Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan: buy open space yourself, don’t tax others

by Brian T. Schwartz | 9:02 am, December 7, 2010

If you want open space, buy it. Don’t tax others. Through voluntary cooperation and donations, private land trusts in Colorado have preserved four times the acreage that local Colorado governments restrict through forced open space policies.

Hickenlooper to Cut Medicaid in Colorado?

by PerlStalker | 8:25 am, December 7, 2010

Buried at the end of an economic gloom and doom piece in the Pueblo Chieftain was this little nugget.

“We run the risk for the first time in our state’s history of diminishing or reducing the number of people enrolled in Medicaid,” after seein…

Tax Deal is Not Without Faults

by PerlStalker | 8:11 am, December 7, 2010

Congressional Republicans stuck to their guns this week and managed to work a deal that kept the Bush tax cuts in place and even cut taxes a little bit more. That’s good news for a lot of people. However, the deal wasn’t without its problems. Jimmie Bi…

Government Cheese

by Jon Caldara | 2:45 pm, December 6, 2010

Not only will any economist worth their salt advise against it, our state constitution prohibits it: corporate welfare. It truly is the crown jewel of state granted political favors. It accomplishes two distinct ends simultaneously. First is the obvious direct payment (or tax break) to the private firm receiving the welfare. They enjoy the subsidy [...]

State Ed Board Chair Bob Schaffer Boldly Speaks for Parental, Not Federal, Power

by Eddie | 1:25 pm, December 6, 2010

Colorado is a truly interesting place when it comes to education reform. If you follow this blog at all, you know what I mean. But seriously, how many states have a State Board of Education chair who is such a bold spokesman for empowering students and parents rather than propping up politics and the current [...]

Unemployment Benefits

by Al Maurer | 11:41 am, December 6, 2010

Higher taxes and further extended unemployment benefits: linked, but not the way the government thinks.

Roads, Not Walls

by Ari Armstrong | 9:30 am, December 6, 2010

I delivered the following speech December 4 at Liberty Toastmasters.The theme is similar to that of a a recent article I coauthored, “Assault the Enemy, Not the Citizenry.” The basic idea for the talk comes from John David Lewis’s recent book, Nothing …

Fed minutes show risk to economy, Democrats

by Rossputin | 8:39 am, December 6, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee released the minutes of its meeting from earlier in November.  The adjustments in their forecasts for economic growth and employment spell bad news for all Americans, and particularly bad news, if the predictions turn out to be true, for Democrat politicians.

Please see my article on the subject for American Spectator at:

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/12/06/pessimism-revised

Should you trust the Colorado Trust?

by Brian Schwartz | 6:00 am, December 6, 2010

Colorado Trusts’s CEO repeats a common health care falsehood: that the cost-shift from the uninsured’s outstanding medical bills justifies mandatory insurance. While the cost-shift increases premiums, the amount is small compared to cost-shifting from mandatory insurance and Medicaid.

Should you trust the Colorado Trust?

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:00 am, December 6, 2010

Colorado Trusts’s CEO repeats a common health care falsehood: that the cost-shift from the uninsured’s outstanding medical bills justifies mandatory insurance. While the cost-shift increases premiums, the amount is small compared to cost-shifting from mandatory insurance and Medicaid.

Backbone Radio, December 5, 2010: Taking on the Education establishment – and winning

by Rossputin | 4:00 pm, December 5, 2010

Audio archives for this show:

Segment 1 – Intro, News of the Week
Segment 2 – Ben DeGrow on how teachers can opt out of giving political money to their unions
Segment 3 – Douglas County School Board President John Carson
Segment 4 – John Carson and CO State Board of Education Chairman Bob Schaffer
Segment 5 – John Carson

 

Audio archive for December 2010 Backbone Business on the topic of “retail” business, including the impact of technology on shopping

Segment 1 – Enstrom’s toffee
Segment 2 – Smart phones and shopping, Occipital (Boulder-based tech company)
Segment 3 – More about mobile technology and retail
Segment 4 – Retail accounting problems (it’s really not dull!)

It’s not often that a potentially nation-changing reform takes place right here in Colorado, but that’s just what’s happening with the Douglas County Board of Education’s dramatic moves to allow education money to “follow the student” even if that means going to pay for a private school – even a religious private school – education.

Even the Wall Street Journal has taken note of the policies being put forward by the Douglas County Board of Ed and it forward-thinking President, John Carson.

Mr. Carson, a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies will spend a full 90 minutes with us in the Backbone Radio studio on Sunday evening discussing the theory and practice of taking on the teachers’ unions and the common myths about public education, such as the idea that more money and smaller class sizes are America’s educational panacea.

A draft of the DougCo “Option Certificate Program” rules can be found HERE.

Prior to Mr. Carson’s joining us on air, we’ll speak with Ben DeGrow one of Colorado’s leading experts on public education and a researcher on that topic for the Independence Institute, whose web site has a separate Education Policy Center full of important information for students, parents, and teachers, including how teachers can opt out of having their union automatically take political contributions from their paychecks.

Here are a few comments from Ben himself:

We are fast approaching the December 15 deadline for Colorado Education Association members to opt out of their $39 automatic political contribution (known as “Every Member Option”), with additional political refund opportunities available from many local unions. The Independence Institute once again is actively advertising the option to teachers through email, postcards and other media.

This year we are featuring a couple new items. First, our colorful 45-second animated video that highlights the unions’ political giving and the refund opportunity: http://bit.ly/dGq8sH

Second, a summary I compiled of Colorado teachers union political spending during the 2010 election cycle (99.9% went to Democrats): http://bit.ly/hEmSQT

More in-depth information on union political contributions, refund opportunities and teacher options is available at our website: http://IndependentTeachers.org

For everyone interested in some of the most hopeful goings-on we’ve heard about public education in many years, this show should be well worth your time.

The third hour of Backbone Radio this Sunday will be the latest installment of Joshua Sharf’s Backbone Business: This month’s show is on Retail. Joshua interviews Doug and Jamie Simons, the owners and founders of Colorado’s beloved Enstroms Almond Toffee, and Jeffrey Powers, founder of Occipital, a Boulder software company specializing in applications for your smartphone.  And we’ll look at some of the special financial issues that retail companies face.

Please join me by listening to (and calling in to) this week’s Backbone Radio program from 5 PM to 8 PM on 710 AM KNUS in Denver and 1460 AM KZNT in Colorado Springs.

If you’re not in range of the radio waves, you should be able to listen to the show online by clicking HERE.

I hope you’ll actively participate in the conversation with me: Call the studio at 303 696 1971, e-mail me at rossputin(at)rossputin.com, or instant message from my site at http://rossputin.com or through AOL Instant messenger to screen name Rossputin.

Oh, the arrogance of the "progressive" statist.

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 11:26 am, December 4, 2010

Senator Claire McCaskill, (D-MO), in discussing her opposition to extending tax cuts, says the GOP is just “going to pout if we don’t give more money to millionaires.” (See the New York Times article “Tax-Cut Debate turns to Millionaires.”)This is th…

2010 DMYR Christmas/Holiday Party!

by Brett Moore | 4:43 pm, December 3, 2010

Join DMYR on Saturday, December 11th for our Annual Christmas/Holiday Party!! Appetizers, wine, and beer WILL BE PROVIDED, but feel free to bring a dish, drink, or other food item if you wish. For “admission”, we ask only that you bring an UNWRAPPED NEW TOY, which will be donated to the US Marines Toys For [...]

How to Slash State Spending? Read the Citizens’ Budget

by Jon Caldara | 1:28 pm, December 3, 2010

It’s no secret Governor-elect John Hickenlooper is set to do battle with a state budget that has been knocking us taxpayers down time and time again. We’re long past a TKO and Hickenlooper just got the tag-in on November 2nd to save our sorry wallets and checkbooks. Question is, does he have the fortitude to [...]

BlueCarp on "Ag land" tax breaks and "federal grants"

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 12:10 pm, December 3, 2010

BlueCarp

State Medicaid Spending And ObamaCare: Should Colorado Drop Out?

by Mike Krause | 9:31 am, December 3, 2010

Under ObamaCare, states will be required to dramatically expand Medicaid spending. In today’s Denver Daily News, the Independence Institute’s Linda Gorman makes the case for Colorado lawmakers to seriously consider “exiting Medicaid and letting the federal government pay for health insurance for eligible Coloradans.” This article is excerpted from the health care policy [...]

A Glimpse at Redefining Public Education

by Eddie | 9:10 am, December 3, 2010

It’s always fun to discover a great new education blog on a Friday. I’m talking about the blog “redefinED: the new definition of public education” by Florida reformers John Kirtley and Doug Tuthill (H/T Eduwonk). A series of their recent entries report and provide analysis from Jeb Bush’s very recent Excellence in Action conference in [...]

Let’s Talk Fed-enomics

by Jon Caldara | 8:47 am, December 3, 2010

Quantitative Easing? What does that mean? On this week’s Devil’s Advocate I am joined by economists Tom Binnings from Summit Economics and John Cochran from Metro State Business School for a conversations about inflating the money supply, buying back bonds, and other exotic sounding actions the Fed is taking. Will this actually [...]

So begin the lame duck games

by Rossputin | 8:05 am, December 3, 2010

Yesterday afternoon, the US House voted to extend the Bush tax cuts only for those not in the highest bracket.  The political games of the lame duck session have begun in earnest.  On Saturday the Senate will get its shot at class warfare.

The politics of the situation got substantially worse for the Democrats on Friday morning with the release of November’s employment data.  The Labor Department reported an anemic 39,000 new non-farm jobs in November, much lower than the 155,000 estimate of a survey of economists and the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8%.  To the extent that Americans are convinced that raising tax rates on “the rich” is bad for job creation, today’s news was a body-blow to the Democrats’ class warfare-based tax plans.

Please read my in-depth analysis of yesterday and the immediate future of the tax rate debate in my article for the American Spectator:

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/12/03/lameduck-chickens

Reports from Hickenlooper Regional Townhalls

by PerlStalker | 8:58 pm, December 2, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a townhall discussion held by Governor-elect John Hickenlooper’s Partners for Colorado at Adams State College. The town hall was one of many held throughout Colorado, in theory, to listen to all view points and gather …

Federal Stimulus Brilliance: Don’t Let Special Ed Funds Follow Student Needs

by Eddie | 3:19 pm, December 2, 2010

I’m super busy working on a new Lego project today, so forgive me for keeping this one short. But I wanted to bring your attention to an investigative piece by Greg Campbell at the online Colorado news service Face The State. The story? “Stimulus funds lavished on special ed – even where the need is [...]

Jerusalem Post: WikiLeaks prove Obama’s deception on Iran-Israel policy

by Rossputin | 9:14 am, December 2, 2010

H/T Eric W.

In an interesting and aggressive editorial, the Jerusalem Post explains that Barack Obama overtly lied to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he told Netanyahu that Israel must make concessions to the Palestinians in order to generate Arab support for the US taking a harder stance against Iran.

It’s a must-read piece for those who want to understand the full measure of our naive and dangerous president:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=197477

Truth in a Picture: ObamaCare Version

by Jon Caldara | 8:29 am, December 2, 2010

(Click to enlarge)

The tax cut debate gets interesting

by Rossputin | 8:17 am, December 2, 2010

Yesterday, on the same day that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) scheduled a vote on extension of the Bush tax cuts, excluding the highest bracket, for today, Senate Republicans sent a letter signed by all 42 of them to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid telling him that they would block action on any and every piece of legislation until the passage of a budget and the extension of the current tax rates for all Americans.

The Democrats are going to try to force a vote on the amnesty plan known as the DREAM Act, so Republican senators will be put to the test.

It’s going to be a very interesting few days of political chicken.  More on this shortly in a column for American Spectator…

Patdowns on the Slopes

by T.L. James | 9:10 pm, December 1, 2010

Apparently we have to be wary of pantybombers on ski slopes now, too. Long Arm of the Law It’s a windless morning at Steamboat Ski Resort, and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” pulses through a bright Gondola Square. Shuffling across the slushy snow, skiers line up to board the Steamboat Gondola, but first they must unzip, [...]

Was Philadelphia in 1787 a Runaway?

by Jon Caldara | 1:02 pm, December 1, 2010

We’ve all heard the claim many times before, and at this point, it almost seems like common knowledge – the Constitutional convention held in Philadelphia in 1787 was a “runaway.” The mainstream view holds that the delegates came to Philadelphia simply to amend the Articles of Confederation, yet they left Philly with an entirely new [...]

Licensed Psychotherapist Examines the Minds of Extreme Progressives

by Mr. Bob | 11:54 am, December 1, 2010

#tcot #redco #liberal #peoplespressGreat article at American Thinker.But apparently, numerous trolls have been drawn to me, like venomous bees to honey. These trolls use the same weaponry of other extreme progressives: shame and degradation. They try t…

Obama to freeze federal salaries

by Rossputin | 7:42 am, December 1, 2010

Upon hearing a news report Monday morning saying that President Obama was about to have a brief press appearance announcing a freeze in civilian (i.e. non-military) federal employees’ salaries for two years, my first thought (and perhaps my second) was “What’s Obama’s angle? He can’t actually believe in the concept of freezing the salaries of so many union members.”

The best analogy I can find is the explanation given by many congressional Republicans and George W. Bush for their passing the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, an unfunded liability so large that it was immediately larger than the entire unfunded liability of the Social Security system: essentially they said that if they hadn’t passed that one, the Democrats would have passed one even worse.

And indeed that may be true, but it nevertheless eroded the Republicans’ claim to be for limited government.  Indeed, as it was passed in 2003, it was arguably the first huge chink in that former Republican armor, the gateway drug to the better part of a decade of Republicans spending like Democrats.  But I digress…

Barack Obama has proposed a two-year freeze of federal salaries because he knows that the Republicans will propose something far more substantial.  It’s defense (of the unions) designed to look like offense (against the deficit and debt.)

To be sure, the unions won’t see it that way.  Their reaction was fast and furious, with one federal union president saying she intends “to explore all of our options, including working with Congress to overturn (the freeze).”

The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, John Gage, called Obama’s move “a public relations gesture” and “political scapegoating”, but the dictionary definition of “scapegoat” (in its noun form) is causing someone to take the blame for problems caused by others.

And with federal employees, that is simply not the case.  As USA Today noted in a recent analysis, the number of federal employees making over $150,000 per year has soared an astonishing 1,006%, from 7,420 to 82,034, in just the five years ending in 2010.  The number of federal employees earning over $170,000 per year jumped by 2,000% in those same 5 years, from about 1300 to almost 28,000.

While USA Today doesn’t give the raw data, they suggest that most of the increase has happened under Obama’s watch: “Top-paid staff have increased in every department and agency. The Defense Department had nine civilians earning $170,000 or more in 2005, 214 when Obama took office and 994 in June.”

In other words, Obama’s “freeze” simply locks in place the current unacceptably bloated federal bureaucracy, protecting the public sector workers’ unions at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Obama’s preemptive first strike is not without a certain rationale: Utah Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz has been pushing for a 10% pay cut for federal employees, saying that “every metric shows we’re heading in the wrong direction.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle in the alternative universe known as the Democratic Party Leadership, Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the man who so skillfully ran the Democrats’ 2010 House election operations (and for some reason is now out of that job), said – apparently with a straight face – that Obama’s plan “reinforce(es) the myth…that America suffers from a federal government comprised of unproductive and overpaid civil servants.”  But then this is the guy who thought that broad public disgust with the Democrats and the likely electoral repercussions were also a myth.

Even when President Obama appears to be aiming for fiscal responsibility, there’s much less than meets the eye: The skyrocketing per-employee salary is a big problem, but in the long run an even bigger problem is the bloated federal employee headcount.  As Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) noted, “(A)s the private sector has lost 7.7 million jobs since December 2007, the federal government has added 212,100 jobs.”  If Obama were serious, he would have simultaneously proposed a federal hiring freeze…as House Republicans have done, including in their “Pledge to America.”

In the meantime, Obama’s proposal puts a lot of pressure on Democrats in Congress because in order for it to take effect on January 1, 2011, it needs to be passed in the current lame duck session.  With Nancy Pelosi already on record against extending the Bush tax cuts for the highest tax bracket despite Obama’s strong suggestion that he can live with a compromise that extends all the current tax rates for some period of time, the question of the pay freeze (and the tax rates) could come down to the 64 House Democrats who have already lost election but hold their jobs for another few weeks.  Will they vote with Pelosi or will they vote with their constituents?  The latter seems likely, but Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated a remarkable ability to get her members to ignore the wishes and the good of the citizens whom the Representatives are supposed to represent.

The White House’s “fact sheet” on the proposal begins with the obligatory Obama Administration cult of “don’t look at me” chant: “Because of the irresponsibility of the past decade, the President inherited a $1.3 trillion projected deficit upon taking office…”  They say that the pay freeze will save $28 billion over the next five years and $60 billion over 10 years, and indeed that’s a start.  But given the irresponsibility of this administration, the move smacks of the cynicism which has become the trademark of the Obama permanent campaign.

Accountable care organizations threaten competition, quality care, & low prices

by Brian Schwartz | 7:00 am, December 1, 2010

No advocate of liberty should be surprised by the following from the New York Times. Reporting on “accountable care organizations” established by ObamaCare (HR 3590): Consumer advocates fear that the health care law could worsen some of the very problems it was meant to solve — by reducing competition, driving up costs and creating incentives [...]

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