DGS49
Diamond Member
Does our exalted President have the balls to do what is right?
The Davis Bacon Act is a federal law that, in short, mandates that all federal construction projects be done by unionized labor. It doesn't actually say that, but the FLRB has decreed that the "prevailing wage" is equal to the union wage - even if only 2% of the local construction forces are organized, and O'Bama enacted policies that actually made it mandatory to have union contractors and union people doing the work.
Davis Bacon is a product of the Depression, and was enacted to prevent southern contractors from bringing up busloads of "knee-grows" to undercut local contractors and "take away" government construction contracts from the locals. It is racist at its core and remains with heavily racist effect.
Now it is nothing more than an expensive sop to the 7-8% of remaining unionized construction workers.
Congress should repeal Davis Bacon, but the President could accomplish the same thing through executive action (without breaking the law). He could instruct the NLRB to re-visit the definition of "prevailing wage" in the law, and use the common understanding of the terms rather than the union-demanded meaning. And he could revoke O'Bama's guidance on work project agreements. Done.
The savings on federal construction projects would be MINIMUM 10% - probably more like 15-20%; multiply by a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure work, and the title of this thread is apropos.
But Trump would be excoriated by the Usual Suspects: the MSM, Unions, Leftists, Show Biz, the Pope, and so on. It would make the reaction to his half-assed revocation of DACA look like a love fest.
But it's the right thing to do. It would be serving the taxpayers, rather than the Unions. The number of jobs created would be exactly the same as they would be under current laws and regulations. And in fact the actual WAGES paid to the construction workers would not be substantially less. But the freedom of not having to work to contract would bring about massive savings, regardless of the wage rates.
This is yet one more example of Government pissing away billions every year, for no reason other than the lack of intestinal fortitude of our legislators.
The Davis Bacon Act is a federal law that, in short, mandates that all federal construction projects be done by unionized labor. It doesn't actually say that, but the FLRB has decreed that the "prevailing wage" is equal to the union wage - even if only 2% of the local construction forces are organized, and O'Bama enacted policies that actually made it mandatory to have union contractors and union people doing the work.
Davis Bacon is a product of the Depression, and was enacted to prevent southern contractors from bringing up busloads of "knee-grows" to undercut local contractors and "take away" government construction contracts from the locals. It is racist at its core and remains with heavily racist effect.
Now it is nothing more than an expensive sop to the 7-8% of remaining unionized construction workers.
Congress should repeal Davis Bacon, but the President could accomplish the same thing through executive action (without breaking the law). He could instruct the NLRB to re-visit the definition of "prevailing wage" in the law, and use the common understanding of the terms rather than the union-demanded meaning. And he could revoke O'Bama's guidance on work project agreements. Done.
The savings on federal construction projects would be MINIMUM 10% - probably more like 15-20%; multiply by a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure work, and the title of this thread is apropos.
But Trump would be excoriated by the Usual Suspects: the MSM, Unions, Leftists, Show Biz, the Pope, and so on. It would make the reaction to his half-assed revocation of DACA look like a love fest.
But it's the right thing to do. It would be serving the taxpayers, rather than the Unions. The number of jobs created would be exactly the same as they would be under current laws and regulations. And in fact the actual WAGES paid to the construction workers would not be substantially less. But the freedom of not having to work to contract would bring about massive savings, regardless of the wage rates.
This is yet one more example of Government pissing away billions every year, for no reason other than the lack of intestinal fortitude of our legislators.
