On one of the New Year's Eve specials, they were asking members of Congress what their goals were for 2009. I was very surprised with how few of them mentioned the economy in any fashion. I think they need to work on fixing the economy first. I think it is clearly the biggest issue facing our country right now, and that seems to be reflected in the vast majority of polls. But Congress just doesn't seem to get it.
Unfortunately, with the many band-aid bailouts that were passed in 2008, Congress seemed unwilling to even consider the long-term effects of what they were doing. They didn't provide adequate methods for oversight or regulation of how the bailout money was spent. And since the money was handed out, there have been a lot of news stories about how some of that money was wasted. It doesn't seem logical to me that wasting additional taxpayer money will create long-term growth for the economy.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Minority Leader in the Senate, has been one of the few Congressional representatives who is talking about fixing the economy every chance he gets. He is making two key points. The first is that we don't waste any additional tax dollars. The second point is that any economic stimulus/recovery plan needs to be well thought out. I strongly agree with both of those points. We need to make sure that any short-term fix doesn't have major negative long-term consequences.
One of the areas I am most concerned about is the power that President-elect Obama and the large Democratic majority in Congress will have to repay political favors. Repaying those favors may come at the expense of truly fixing the economy. For instance, labor unions spent well over $300 million to help elect Obama and strengthen the Democratic majority in Congress. Now it seems the unions expect to get repaid for their support by having Congress quickly pass the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the "Card Check" bill.
This bill would take away secret ballot elections in businesses where unions want to organize. I have no problems with unions when the workers decide on their own to form one. Especially in business sectors involving dangerous materials or processes, unions can serve a great purpose to protect worker safety. But it doesn't seem to make any sense to take away the workers' right to decide whether to unionize in a secret ballot election. Just as people were intimidated and coerced to vote certain ways in political elections in the early days of this country, the same thing would happen to workers who weren't able to keep their votes secret. It would effectively stifle a lot of the debate because people with dissenting viewpoints would be opening themselves up to retaliation.
Plus, the fear of harassment could lead to "push-button" unions in a lot of businesses that really don't require them - like very small businesses. Small businesses have always been the driving force of job growth and this bill could stifle them under excessive regulations. And that would really hurt the long-term prospects for the economy. I saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working to make sure everyone knows about the potential negative effects of this bill. I encourage the other readers to sign their petition or directly contact their Congressional representative and ask them to protect worker privacy, fix the economy first, and fix the economy in the right way to ensure long-term growth. Here's a link to the petition and some more information about the bill - friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=178
