Keynes Belongs in Museum
“The Denver Museum of Nature & Science, with its 465 solar panels and focus on education, makes ‘a perfect venue’ for President Barack Obama to sign a historic $787 billion economic stimulus bill, Gov. Bill Ritter said Sunday.”
I couldn’t agree more. The so-called “stimulus” bill, and the Keynesian economics on which it rests, belongs in a museum, properly stuffed and mounted for display along with all the other failed ideas of the 20th Century.
Notice that the Rocky Mountain News blithely refers to this federal monstrosity as a the “economic stimulus bill,” as though that were perfectly noncontroversial, straight news. Perhaps such lap-dog “journalism” is one reason why the Rocky also appears headed for the museum.
Food Stamp Abuse
“Nadya Suleman, the mother of the octuplets born last month, gets $490 a month in food stamps, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday evening.” Suleman also has six other children.
So, in other words, my wife and I are scraping by, trying desperately to climb out of debt so that we can responsibly afford a single child before my wife hits “Advanced Maternal Age,” even as we are forced to subsidize this lady’s fourteen children. That’s an — interesting — sort of public policy.
Earlier this month I spent a week eating the Low-Carb Food Stamp Diet, in which my daily food expenses, discounting the food left over, were around $4 per day. But our normal food budget is not a lot more than that.
Dems Ramp up Property Rights Abuses
Mike Krause explains, “In 2007, the Democrat controlled legislature (with plenty of Republican support) approved HB 1275 which designates the Colorado National Guard as a law enforcement agency for the purpose of ‘sharing in the federal asset forfeiture program’ as part of the Guard’s counter drug operation in Colorado. … According to the Guard’s Joint Counter Drug Task Force web page, ‘Our primary function is to provide military unique skills and equipment as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies involved in narcotics enforcement.’ … In Colorado, the ‘war on drugs’ has gone from metaphor to actual military action.”
When law enforcement agencies get the booty from taking people’s property, they have all sorts of perverse incentives to skirt justice as they fight their “war.” If Colorado Democrats can’t even stand up for basic civil liberties, then what good are they?
Andrews Defends Spending Restraints
John Andrews writes, “The state is in a $600 million hole because Gov. Bill Ritter and Democratic legislators ignored advice from Republicans — and even some fellow Democrats — to restrain spending and save for a rainy day. Now those same spendthrifts want us to remove constitutional guardrails so they can rev the budget again when good times return.”
The fact is that the left, driven by special interests, will always want more political spending, regardless of how high it is at any given moment.
Car Fees
“Many Coloradans could see their annual state vehicle-registration fee more than double if a major transportation-funding proposal making its way through the state Capitol becomes law.” Again, where’s all the gasoline tax money going? Doesn’t that better match use to funding?