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Using “for the kids” to sell tax increases in Colorado

by | 11:48 pm, October 28, 2011

Tax increase proposals in Colorado often seem to come under the guise “for the children,” as is the case with Proposition 103, the proposal on the Nov. 1 ballot to raise taxes $2.9 billion over the next five years.

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Rosen airs WhoSaid’s take on Prop. 103 robo-dial

by | 8:41 am, October 14, 2011

850 KOA radio show host Mike Rosen played the audio from our video on Proposition 103, noting that a robo-dial for the $2.9 billion tax increase somehow fails to note that it’s a…tax increase. Prop. 103 itself is a bad idea, as we’ve documented.

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Citizens’ Budget on KNUS and 850 KOA

by | 2:27 pm, January 21, 2011

Citizens’ Budget project director Penn Pfiffner continues his mission of spreading the good word about the solutions found in our Citizen’s Budget project. This past week found Penn on two different radio shows. The first was on Ross Kaminsky’s Backbone Radio program on KNUS. Filling in for Ross that day was Krista Kafer, who did [...]

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Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discusses role of Colorado Supreme Court in redistricting, potential replacements for outgoing Chief Justice Mullarkey on Mike Rosen Show

by | 5:56 am, August 27, 2010

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold called in to the Mike Rosen Show Wednesday following up on an interview with nationally syndicated analyst Michael Barone regarding Congressional redistricting and state-level reapportionment of legislative districts.
Michael Barone spoke broadly on the issue of redistricting nationwide – and was almost certainly unaware of the peculiarities of how [...]

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Mike Rosen v. Ben Franklin on the Arizona immigration law

by | 10:18 am, May 7, 2010

“I’ve been asked to show my ‘papers’ when traveling in foreign countries. Big deal. The upside is that by cracking down on illegals in their state, Arizonans . . . will be protected from trespass and violent crime, and save hundreds of millions of dollars in education, medical, social services and criminal justice spending associated with illegal immigrants. I’d take that tradeoff.”

–Mike Rosen, “Arizona is just taking a stand,” Denver Post 5/6/10.
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

–Ben Franklin.
Part A
Rosen also states in the column that the Arizona law requires that “[t]here must first be behavior and a legitimate law-enforcement incident justifying a stop, detention or arrest.” If it did, the law would not be quite as bad.
It does not.
The law requires “a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person” merely upon “any lawful contact by a law enforcement official.” Arizona Revised Statutes, Section 11-1051.
If Rosen were correct, the law would require the inquiry to be made “incident to a lawful stop.” There is a world of difference between a lawful “stop” and lawful “contact.”
The police must have a valid reason to stop someone. The police no need reason to contact you. The Arizona law would kick in upon an officer saying “hello” to you. That is lawful contact.
This may seem like silly word games, but that’s what lawyers and judges do: they define words. The words “stop” and “contact” have definitions. Words are chosen based upon those definitions. The Arizona legislature could have required law enforcement to inquire about immigration status “incident to a lawful stop.” They deliberately did not. They require it upon any “lawful contact.”
That is objectionable.
Part B
At least Rosen hints at the real problem when he notes that illegal immigrants cost “hundreds of millions of dollars in education, medical [and] social services.” He is correct.
But this demonstrates that we have less of an illegal immigration problem than we do a giving-away-free-stuff problem. Less free stuff = fewer undocumented aliens. Our government incentivizes illegal immigration by giving away resources to illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants are the symptom. Free stuff is the problem.
The U.S. must have laws regulating immigration. We cannot allow criminals or terrorists into our country. But every dollar we spend on trying to keep out someone that is simply willing to work and meet American demand for goods and services is a wasted dollar. Not only is the law enforcement dollar wasted, the cost of the good or service the immigrant wishes to provide goes up.
Some of us believe in free markets – including the labor market. A large portion of a our immigration laws exist merely to protect American labor unions from competition – at the expense of the American consumer.
What is the answer to this difficult policy problem? Helen Krieble’s Red Card Solution is a good place to start. It is worthy of discussion.

BlueCarp

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Hickenlooper can’t answer the tough questions

by | 5:15 pm, April 28, 2010

A Facebook page titled Mayor Teflon John Hickenlooper’s Glass Jaw appeared today…The Denver mayor needs to figure out soon how to answer tough questions because many more are coming his way as he runs for governor of Colorado.As highlighted on Comple…

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Mike Rosen commentary on Colorado Supreme Court retention elections in Nov. 2010: “a great time to balance the scales”

by | 10:23 pm, November 18, 2009

The Clear The Bench Colorado message – ‘vote “NO” on the unjust justices of the Colorado Supreme Court in November 2010 to restore accountability to the judiciary and bring back balance to the bench’ –  is being picked up by an increasing number of astute observers of the state of affairs in Colorado.
Thanks to an [...]

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Colorado Supreme Court & School Funding: Case to Clear the Bench now overwhelming (Ben DeGrow on Face The State radio)

by | 2:23 pm, November 4, 2009

Cross-posted from the Peoples Press Collective and Mount Virtus websites, from commentator Big Ben (big, but “not as big as Rasmussen“) DeGrow:
“Despite all the hoopla (much of it well-deserved) about the election results, let’s not lose focus on an easily overlooked issue that should factor into some of our important decisions for 2010 — namely, the Colorado [...]

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Colorado Springs Gazette decries “the ol’ Bait and Switch” – Budget raiding turns fees into taxes

by | 10:00 am, October 31, 2009

An alert reader (hat tip to Live Free Colorado) brought the Colorado Springs Gazette editorial criticizing the tax and “fee” ‘bait and switch’ tactics employed by the current administration – thanks to the Mullarkey Majority’s unconstitutional ruling last November – to my attention this morning.
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights clearly says that voters have to [...]

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“Courts shouldn’t mess with school funding” – more commentary on the latest Colorado Supreme Court outrageous ‘Lobato’ ruling

by | 2:23 pm, October 30, 2009

“A sense that the Colorado Supreme Court is growing out of control continues to pick up momentum after the October 19 Lobato v State ruling (PDF), in which the 4-3 liberal majority arrogated to itself the power to determine school funding policy.”
The Independence Institute’s expert analyst on Education Policy (and frequent online commentator)  Ben DeGrow is part of [...]

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