Commentary

Millenials voted for Obama and now they’ll have to live with less than their parents

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Moderate conservative George Will writes about in Investors Business Daily. This is a good review of what’s happening in the economy.

Excerpt:

The reason why unemployment fell by four-tenths of a point (to 6.3%) in April while growth stalled is that 806,000 people left the labor force.

The labor-force participation rate fell by four-tenths of a point to a level reached in 1978, which was during the Carter-era stagflation and early in the surge of women into the workforce.

There are about 14.5 million more Americans than before the recession but nearly 300,000 fewer jobs, and household income remains below the pre-recession peak.

[…]The more than $1.1 trillion of student loan debt — the fastest-growing debt category, larger than credit-card or auto-loan debt — is restraining consumption, as is the retirement of baby boomers. In 2012, more than 70% of college graduates had student loan debts averaging about $30,000.

This commencement season’s diploma recipients enter an economy where more than 40% of recent graduates are either unemployed or in jobs that do not require a college degree. This is understandable, given that 44% of the job growth since the recession ended has been in food services, retail clerking or other low-wage jobs.

In April, the number of persons under 25 in the workforce declined by 484,000. Unsurprisingly, almost one in three (31%) persons 18 to 34 are living with their parents, including 25% who have jobs.

[…]There is, however, something new under the sun. The Pew Research Center reports that Americans 25 to 32 — “millennials” — constitute the first age cohort since World War II with higher unemployment or a greater portion living in poverty than their parents at this age.

Now it’s not just that the young people are having trouble paying off their loans and leaving the nest, it’s that they also are going to inherit a debit that has more than doubled since they elected Obama the first time. This is serious, now. If you are a young person, you’d better have a plan to be borrowing as little as possible, working as much as possible, saving as much as possible, and studying only what can get you a job. Things have changed since the time of your parents. You will have to work harder to achieve less. You voted for it.

News

Republican governor Mary Fallin signs incremental pro-life law in Oklahoma

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Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (Rep.)
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (R)

A story from Life Site News on one of my favorite Republican governors!

Excerpt:

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed the nation’s newest admitting privileges law for abortion doctors on Wednesday.

The law, which passed the state Senate 34-9 and the state House 60-8, specifies that while abortions are being performed, abortion facilities must have a physician on its premises with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.

The law also requires the State Board of Health to create equipment, training, and other standards for abortion clinics. Clinics must also report any injured abortion patients to the Board of Health and “appropriate licensing and regulatory boards” in writing, as well as if any “born-alive” children are injured.

For abortion clinic owners, violations of the Board of Health’s standards bear legal and financial burdens. “The operation of an unlicensed facility will be considered a felony, and any reckless violation of the measure or its standards will be considered a felony. Any violation of the measure may result in a civil penalty or a fine not to exceed $25,000,” the law states.

[…]Fallin’s administration has overseen passage of numerous pro-life laws, including two restricting the use of RU-486. Her state joins nearby Texas and Missouri in requiring the admitting privileges. Similar laws have been enacted in Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, and have been blocked in Alabama, Mississippi, and Wisconsin while courts hear challenges. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is expected to sign a similar law this week.

The Texas law has been particularly successful in closing abortion clinics, with at least one-third of the state’s abortion centers closing since the law was enacted.

Hard to say right now which state, Oklahoma or Texas, is doing a better job at reducing the number of abortions and protecting women who choose to abort. Every time you cut into the profits that people collect for killing babies, fewer people are going to want to do it. Republicans have been doing a good job since 2010 of really slamming out tons and tons of pro-life bills – at least in red states. It’s not surprising to me that clinics are closing in these states and the number of abortions is going down as a result. It’s not as profitable as it used to be.

Now if we could just win a presidential election and cut off the flow of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, we’d see a lot fewer abortions.

News

Maine demands that pro-marriage group reveal donor names

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ABC News reports.

Excerpt:

Maine’s ethics panel fined a national anti-gay marriage group more than $50,000 on Wednesday and ordered it to reveal the donors who backed its efforts to repeal the state’s gay marriage law.

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices found that the National Organization for Marriage violated campaign finance laws by failing to properly register as a ballot question committee and file financial reports in the 2009 referendum that struck down gay marriage. Same-sex unions were legalized by voters in 2012.

The commission also ruled that the organization must file a campaign finance report, which would force it to disclose the names of its donors. The National Organization for Marriage has fought for years to keep its donor list secret, saying doing so would put its contributors at risk for harassment and intimidation.

[…]”We didn’t create a scheme, we tried to follow the law,” Brian Brown, president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization, told the four-member panel on Wednesday.

Brown, who served as executive director of the National Organization for Marriage in 2009, was one of three members of the committee that led the Stand for Marriage Maine PAC.

Commissioners said his dual role and the fact that the national group controlled a majority of the PAC’s funds was problematic for its argument that the funds weren’t raised to influence the Maine campaign.

The group says that it’s being targeted because of its stance on gay marriage and that groups on the other side of the issue — such as the Human Rights Campaign — followed the same guidelines.

State investigators said that its examination of the National Organization for Marriage actions was brought by a specific complaint and that the organization could have sought a similar investigation into the Human Rights Campaign.

John Eastman, a National Organization for Marriage lawyer, said that it intends to file a complaint against HRC in addition to filing an appeal.

The Human Rights Campaign mentioned in the article called the Family Research Council a “hate group”. The FRC was the target of an act of domestic terrorism by a gay activist who also thought that the Family Research Council was a “hate group”. The Human Rights Campaign was also implicated in the IRS leak of NOM donors.

What will gay activists do with the list of donor names? Ask Brendan Eich what they will do with it.