Free Republic

President Obama isn’t the only one in the administration spending the last years of his term jetting around the country on the taxpayer’s dime.A new report from the Washington Post reveals that White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett is preparing to travel to several states to promote the idea of mandatory paid leave policies.The initiative, dubbed “Lead on Leave” begins next month in Seattle as well as Minnesota, California, Oregon, Georgia, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Labor unions negotiate higher wages and better benefits for union members. That’s fine – that’s their purpose and it’s why some people choose to join unions and pay union dues. The unions have to perform a delicate balancing act. If they don’t push for better wages and benefits for their members, then workers will have less of an incentive to join unions. But, as unions attain better wages and benefits for their workers, non-union labor starts to look much more attractive to employers and so employers will tend to prefer to hire non-union labor. If union labor is more productive...

New York City is becoming the most populous place in the United States to make businesses provide workers with paid sick time, after lawmakers overrode a mayoral veto early Thursday to pass a law expected to affect more than 1 million workers. With the vote, the city joined Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and the state of Connecticut in requiring the benefit for at least some workers. Similar measures have failed in some other places, including Milwaukee, Denver and Philadelphia. Supporters see the New York measure as a pace-setter, although it has some significant limits and conditions, and...