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The Water Quality Financing Act (WQFA, H.R. 720) of 2007, recently passed by the House, strikes a double blow against taxpayers. First, it would give more subsidized loans to local governments to build sewage treatment plants and require them to apply Davis-Bacon wage provisions to all such projects. Davis-Bacon wages shield unions from competition and thus raise costs to taxpayers. Forcing communities to pay Davis-Bacon rates would make it more difficult for local governments to build new water treatment facilities.
On April 4, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March employment report. American businesses shed 80,000 jobs in March and 232,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2008. The unemployment rate climbed above 5 percent for the first time since 2005. This is further evidence that the American economy ground to a halt in the first quarter of 2008. March Employment Report
Many commentators believe that the increase in income inequality over the last 30 years is a serious problem. They argue that America has become an increasingly class-based society where a rich minority lives in opulence while most other Americans struggle with little hope of becoming wealthy themselves. New research into income inequality debunks that notion. A quarter of the increased income inequality since 1976 and almost all of the increase in inequality among the top earners is a direct result of the increased use of performance pay by American companies.
The economy is growing steadily. Like Goldilocks's breakfast, the economy is neither too hot nor too cold. It is growing, adding jobs, increasing wages, and staying well away from a recession. Because it is not entering an inflationary boom the Federal Reserve can keep interest rates low. The economy is in a steady expansion.