In The Washington Examiner ATR’s Chris Prandoni writes the “majority of union members work for the government”.  Because most union workers' jobs now depend on the government, “unions universally support the expansion of government regardless of its effects on state budgets or services. This vicious cycle creates a feedback loop where unions lobby for increased government spending, are appeased, see their membership, clout, and influence increase, and then return to the government trough…Unions can no longer purport to represent the working man toiling 11 hour days just to put food on the table. Indeed, the average union worker has a cushy government job, makes substantially more than the average American, and has ample job security. The demographic makeup of unions is changing, our perception should too.”

FLASHREPORT features a column by ATR’s Patrick Gleason and Kelly Cobb on the Amazon tax.  “It only took a week and a half for legislative Democrats in Sacramento to see Gov. Jerry Brown’s $12 billion in higher annual taxes and raise him another job-killing tax increase that would shut California small businesses off from the largest markets in the world…Rep. Skinner’s proposal would raise no additional revenue for California. In fact, the proposal would do more to hurt small businesses and cause the state to actually lose revenue…This legislation has nothing to do with taxes or fairness; it has to do with spending. By pushing a bill that only raises money on paper, Rep. Skinner and the spending lobby in Sacramento are furthering the state's path to fiscal ruin by maintaining an unsustainable spending baseline in order to avoid necessary austerity measures.”

 ‘Mr. President, Say This on Tuesday Night’ from the New York Times.  Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform: “You should say you recognize that spending $800 billion on stimulus didn’t create jobs. You should say you will bring corporate tax rates down, extend the expensing of business investment, and allow repatriation of overseas assets. These are tax cuts that you and Democrats have endorsed that would have bipartisan support.”