In their attempt to prevent the passage of the proposed “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” (TABOR) in Maine, opponents have claimed that the provision has “decimated” and “de-funded” schools and public colleges in Colorado, a state which has had TABOR on the books since 1992. Education has been a central focus in the opponents’ campaign to prevent people from voting YES on Question 4 on the November 3rd ballot in Maine. If passed, TABOR would limit the growth of annual expenditures from Maine’s General Fund, the Highway Fund, and other special revenue funds to the rate of population growth plus inflation.

It’s time to set the record straight on TABOR and education in order to move forward in Maine. A new report released by The Maine Heritage Policy Center essentially debunks all claims that TABOR hurts public education in Colorado..

Firstly, average scores on the SATs for 2005 college bound seniors on verbal and math portions were almost identical in both states. Additionally, higher education is actually more affordable in Colorado than it is in Maine. The report shows that the average annual costs minus average financial aid for a 2-year public college in Maine are 55 percent higher than in Colorado and 4 year colleges are 38 percent higher in Maine.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is CAGW’s October Porker of the Month

Washington, D.C. - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) its October Porker of the Month. The four-term senator from Texas is loading up her goodie bag just before Halloween as she prepares to leave the Senate to run for governor. While claiming to be a fiscal conservative, Sen. Hutchison requested 149 projects worth $1.6 billion for authorization and appropriations bills for fiscal year 2010.

In a March 6, 2009 Dallas Morning News article, Sen. Hutchison said, “I do think that earmarks are a legitimate role of Congress. I don’t think that we should be earmarking things that do not have a national interest…Can it be overdone? Yes. Should it be transparent? Yes. But that is the role of Congress, to determine how we spend money.” On September 28, 2009, she told the Austin American-Statesman that “I’m proud of being able to garner Texans’ fair share of their tax dollars.”

“Sen. Hutchison is repeating the same old insidious quackery about the earmarking process: that it can be made accountable and that it somehow levels the spending playing field,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “The only fair way to distribute the taxpayers’ money is to eliminate the practice altogether and instead work to ensure that every dime of taxpayer money is spent using the budget laws and rules that they themselves established. Earmarking is a secretive, wasteful process that breeds a culture of corruption in Washington and distrust among taxpayers.”

According to CAGW’s pork database, Sen. Hutchison secured 130 projects worth $189 million in fiscal year (FY) 2009, and 145 projects worth $259 million for FY 2008. So far, the senator has appeared in several of CAGW’s Pork Alerts for FY 2010. In the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, she joined several other senators in getting $50.5 million for the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC). The Senate bill had already appropriated $132 million to the NDPC even before the earmark. In the Military Construction Appropriations Act, Sen. Hutchison took home five projects worth $25,045,000, equal to 8.2 percent of the total dollars in the bill. In the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, she grabbed earmarks for two light rail transportation (LRT) projects: $75,000,000 for the Houston North Corridor LRT and $75,000,000 for the Houston Southeast Corridor LRT.

For personifying the tiresome hypocrisy of some members of Congress who want to claim the badge of fiscal conservatism while continuing to abscond with billions of dollars in wasteful pork projects, CAGW names Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison its October Porker of the Month.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

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A lot of nonsensical arguments have been put forward by leftist lobbyists and their allies in their desire for Washington to regulate the internet (to distract attention from Google’s plan to have Congress mandate that consumers subsidize their multi-billion dollar profits).

Perhaps the most stupid argument to date, however, comes from Ken Ward, PhD Candidate, University of Austin(History Department). Mr. Ward has decided that people like Robert Kahn, inventor of TCP/IP and “father” of the internet”, who have denounced government intervention , don’t really know what they’re talking about, so it’s up to him to use his great knowledge and wisdom acquired in his studies (in history) to set the record straight.

This column originally appeared on The American Spectator on October 16, 2009.

The Obama White House hesitated not at all in labeling the AHIP study “an insurance industry hatchet job.” The study in question was one conducted by a policy group that is funded by the industry.

The study said that premiums on the average family would go up $4,000 if the Baucus bill — which cleared the Senate Finance Committee recently on an almost straight-line party vote — is enacted into law. The White House’s quick and dismissive response said that of course the industry will howl — their ox is being gored.

Marxist Robert McChesney founded the leftist group “Free Press” in 2002 to press for socialist reforms of the Internet, and a heavy regulatory hand on the ownership of other media. Free Press agitates for the so-called “fairness doctrine”, forcing equal time for the left to respond to conservative commentary on talk radio, and set-asides for community organizers on local broadcast stations.

Since long before the founding of Free Press, Robert McChesney has been editor of the most widely circulated Marxist/ Communist magazine in the United States, “Monthly Review.” The University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) professor is current director of the Monthly Review Foundation, the tax-exempt parent of the Marxist publication.

Link.

Howard Husock of the Manhattan Institute has an excellent piece on governmental encroachment on charitable foundations.

(Alexandria, VA) - With less than two weeks remaining before Maine citizens vote on Question 4, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), opponents are spreading both money and misinformation to defeat the measure. Recognizing the high stakes of this debate, the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has launched a Ballot Committee and website, Maine4Taxpayers.com, to help educate Mainers on the benefits of passing TABOR. NTU has nearly 2,000 members in Maine.

SACRAMENTO - California is scrambling for federal Race to the Top grants but there is more at stake than money according to state Sen. Gloria Romero, who held an informational hearing on October 14.

“I’m open to having discussions on accountability and what works,” said Sen. Romero in the hearing. “It’s not just about money, this is about the future of the face of education in California.”

On Thursday, Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) unveiled the most dramatic and costly healthcare bill in the history of this country. Instead of moderating the proposals after months of mounting opposition from the American public, the final bill amounts to an ultimatum.

The new tactic by the Administration and Congress is alarming. As they watch public support continue to plunge, desperation has lead to the so-called “nuclear option”. With a 70 vote majority in the House, the leadership has decided to force the legislation through regardless of the economic, social, and political costs. It is now or never in the short-sighted world of the ruling elite.