for the middle class are popular, but the choices aren’t all equal. The gender pay gap is still a myth. Mandatory collective bargaining for public workers costs you at least $600 per year. How often does the President’s Supreme Court nominee defer to government agencies? Plus, over 40 new studies, articles, speeches, videos, and events at The Insider this week. Visit to see what the conservative movement has been thinking, writing, saying, and doing to win battles for liberty.  

 

 

The President is still not a king. This coming week, the Supreme Court will hear the state of Texas’s challenge to President Obama’s immigration order granting “legal presence” to 4 million illegal immigrants. As Michael McConnell explains, the president’s action amounts to an exercise of what the Founders understood to be a “dispensing power.” The Take Care clause was put into the Constitution in order to make it clear that the President has no such power. [Hoover Institution]

 

Which tax cuts? Tax relief for the middle class is a popular idea, but not all tax cut options are equal. Some will accomplish greater simplification of the code, while others will have bigger economic effects. Alex Brill outlines the tradeoffs. [American Enterprise Institute]

 

There is no gender pay gap. As Diana Furchtgott-Roth writes, when you take into account education, skills, and hours worked, women earn at least 94 cents for every dollar earned by men. And “[s]ingle, childless female workers under 30 earn $1.08 for every dollar earned by their respective male counterparts.” [Manhattan Institute]

 

Does union collective bargaining for public workers increase government spending? Yes, according to a new analysis by Geoffrey Lawrence, James Sherk, Kevin D. Dayaratna, and Cameron Belt. The authors find that mandatory collective bargaining increases total state and local government spending by between $600 and $750 per person per year. [The Heritage Foundation]

 

Garland defers to the government often. President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, has a strong record of deferring to the government in disputes over government regulations. According to the National Federation of Independent Business’s scorecard, Garland has “sided with the government in nearly 80 percent of the cases involving federal regulatory agencies.” And “[i]n cases involving private businesses, he ruled against them 90 percent of the time.” [National Federation of Independent Business]

 

Don’t forget to register for Resource Bank, which will be April 20 – 22 in Philadelphia. The speakers include: Lary Arnn, Sam Brownback, Richard Epstein, Neal Freeman, Alan Charles Kors, Ed Meese III, Richard Viguerie, Walter Williams, and Kevin Williamson.

 

 

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