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Obama's Truly Radical Idea

By Clint Bolick

Exhibit A in Sen. Barack Obama's case that he is the women's candidate, despite Sen. John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, is that "she's opposed, like John McCain is, to equal pay for equal work."

Did I miss something? Did Sarah Palin, suffused with subliminal notions of female inferiority, rebate back a portion of her paycheck as governor because the incumbent she ousted was a man? I don't think so.

After all, the Equal Pay Act, which compels equal pay for equal work, has been federal law for 45 years and I haven't detected a clamor to repeal it. So Obama must mean something other than what he's saying.

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Buckeye Voices

Clint Bolick, litigation director at Arizona's Goldwater Institute, researched the hot presidential campaign topic of equal pay. Mr. Bolick found that the debate is not over the Equal Pay Act, which became law 45 years ago. Rather, the debate surrounds Senator Barack Obama's radical "Fair Pay Act," which was rejected by a majority of senators included Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Listen to Mr. Bolick discuss the issue with David Hansen on BuckeyeVoices.

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Featured Event

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A Bad Gamble

The Akron Beacon Journal reports, "A proposed southwest Ohio casino could generate up to $232 million in annual tax revenue, but it's unclear if the state would see any revenue from the project if a Native American casino is built in Ohio in the future, a state fiscal analysis found."

In Issue 3: The Price Isn't Right, Jeff Hooke, Tom Firey, and David Hansen write, "If, and when, Ohio expands slots, it should pursue a course of responsible financial management. The state should auction slot licenses through a request-for-proposal process, which would stipulate appropriate conditions such as bidders having operational strength, adequate financing and crime-free histories. In this way, most of the economic gain of slots would go to Ohio taxpayers and not to a handful of gambling interests."

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Missing the Target

"A coalition pushing to block new regulations for the payday-lending industry filed an additional 218,855 signatures yesterday, making it likely the referendum will qualify for the November ballot," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

In Batchelder, Hagan Wrong About Payday Loans, Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "The attacks on payday lending do not bear up under scrutiny. Instead of wasting time on this issue, legislators should focus on the real financial problems facing Ohio. These problems do not come from payday lenders -- they come from the high taxes and high government spending that is dragging down the state economy. If they truly want to help financially-strapped Ohioans, the state's outdated tax code is a much better target than a few businessman offering short-term loans."

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Prevailing Wage Madness

The Columbus Dispatch reports, "[Governor Ted] Strickland has directed the Department of Commerce to apply the state's prevailing-wage law to virtually all aspects of privately funded projects that receive at least some direct government financing."

In Ohio's Prevailing Wage Law, Buckeye Institute Fellow Robert Lawson writes, "The primary argument for the prevailing wage law is that it assures a 'living wage' for workers. While it may increase wages for a few, it is done in an arbitrary and artificial manner. Rather than allowing all workers to compete for contracts, the law unfairly discriminates against less established companies and non-union workers. Another argument is that higher-priced union firms provide higher quality work.If this were true, why does the private sector choose to contract with lower cost, non-union firms 80 percent of the time? The private sector must believe that these companies produce at the same level of quality at a better price or that the difference in quality does not justify the higher costs."

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Buckeye Institute in the News

The Hillsboro Times Gazette published Ken Blackwell's article on the liberal advocacy group ACORN and Marc Kilmer's article on bedbugs.