Brett McMahon

This week’s news that the AFL-CIO has named Craig Becker, the former SEIU attorney who Obama appointed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), as its new co-general counsel is a reminder that Senator Orrin Hatch was right to grill Becker when President Obama nominated him to serve on the NLRB and that Hatch’s Senate colleagues were right to reject his nomination. (more)

“That’s a nice business you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” (more)

In his all-too-brief Austin Powers fez-wearing role, Will Ferrell is dropped down the villain’s secret chute into a pit of fire, where he intermittently cries for help and pleads “I’m still alive, only I’m very badly burned.” He would know what it is like to be a business owner under President Obama. (more)

There are many reasons why individuals choose to go into business in this country. We are blessed to have many freedoms here, including the ability to choose in which state to operate our businesses. Unfortunately — and somewhat typically — the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is now attempting to govern such basic entrepreneurial economic decisions. (more)

When the president announced that a federal government shutdown had been averted, he noted it was “a debate about spending cuts, not social issues.” (more)

It seems like lately at every turn the National Labor Relations Board tries something new to upend years of fair workplace practices and standards. As the board drifts more and more into being an official taxpayer-funded extension of Big Labor, it gives new meaning to the old adage, “if you can’t win the game, change the rules.” (more)

Like any fiscal conservative furious about runaway government spending, I have a wish list of programs (and some whole departments) that could be trimmed or eliminated. These usually are the classic government bloat, elected representatives’ pet programs, or simply areas where local governments or private enterprises could provide more efficient and better services. (more)

The annual Union Members Summary—the U.S. labor unions’ own State of the Union—encourages us to assess the state of the unionized workforce. And, much like the profit margins and job-loss the rest of America has experienced, the construction union outlook proves no better. (more)