At National Review’s The Corner, there are several good posts refuting organized labor’s claim that the Employee Free Choice Act will still allow secret-ballot elections. In theory, yes. In the real world, of course not. Never, ever.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tried to sell the unbelievable argument in the otherwise obfuscation-free interview Sunday on Fox News. (Passage here.) Former NLRB member Peter Kirsanow responds here.

Rep. Hoyer’s assertion on Fox News Sunday that EFCA wouldn’t eliminate secret ballot union elections but would present merely an alternative method for union certification is accurate. It’s also wildly disingenuous. No union, upon obtaining the requisite 50% +1 of union authorization cards, is going to petition for an election when at that point the union can be instantly certified under EFCA.

Hoyer knows perfectly well that employees may act differently in the privacy of the voting booth than when asked to sign a card in the presence of co-workers and union agents. Unions know this, too. That’s precisely why EFCA would cause the extinction of secret ballot union elections.

The good news for EFCA opponents is that if this is Hoyer’s best defense of EFCA, he knows the bill’s got problems.

See also these comments.

In a separate post, Kirsanow makes the important point that the “card check” component of the Employee Free Choice Act is not the only objectionable provision, and indeed, the binding arbitration requirements also make the legislation unacceptable.

For some time, experts close to the EFCA debate have maintained that the strategy of EFCA proponents was to compromise on either the bill’s card check provision or the mandatory arbitration provision in order to enhance the probability that at least one of those provisions would pass. Some contended that mandatory arbitration was always the principal goal of EFCA supporters.

Doubt it has ever been the principal goal, but binding arbitration is clearly a priority for labor. We covered that part of the debate here.

Do they coordinate their outfits, too, these comic strip cartoonists? “OK, Monday is pink shirt, blue tie and let’s do a strip on the newspaper business.” In today’s Washington Post…

Brewster Rockit, Space Guy

Mother Goose and Grimm

Traveling across the country Saturday, we had the opportunity to read local newspaper stories reacting to the ISM’s December Manufacturing Report. Grim.

AP national story, and the New York Times writes, “Manufacturing Reports Show Depth of Global Downturn.” Grim.

Creighton University’s Ernie Goss uses the ISM methodology to rank the economies midwestern states, so here’s that story, “Survey: Recession will worsen in the months ahead,” and the sidebar,”Mid-America survey state-by-state glance.” Grim.

But then, instead of grimmer, a glimmer. From the New York Times, “Some Forecasters See a Fast Economic Recovery“:

In the midst of the deepest recession in the experience of most Americans, many professional forecasters are optimistically heading into the new year declaring that the worst may soon be over.

For this rosy picture to play out, they are counting on the Obama administration and Congress to come through with a substantial stimulus package, at least $675 billion over two years.

They say that will get the economy moving again in the face of persistently weak spending by consumers and businesses, not to mention banks that are reluctant to extend credit.

Even with the conditions, we’ll take the offering of optimism.

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, makes the important point in today’s Wall Street Journal that any economic stimulus legislation should emphasize improving long-term U.S. productivity. Given the economic and budgetary stakes, let’s put the money where it does the most good.

Senator Gregg’s comments on infrastructure and taxation are right on the mark. From “How to Make Sure the Stimulus Works“:

[If] we’re going to have an infrastructure feeding frenzy, make sure government builds public works that will make us more productive as a nation. We all love swing sets and water parks, but recovery is not about soccer games or Main Street beautification. This is about bringing the nation out of this recession in a manner that makes us more competitive in the international market. We need things like roads, bridges, mass transit capital expansion, integrated IT in public industries like health care, and military recapitalization. The test should be simple: Is it necessary and will it make us more competitive as a nation?…

[We] must cut taxes for job creators. This is one thing Republicans did when we had the magic wand, and it worked. The growth in tax revenues from 2002 through 2007 were some of the largest in history. The tax system became much more progressive, with the top 20% of income earners paying 85% of the taxes — a rate much higher than during the Clinton years — all while keeping capital-gains rates low.

We’d guess the idea of reviving the WPA “Federal Writers’ Project” to pay out-of-work newspaper reporters to chronicle his brave new age would not be a priority under this approach. Yes, some people are seriously proposing it. Give us a viaduct instead.

Last month the New York Court of Appeals ruled that maps of NYC sidewalk failures — cracks, bumps, etc. — funded by plaintiff’s attorneys could not be used in lawsuits because of their inaccuracies and lack of clarity. From the New York Times, “Ruling Deals a Setback to Sidewalk Injury Lawsuits in New York”:

They were conceived by a group of trial lawyers who hired a mapping company to scour the streets and sketch every crack, chink and pothole, with the ostensible purpose of giving the city notice of potential hazards it must fix, or face the consequences. When someone fell and was injured on a city sidewalk — the most frequent ground for a personal-injury lawsuit against the city — he could present the map in court as hard evidence of the city’s liability.

City officials have long attacked the maps as nothing more than a useless collection of “700,000 squiggles,” created by greedy lawyers, that has forced them to parse the intricacies of geometry — is that line horizontal or vertical? — and cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards and settlements.

Turns out the city and property owners have long been bedeviled by slip-and-sue litigation. Consider this passage from a popular radio program of the 1950s, “Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator,” the “Girl on the Doorstep” episode, February 15, 1953 (audio clip here):

Doorbell rings.

Apartment Super: What do you want?

Craig: I’m sorry I had to wake you, there’s been a small accident.

Apartment Super: Yeah, what kind of an accident?

Craig: Somebody slipped on the ice in front of the building.

Apartment Super: What are you, a lawyer?

Craig: No, no.

Apartment Super: Nobody could have slipped in front of the building, I put plenty of ashes on the ice. It ain’t slippery.

News we missed during our extended solstice siesta, from the Department of Energy, a January 2 news release:

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Department of Energy today announced that it plans to take advantage of the recent large decline in crude oil prices, and has issued a solicitation to purchase approximately 12 million barrels of crude oil for the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to replenish SPR supplies sold following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

In addition, DOE is also moving forward with three other SPR acquisition and/or fill activities in order to fill the SPR as Congress directed in the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct): refiner repayments of SPR emergency oil releases following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike; the delivery of deferred royalty-in-kind (RIK) oil; and the solicitation of new RIK deliveries in the spring of 2009.

The ban on SPR purchases contained in the ‘‘Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act of 2008’’ expired December 30, allowing the renewed purchases.

The law went into effect on May 18 and the price of crude oil topped out above $140 a barrel at the end of June. Since then, down, down, down. Who would have thought an SPR moratorium would work such a powerful effect on prices?

Mark Steyn notes the column by Steve Forbes urging President-elect Obama to stimulate economic growth by emulating Ireland’s corporate tax rates and adds:

To a certain type of simple-minded populist, the idea of soaking vast faceless corporations is appealing. But in the end a “corporation” cannot pay tax: The Globocorp corporate HQ looming in chrome and steel over the skyline does not have a pocket to dip into. Like all taxes, the actual cash has to be ponied up by flesh-and-blood human beings - the owners, workers and employees of the corporation. The growing gap between US corporate rates and other developed nations is a massive disincentivization for real human beings to start and grow a business here. And for those already here it encourages the kind of short-term thinking that leads to Bailoutistan and American sclerosis.

The 111th Congress begins, Presidents ex- and -elect meet. President-elect Obama and his family have sconced to Washington (the Hay-Adams), and he meets this afternoon with Congressional leadership on the economy. More groups lay claim to financial relief and economic stimulus legislation. Or so one anticipates.

Rod Blagojevich. Roland Burris. Norm Coleman. Al Franken. Bill Richardson. Caroline Kennedy. Etc.

The House convenes at noon Tuesday, adopts its rules, and on Wednesday meets in joint session to count the electoral ballots. Also on the floor agenda are two prominent bills passed in the last House, expanding the grounds for suing employers on wage and gender discrimination: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. For the House floor schedule, see the Majority Leader’s weekly report.

The Senate also convenes Tuesday noon. Even before the nominations are made official, Senate committees begin (pre-)confirmation hearings. Senate HELP Committee hears from Tom Daschle for HHS Secretary on Thursday, and Rep. Hilda Solis for Labor on Friday.

President Bush hosts a private lunch Wednesday for President-elect Obama and the former presidents, Ford, Carter, Clinton and the first Bush. Will they screen Frost/Nixon? President-elect Obama is expected to give a major speech on the economy on Thursday.

Traffic will be HORRIBLE this week in D.C.

House Hearings: House Financial Services kicks off a busy week today with “Assessing the Madoff Ponzi and the Need for Regulatory Reform.” On Wednesday, it meets on “Priorities for the Next Administration: Use of TARP Funds under EESA.” Also Wednesday, House Education and Labor holds a “forum” — not a bipartisan hearing, with authority to act — “An Economic Recovery and Job Creation Plan.” (See this article in The Hill.)

Senate Hearings: On Thursday, Senate Energy and Natural resources holds a hearing on energy security challenges. Also Thursday, Environment and Public Works meets for “Oversight Hearing on the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Recent Major Coal Ash Spill.”

Executive Branch: President Bush and the First Lady have dinner tonight with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders. On Tuesday, he hosts a lunch for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mrs. Ban Soon-taek. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks Wednesday in D.C. at the Economic Club, “Role of the GSEs in Supporting the Housing Recovery.” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab is in Geneva today and holds a press briefing there Tuesday. She then travels to Las Vegas for the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Economic Reports: The big report this week comes from the Department of Labor on Friday, December employment figures. For the full week’s list of reports, see this Briefing.com entry.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was on Meet the Press this morning, interviewed by the new permanent host, David Gregory. Senator Reid described the economic stimulus legislation, inclusively.

SEN. REID: We have a country like we’ve never seen before, promise nationally and internationally. We also have to realize that it must be done on a bipartisan basis. Whatever we do must be done on a bipartisan basis. And we must recognize the economy is in deep trouble and we have to do something about jobs, infrastructure–that’s roads, highways, bridges, dams, water systems, sewer systems, classrooms, laboratories, libraries. And I think we should also understand there’s a manufacturing component we need, retooling. We have to do something with batteries, battery systems, maybe do something with lithium batteries. And of course, we also have to do something with housing. It is in the toilet, they say, and it is. Nevada leads the nation in foreclosures. We also have to do something to make our country more secure, and the way to do that is to have energy independence. That has to be part of the economic recovery program, energy independence, which includes a smart grid. We also have to have, as President-elect Obama has said time and time again, a middle class, a working men and women tax cut. And we need to do that. We have to give state–relief to states. Forty-four states are deeply in the red, the other six are barely not in the red, and we have to give them relief. In Nevada, for example, David, at our University Medical Center in Las Vegas, they stopped cancer treatment. People who are in Las Vegas–two weeks ago, women who had breast cancer treatment were said, “We have no place for you to go.” They had to leave the state to do that. We have–we need to take care of that. It’s a very, very important. So those are the things we need to do.

That’s a long paragraph, but it accurately reflects the comments.

Senator Reid declined to provide what he determined as a “false deadline” for passing legislation. He said the Senate would be working nights and weekends.

BTW, David Gregory did a very good job today in following up on questions. In White House Q&As, his hectoring and posturing got awfully tiresome, but he’s been a good host so far on MTP.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says there will be no stimulus bill for a brand-new President Obama to sign into law on January 20. Seems like a major shift in political positioning, but one that could lead to more well-considered, effective legislation. There are already so many claims being made on a stimulus bill that somebody’s bound to be disappointed to the tune of billions of dollars. That being the case, why not produce something that will work economically — we hope — rather than just please constituencies?

In any case, the Majority Leader’s comments on Fox News Sunday (interviewed by Chris Wallace) display a seriousness of purpose and absence of feigning and feinting. Very good. Much appreciated.

WALLACE: Now, there are reports that House Democrats may push for a vote on this not this week but the next week. Is that something that you have in mind?

HOYER: We had talked about that. I think that’s probably going to slip. It’s probably going to slip because this has been a complicated effort and a cooperative effort between the Congress and the incoming administration.

And again, we want to do this right. We want to have people know what we’re doing, and we want to make sure that we can accomplish the objectives that we see.

WALLACE: So let me — give me a little bit of a timetable.

HOYER: OK.

WALLACE: And I’m not going to — obviously, you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Do you think that the House can pass this before Inauguration Day?

HOYER: Chris, I doubt that, frankly. In talking to Chairman Obey this week, it’s going to be very difficult to get the package put together that early so that it can have sufficient time to be reviewed, and then sufficient time to be debated and passed.

But we certainly want to see this package passed through the House of Representatives no later than the end of this month, get it over to the Senate, and have it to the president before we break for the presidential break.

WALLACE: And that’s mid-February.

HOYER: Early February, yeah.