To round up Senate votes, opponents of the waste site are emphasizing the dangers of moving nuclear waste through 45 states, an argument made futilely today by Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, the House minority leader.
But the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, an affiliate of the State Policy Network, was there to tout "new" research by ALEC "scholar" Richard Vedder, who produced a study to show that the ALEC bill would raise incomes in the states, an argument characterized by Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregon, as "either incompetent or intentionally misleading".
No longer can the pundits in Washington - who rarely bother to visit the heartland - argue with a straight face that economic populism can't win red states (an argument thrown at my by corporate front groups like the DLC and commentators like Ruy Teixeira after I published this cover story in the American Prospect in 2004 and Hostile Takeover in 2006).
Mr. Silver also defined the debate as a choice between preserving state spending or letting local property taxes rise to cover the loss of state aid, an argument Mr. Bruno echoed.
Some groups in the coalition suggest that a federal mandate may be an unconstitutional interference in state affairs, an argument that appeals to Republicans.In any case, only a handful of states have plans to introduce full-scale competition for residential users before 2000 (although in some states plans for competition for industrial users are more advanced).
Mr Ryan is also running for his congressional seat, and would be free to put his new fame behind his belief that shrinking the state is an argument conservatives can win.
Courthouse News reported that Judge Frank Easterbrook said: "When a state makes an argument that's saying we're differentiating according to whether somebody is from Syria, but that has nothing to do with national origin, all it produces is a broad smile".
Laura Cohen, a clinical professor of law at Rutgers Law School who specializes in juvenile rights, said that, "Looking ahead, you could imagine the state making an argument that the ShopRite rejection is a precursor of things to come," explaining that the concern would be that the children would be "subject to lifelong ridicule and harassment".
Hobbes's argument for the state is an argument from mutual advantage.
