Tomorrow is a big day in the land of liberty. We’ve got two events going on, back to back.

The first is Taxpayer Day at the Capitol. The Independence Institute is proud to join forces with Americans for Prosperity and other liberty minded organizations including The 9-12 Project Colorado Coalition, The Gadsen Society, Liberty on the Rocks, Peoples Press Collective, and the Western Slope Conservative Alliance. Aren’t you tired of special interests sending their lobbyists to the Capitol to promote their own pet projects and pet issues? Well, tomorrow is our chance to unite as taxpayers and represent our interests to those inside the Colorado State Capitol. After all, taxpayers are the largest “special interest” group in Colorado — it’s about time we use our large numbers. Besides, ignoring us taxpayers makes you look as silly as Austin Powers. (Even the Denver Post has written about it!)

Please join us on the west steps of the State Capitol at noon!

The second event is a health care policy roundtable co-sponsored by the Heartland Institute. This event will be taking place at the Denver Public Library from 2 to 5pm. Click here for the agenda including speakers and topics. If you’d like to join us for the health care roundtable, please call Mary MacFarlane at 303.279.6536 or RSVP online here.

On Wednesday, March 10th, the Independence Institute is co-hosting a health care policy roundtable with Chicago’s Heartland Institute. We would love to have you come out and take part in our discussion. To RSVP online click here, or give us a ring at 303.279.6536.

The party starts at 2pm at the Denver Public Library in downtown Denver. Below you’ll find the agenda (click for PDF):

Just a few days ago the Denver Post published a great investigative piece on the large amount of wasteful spending our largest three school districts (Denver, Douglas, Jefferson) indulge in year after year. Normally we would shrug at school districts spending thousands of dollars on flip-flops and Starbucks, but these days are anything but normal. With each school district facing budgets cuts in the tens of millions per year, it’s becoming more difficult to justify those taxpayer paid trips to Vegas and that $90,000 tab from Udi’s Food. (What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas when you’re spending other people’s money….)

But if you’ve been following the Independence Institute at all in the last couple years, this is old news to you.

Friend of the Institute Natalie Menten has been dredging up credit card receipts and the embarrassing spending habits from school districts and other local governments for the past few years. If transparency is your thing, Natalie’s website will put you in a coma with its information. Colorado Transparency Project Director Amy Oliver’s blog called Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) will also whet your transparency appetite. Those two women have been at the forefront of spending transparency and the folks at the Denver Post owe a lot for their hard work. (You’ll notice Natalie is quoted often in their article).

Just today, the Denver Post wrote an editorial touting school district transparency and using new web technology to get the information out to taxpayers. I am happy they are serious about this issue, as having the influence of the Denver Post now strongly in the corner of taxpayers is a great boon. I hope they continue urging sunlight on how schools and local districts spend our money. Because let’s not forget, the money they are spending is OUR money. It’s ethically and morally required that we see how it is being spent.

If you can’t get enough of the transparency issue, look no further than your favorite free market think tank. Recently, education policy analyst Ben DeGrow went on a transparency rampage as evidenced by his Issue Backgrounder, “What Should School District Financial Transparency Look Like?,” his appearance on my show Independent Thinking – “Can the State be as Transparent as Jeffco?,” and this iVoices.org podcast with Lorie Gillis on Jeffco schools’ transparency leadership. In case you hadn’t seen, Jeffco is the shining example of what transparency looks like. Just take a look at this.

I guess what I’m saying is… if you don’t believe transparency is as sexy an issue as say health care or education, you’re wrong. And here’s why.

We’re about a third of the way through the 2010 Colorado legislative session; does your wallet feel lighter yet?   On this Friday’s Independent Thinking, reporters Ed Sealover from the Denver business Journal and Eli Stokols from Fox 31 News join me to discuss the legislative session thus far.  If you are a Colorado politics junkie, be sure to tune in and get your political fix from the reporters who cover the capitol.  That’s this Friday at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12, Denver.

Obama likes to believe that he’s the audacious type. And what could be more audacious than facing quantifiable clear results in one state and ignoring them completely? Actually, ignoring might be an understatement. It’s not just ignoring if you deliberately act in a way exactly opposite of what the facts are telling you. What I’m referring to is the “Massachusetts model,” also known as “Romney Care.”

In 2006 Massachusetts, perhaps without even knowing it, conducted what any good scientist loves: an experiment. They implemented under then Republican Governor Mitt Romney, a health care model that shares most of the features as the much maligned “Obama Care.” We’re talking individual mandates, massive subsidies, regulations, higher taxes, and a state government that ballooned larger than one of the contestants on the Biggest Loser after the show ended.

This health care experiment has taken Massachusetts to a predictable result at present day: skyrocketing medical costs, poor care, crushing medical bureaucracies, uninsured citizens – despite the mandate, and ultimately, cries for price controls. In this Wall Street Journal piece, the devastation of Romney Care is revealed:

… average Massachusetts insurance premiums are now the highest in the nation. Since 2006, they’ve climbed at an annual rate of 30% in the individual market. Small business costs have increased by 5.8%. Per capita health spending in Massachusetts is now 27% higher than the national average, and 15% higher even after adjusting for local wages and academic research grants. The growth rate is faster too.

What these nightmare statistics mean is that the Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, evidently summoning his inner Richard Nixon, proposed for hard price control across the health care spectrum.

Yes, you read that right: proposed PRICE CONTROLS in the year 2010!

So let me get this straight. Government comes in, takes over an entire industry, forces its citizens to partake in the ugly mess, and then after the massive failure is endured for several years, decides to “fix” the situation it created by implementing price controls. Makes sense right?

And what does our audacious president think about this mess? He wants to take the incredible Massachusetts health care failure and apply it to the entire United States!  It’s the health care “big dig!”

In case you didn’t see it the first time around, here is our video response to expanding Romney Care to the entire country, starring my very own Independence Institute web monkey.

My web monkey just finished posting Randal’s fantastic presentation called “Mobility vs. Gridlock: Colorado’s Transportation Future” on YouTube in a playlist format. In the presentation, Randal points to the overwhelming evidence that rail transit in general, and FasTracks in particular, is a dead end in solving congestion, safety, and mobility issues. Instead, Randal offers a couple of his own solutions to these pressing problems.

Randal tackles these issues more in-depth in his book, “Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It.”

Should convenience stores be allowed to sell full strength beer? And if so, why can‘t liquor store owners operate multiple locations? This weeks Independent Thinking takes a look at Colorado’s complex and antiquated liquor laws and the bills currently in the legislature that would change the way beer is sold in Colorado. Joining me is Eric Wallace from Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont and Dennis Dinsmore from Wilbur’s Total Beverage in Ft. Collins. It’s a beer policy bash this week on Independent Thinking. Tune in tonight at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12, Denver. Re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30 PM.

Just how dirty did the debate over the “Dirty Dozen” tax bills get on the floor of the Colorado Senate? Now that the dust has cleared, State Senators Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield) and (”dirty” author) Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) join me to talk about the package of recently passed bills, otherwise known as the “Dirty Dozen,” that both undo existing tax credits and incentives and raise new taxes in Colorado. Questions abound concerning raising taxes without a vote of the people as required by Colorado’s Constitution via TABOR. That’s tomorrow night at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12, Denver. Re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30PM.

President Reagan’s words have never been truer: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness…”

We’re counting on you to lead the charge to preserve “the last best hope” for future generations.

The Leadership Program of the Rockies (LPR) 2-Day Annual Retreat brings together public policy leaders, Founding Father-style activists, influencers from every industry, and the “who’s who” of emerging leaders across Colorado — all convening around shared principles, conservative camaraderie, and a resounding conviction and hope in the great experiment of America.

With national security and sovereignty issues taking center stage almost daily, we’re especially pleased to showcase Ambassador John Bolton, serving as the past U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as our Dinner Keynote Speaker. Dick Morris, one of the most prominent American political consultants, is our keynote lunch speaker. Steve Moore, Wall Street Journal senior economics writer and frequent FoxNews contributor will share pressing economic insights as a speaker on Saturday.

You’ll hear an entire line up of high-caliber national figures speak on public policy issues, current events, founding principles, and enduring truths, seeking to inspire, motivate, educate, and engage retreat participants. (We’ll be announcing new speakers to the line up via email each week.)

This is the conservative event of the year for Colorado. Check out: www.leadershipprogram.org of give us a call at 303-488-0018.

For two decades Colorado lawmakers have enacted “tough on crime” legislation. But with a budget gap to close, and sentencing reform recommendations flowing out of the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), is it finally time to start being “smart on crime” instead? On this week’s Independent Thinking, State Representative Mark Waller (R-Colorado Springs) and State Senator Pat Steadman (D-Denver) join me to talk about the work of the CCJJ, and the chances of sentencing reform legislation coming out of this year’s General Assembly. That’s tonight at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12. Re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30 PM.