Jon Caldara's official blog! Caldara is the President of the Independence Institute, Colorado's free-market think tank in Golden, Colorado. Caldara also hosts a 3 hour a day a radio talk show on the 50,000-watt blowtorch News Radio 850 KOA. His current affairs television program Independent Thinking, on Denver’s KBDI Channel 12, airs on Fridays at 8:30 pm repeated the following Monday at 1:30pm.
I wrapped up the health care event with remarks on current free market activities in Colorado. I talked about my personal experience with our health care system and the Independence Institute’s Defend Colorado from Obama Care initiative.
Here is my talk in a three video YouTube playlist:
Colorado State Senator Shawn Mitchell gave us an update on what was going on in the Senate in terms of health care legislation, both good and bad (but mostly bad).
Here is Sen. Mitchell’s talk in two video YouTube playlist:
Dr. Linda Gorman, director of our Health Care Policy Center spoke on the true cost of Obama’s health care “reform.”
Here is Linda’s talk in a three video YouTube playlist:
Dr. Jill Vecchio, radiology oncologist and founder of Docs4PatientCare spoke on emerging issues, particularly protecting the doctor/patient relationship.
Here is her talk in a two video YouTube playlist:
Director of Government Relations for the Heartland Institute Peter Fotos kicked off our Health Care Roundtable event last Wednesday, March 10th.
If you were unable to attend, or would just like to see his talk on consumer-driven health care again, here are the videos in a YouTube playlist:
Pop quiz: When is urban renewal not urban renewal? When the land up for “renewal” has no buildings, no cracked sidewalks (if any sidewalks), no manhole covers, or anything in the way of store fronts at all. Instead the land in question has grass fields, lots of open space, a silo or two, and cows. House Bill 1107 attempts to undermine the ol’ “blighting farmland, but calling it ‘urban’ to get government money” corporate welfare trick. You might remember Senate sponsor Morgan Carroll from last year’s corporate welfare / transparency fight against metro districts. I applaud Sen. Carroll and all legislators in the fight against corporate welfare of all kinds. Especially when it is as blatant as this blighting hoax. If I were asked to write the bill, I would have said something like:
No land that can feed an urban area may be called an urban area. Furthermore, if Mark Hillman would like to live on the land in question, then the land in question is clearly not urban.
In fact, let’s make this process easy. If there ever is a disagreement on whether a piece of land is urban or not, we’ll put it to the “Hillman test.” We’ll call up Mark Hillman and offer the land to him. If he takes it, it’s farmland. If not, it’s urban. What’s a more objective measure than that Hillman test?
The Limited Government Forum and The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual present…
This great freedom event is a day long celebration of the ideas that made America great. Festivities will be held in Colorado Springs at the swank Cheyenne Mountain Resort on May 8th, 2010.
Click here for the flyer.
Guest speakers include Michelle Malkin, Mike Rosen, cartoonist Chuck Asay, and our very own Paul Prentice. There will also be a Happy Hour reception held by Liberty on the Rocks! Check out the agenda here.
It’s a transportation policy wonk-fest on tonight’s Independent Thinking. I will be joined by Chuck Plunkett from the Denver Post, and Randal O’Toole, director of the Independence Institute’s Center for the American Dream and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Tune in for a lively discussion about trains, buses and automobiles, and the future of transportation in Colorado. That’s tonight at 8:30 PM, re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30 PM.
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.
