Tim Jackson from the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association and Jim Fynes, VP of Long Ford Denver, will appear on the next Independent Thinking to discuss the issues surrounding the auto bailout. They also will talk about how things have changed since last December in the auto industry, and discuss how Colorado has been effected through the dealership closings. Tune in this Friday night at 8:30 p.m. on KBDI Channel 12; repeated the following Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.

What does nannyism cost in terms of money and lack of individual freedom?  On Independent Thinking, a round table of anti-nannyists convene to discuss this very question. Joining me will be Radley Balko of Reason Magazine, David Martosko from the Center for Consumer Freedom, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi and local anti-nannyist activist Andrew Boucher.  Tune in this Friday night at 8:30 p.m. to KBDI Channel 12; repeated the following Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.

Re-post from the People’s Press Collective:

***Saturday June 13th at Washington Park behind Ft. Collins City Hall***
***Rally to encourage Betsy Markey to vote against socialized single-payer health care this summer***

Does this picture terrify you? Well, if it does, consider yourself invited to the Ft. Collins Tea Party’s rally this weekend to encourage Congresswoman Betsy Markey to vote against the promised Obama Health Care Plan. It will begin at Noon on Saturday June 13th at Washington Park behind the Fort Collins City Hall building.

Citizens in Colorado’s 4th Congressional district don’t approve of President Obama’s announced proposal for a socialist government-owned health care system, local organizers say.

Fort Collins Tea Party co-organizer Ray Harvey said if Markey supports Obama’s proposal to increase the federal government’s control of medical care, “it will result ultimately in rationing health care for our senior citizens, and also in long delays in receiving treatment that will threaten our own lives and the lives of our family members.”

“Doctors and patients,” Harvey continued, “who practice and live in socialized health care systems throughout the world, such as Canada, can always flee to the United States, and they do. If Betsy Markey votes to let the Obama Administration take control of our system and do away with our freedom of choice here, where do we flee? Answer: nowhere.”

The Obama Administration has announced its plan to push its disastrous policy through by the end of this summer. According to CNS NEWS, “Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod said on CBS’s Face the Nation (Sunday) that President Obama intends to promote a health-care reform plan that will include creating a government-owned health-care company and predicted that Congress will enact such a plan by the end of the summer.”

Harvey explained that Tea Party activists will respond this summer by pressuring Rep. Betsy Markey to vote against government-controlled health care “over the phone, by mail, at her district offices, or on her front doorstep, if necessary, starting this Saturday.”

There you have it Northern Colorado. If you think your health care choices should involve just you and your doctor – without any government bureaucrat interference – then grab your signs (like Michigan and North Carolina) and head out to Washington Park to let YOUR representative, Betsy Markey know that to represent YOU she has to vote against President Obama’s socialist government-owned health care system.

Ritter (reluctantly) signed House Bill 1288, setting us on the path to full state spending transparency. (Or as little transparency as they can get away with). I’d like to thank State Rep. BJ Nikkel for bringing this legislation forward, and our Director of Colorado Spending Transparency (COST), Amy Oliver, for helping to push it through. And let’s not forget the ordinary citizens who took time off from their lives and jobs to show support for such a revolutionary concept: Allowing taxpayers to actually see how and where their money is being spent!

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the news about Senate Bill 228 – the bill that makes us in Colorado a bit more like bankrupt California. What the bill does is repeal the Bird-Arveschoug 6% spending limit that we’ve been living and growing under since 1992. Governor Ritter of course signed the bill, thus sending Colorado the way of even larger deficits, more spending, and higher taxes; in other words, the Californication of Colorado.  Barry Poulson warned of this back in March saying,

“The bill would eliminate what has proven to be a very effective constraint on the growth in general fund expenditures, and also on how state revenues are allocated between transportation and capital projects, and other expenditures.”

Governor Ritter, let me make this clear: This bill does to Colorado what fame and fortune does to child stars in Hollywood — sends them on a drug induced bender of late night partying that inevitably kills their careers and nearly their lives. Hopefully TABOR will provide the necessary rehab for us to recover. That is until they kill that too.

I’m a little late reporting my weekly wrap-up, but I had some other things going on earlier. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to it.

***The Education Policy Center, Pam Benigno in particular, has been cranking out some quality podcasts lately. Here is everything you wanted to know about charter schools in Colorado, here is the legislative session wrap-up as it pertains to the advancement of charter schools, and here is Pam and Ben DeGrow on the very recent Boulder Valley Schools sick-out, and other labor disputes between school districts and unions.

***Did you hear that state Senator Chris Romer called me a “great American?” No, I’m not making that up.

***Have you been following the never ending battle waged on behalf of transparency? Yeah, it’s difficult. Turns out, state officials really do not want you to know how they are spending YOUR money! However, you’ve got us on your side, and Amy Oliver has been on the front lines fighting to see our government’s check register. Don’t forgot to follow the Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) blog to keep up to date on government transparency and accountability. And if you can, please consider donating $10 or more for transparency, we really could use it!

***Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman makes the case against the “public option” when it comes to providing health coverage. Makes me wonder, do people really want their doctors offices to look like the DMV??

***Finally, Barry Poulson is just plain on another level. What happens when two of the most famous economists of our time need some back-up for their Wall Street Journal op-ed? They go to Barry Poulson, that’s what they do! Barry is a bonified rockstar. When are we going to start selling fashionable “WWBPD?” wristbands?

The Wall Street Journal had a fantastic op-ed yesterday from two of the most distinguished economists of our day.  Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich written by the famous Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, told of the unfortunate situation high tax states find themselves in, relative to low tax states.  At present, high tax states like California, New York, and New Jersey find themselves with huge budget deficits and no way to plug the holes.  What’s their solution?  Soak the rich!  But the irony is, soaking the rich with high taxes was what gave them such huge deficits to begin with.  It’s like any other government “solution:” do something stupid, and when it doesn’t work out, continue to do more of the same stupid things.  The proof is in the numbers.  Low tax states, and states with no income tax at all, do not find themselves in the gigantic debt hole that CA, NY, NJ, and the like find themselves.  So what do two of the most successful, famous economists of our time do when they need answers and data to back up their newly inked op-ed?  They go to Independence Institute senior fellow Barry Poulson, that’s what they do!  Here’s Barry in all his glory,

More recently, Barry W. Poulson of the University of Colorado last year examined many factors that explain why some states grew richer than others from 1964 to 2004 and found “a significant negative impact of higher marginal tax rates on state economic growth.” In other words, soaking the rich doesn’t work. To the contrary, middle-class workers end up taking the hit.

See it’s quite simple.  High marginal tax rates do three things:  1. Encourage high income residents to leave the state (along with their businesses), 2. Discourage high income earners and business owners from ever moving into the state, and 3. Encourage high income earners that choose to stay in the state to shield as much of their income as they possibly can, and believe me, they are the ones savvy enough to do so.  In other words, the rich and business owners have the capacity for what the great Roger Daltrey once put it -  “Going Mobile.”

And there you have it. Barry gets references in The Wall Street Journal, while I can’t even get a call from the National Enquirer.

***Justice Policy Center director Mike Krause and his mintern (minion-intern) Joe Carr wrote an op-ed on why the DNA bill is flawed (that’s putting it nicely). If you haven’t heard yet, Senate Bill 241 requires DNA samples to be collected from all those ARRESTED (not convicted) for a felony. Also known as, DNA before proven guilty. Or as I call it, disgusting. While we’re at it. Why not just scrap the 4th amendment? That would also make law enforcement’s job a lot easier. Sheesh.

***Mike was also quoted in a recent American Conservative piece on federalism as it pertains to medical marijuana.

***Jessica Corry, our Campus Accountability Director, has been a thorn in the side of CU’s top brass, essentially “outing” their enormous salaries in the midst of CU’s current budget crisis. In March, she called on CU President Bruce Benson to cut all six-figure salaries by 5 percent. Benson responded with 5 percent cuts–but only to a handful of the university’s most expensive salaries. While Benson’s plan is expected to save $155,000. Ours could have saved taxpayers more than $4 million–all without cutting a single job. Read our latest Issue Paper, “An Academic Arms Race: The catastrophic rise of taxpayer-funded salaries at the University of Colorado and its peer institutions,” where Jessica outlines the case for slashing executive salaries in higher education.

***Or if you’re like me with chronic ADHD, read the shortened, op-ed version here.

***Over on our podcast page, iVoices.org, Ben has a new podcast with Scott Dilley of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. They discuss how the Obama administration is doing its best to let public sector unions off the transparency hook. While their counterparts, private unions, must disclose certain financials to their members, public sector unions curiously don’t have to… hmmm…

***Speaking of transparency…. Nothing gets Amy Oliver more excited than some good ol’ fashioned transparency legislation. (sorry Sheriff Cooke). Fortunately for her, House Bill 1288 – The Colorado Transparency Act – passed both the House and Senate and is heading for Governor Ritter’s desk as we speak. Let’s hope the good Gov’s pen doesn’t run out of ink…

I’m told this appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1934…. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
(Click to enlarge)