Democrats and Earmarks

Every Democrat should watch this video and remember why the Republicans were the big losers last election.

Hat tip: Instapundit

The Perfect Father’s Day Gift List

One of my favorite websites, Cooking for Engineers, published their list of Father’s Day gift suggestions. Anyone who wants to buy me something for Father’s Day should check it out!!!

(I especially like the Weber 22.5 inch Charcoal Kettle Grill and the Alton Brown cookbooks)

My Last Voucher Post (yeah…right…)

Ok…this is not a one topic blog but so much on this topic has been going on lately that I haven’t been able to find anything else as interesting to blog about. This should be my last post on the Utah’s voucher woes…for a while at least…

Rep. Steve Urquhart has published his plan for getting Utah out of the current mess it is in. I like the plan because it allows for a conclusive up or down vote on vouchers in November and it provides a way for the voucher program to be completely clear and ready to go should voters decide they want to keep the program.

At this point the ongoing debate has become more about the state of Utah’s democracy than it is about the voucher plan itself. I support Urquhart’s plan or one like it because the current debate is so unseemly. It would be wise of Republicans to drop their current plan to implement vouchers irregardless of the upcoming election results and adopt Urquhart’s idea simply because it would be good PR and if anyone needs good PR in this mess it is the Republicans. Right now they seem pretty slimy and lame to me.

Utah’s Republicans: Taking The Decision Away From Voters = Clarity

UPDATE 05/29/2007 8:20:
Steve Urquhart has been arguing for a whole new voucher bill that could receive an up or down vote in a statewide election as a way of fixing this whole mess. Check out his update to this post for more information. This might be a fair way to handle the whole issue. It could provide for the up or down vote that Utahns deserve and a clearly laid out complete voucher program if voters decide at the ballot box that they want vouchers.
END UPDATE

The new talking point for Utah’s Republican leadership is that they are looking for “clarity” in the ballot language for the referendum election on vouchers. Take a look at the current language:

In February 2007, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 148, Education Vouchers. This bill will
take effect only if approved by voters. The bill:
• establishes a scholarship program for:
• qualifying school-age children who newly enroll in eligible private schools; and
• lower income school-age children who continue their enrollment in eligible private
schools;
• provides for scholarships within that program of $500 to $3,000, depending on family
size and income, increasing those scholarship amounts in future years; and
• allows school districts to retain some per-student funding for scholarship students who
transfer to private schools.
Are you for or against H.B. 148 taking effect?

That ballot language couldn’t be any more clear…”do you want the voucher program or not?” So what needs clarifying? Republicans don’t really want to clarify the language. They want to gut the ballot question so Utah’s voters no longer have any say. Here’s how Curt Bramble describes “clarifying the ballot language” on the voucher referendum election:

The outcome I support and that I think is consistent with the applicable statutes and the Attorney General’s opinion is this: The Court may rule that only part of HB 148 is subject to referendum - the part not superseded by HB 174. People will then know, without confusion or argument, that supporting the referendum only means they are deep-sixing the mitigation money that holds schools harmless when a student leaves.

Bramble doesn’t want Utahns to have an up or down vote on his subsidies for private school students. He wants the language changed on the ballot so that voters will have no other choice than to accept the voucher program he’s shoving down our throats. For Bramble and most of our Republican legislators…that is clarification.

Now more than ever…Utah’s Republicans have no shame.

Utah Taxpayers Association: Great At Fiscal Policy…Bad At Political Sniping

UTA has a post up this morning criticizing voucher opponents for doggedly standing in the way of those who have forced this unwanted program onto Utah’s taxpayers. They state:

Voucher opponents, confident that they will prevail in a popular vote, are demanding “Let the people decide on vouchers”.

What they really mean is “Let the people decide on vouchers, unless they vote in favor of vouchers. Then let the courts decide.” Everyone knows that, if vouchers are approved by the voters, many of the same people and groups who are yelling “Let the people decide” will wait a full two nanoseconds before yelling “Let the courts decide.”

Most voucher opponents will not abide by a decision of the people if the voters support vouchers. Here’s how the 5-step process works.

1. Let the Legislature decide? Yes, unless they decide to support vouchers.
2. Let the people decide? Yes, unless they decide to support vouchers.
3. Let the state courts decide? Yes, unless they decide to support/uphold vouchers.
4. Let the federal courts decide? Yes, unless they decide to support/uphold vouchers.
5. Let voucher opponents decide? Yes, even though they are a minority, there are enough of them to justify stopping the program.

Unfortunately their narrative is a little bit off.

In 1988 Utah gots its first real taste of the “school choice” debate with a ballot initiative to give tax credits for private school tuition. The initiative failed miserably at the ballot box. Since then numerous “school choice” bills (at least nine by my count) have been brought up in the state legislature in an effort to implement vouchers or tuition tax credits. All of these failed. Finally, after a year of intense lobbying by out of state pro-voucher groups and half a million dollars in campaign contributions for pro-voucher candidates in the 2006 elections a voucher program was passed and signed by the governor. It seems to me that voucher supporters, not skeptics, are the ones willing time and time again to ignore the will of the voters on this issue in their crusade for government subsidies for private school attendees.

UTA’s accusation that anti-voucher activists won’t honor results of the referendum ballot is especially ironic considering recent Republican plans to ignore referendum results if things don’t go their way at the ballot box. The May 18 Deseret Morning News reported:

Curtis, R-Sandy, laid out the hard political facts concerning the voucher issue this past week to his House Republican caucus.
And the bottom line is this: Not only will legislative Republicans do nothing now to try to resolve the voucher issue before citizens vote on one of the voucher bills this coming November, even if voters statewide call for repeal of vouchers at the ballot box, the Legislature may end up not acting on their vote — and a form of vouchers would stay in place.

UTA has been great about providing fiscal data about the voucher program in an effort to defend their support. I think their advocacy for vouchers runs counter to their purpose of defending Utah’s taxpayers from needless government programs and expenses but it is clear from the economic arguments they’ve made that they are arguing in good faith for vouchers as being good for tax payers. Unfortunately their rhetoric in the post they put up today is not very well informed and unnecessarily spiteful. UTA should stick to what they’re good at (defending taxpayers from expansive government) and not stoop to petty political sniping.

National Democrats Embarass Me

I’ve commented in the past about what national Democrats need to do to keep my support here, here, and here. Basically I encouraged my party to do their level best to not be corrupt greedy incompetent fools like the Republicans they were replacing. I’ve been trying, with ever diminishing success, to ignore the fact that they’ve become everything I was hoping they’d avoid becoming.

Democrats are now trying to push earmark reform in the opposite direction they promised.

“The House Appropriations Committee has decided to insert earmarks into all of the FY08 spending bills during the conferencing committees, instead of during the initial House-only process.

This will prevent lawmakers like Jeff Flake from offering amendments to strip out wasteful pork projects…which is EXACTLY why David Obey, the Approps Chairman, is changing the rules.

Rep. Obey responded to concerns about his actions by stating, “It’s my job to protect the committee.”

Thanks Rep. Obey for betraying the trust voters gave you by putting our party in power. You’ve “protected your committee” and made it easier for politicians in Washington D.C. to raid the national treasury for stupid stupid projects that have nothing to do with the constitutional purpose of our government or the best interest of all Americans

I’m a proud Utah Democrat but I sure hate the smear job our national politicians have perpetrated on our party’s reputation. It is really embarassing to see my party acting worse than the corrupt Republican hacks who were in power before. How can we legitimately argue that America is better off when Democrats win elections? The bozos we put in power in 2006 provide daily evidence in the form of their money grubbing and corrupt policy stands that it makes no difference who wins national elections.

Is it obvious why I tend to avoid national partisan politics more and more on this blog? America loses no matter which party is in power.

Wired Politicians

I love having this outlet…this blog…where I can vent whatever thoughts I want to publicly vent. I first started blogging in March of 2003. It has brought me a lot of pleasure and a lot of knowledge as people have interacted with me online. All of this is just a hobby for me and I don’t contend that the world is any better a place because I have this silly blog posted out on the internet.

When this same technology I enjoy as just a hobby is used by people we have elected to run our government something special takes place. An extremely effective channel of two way communication is opened up between voters and and those endowed with the power granted by those voters.

The Senate Site has a post up today asking for suggestions on how they can make better use of technology in furthering their goals to maintain an open line of communication with Utahns willing to hear them out on their webpage. Check it out and give them some feedback. I usually disagree with their policy positions but am still really grateful for the work done on that webpage to keep all of us connected to the political process.

Subsidized Ice Cream For The Fat Rich Kids!!! Yippy!!!

I walked out the door of the Davis County Court House on my way to lunch today and was confronted with these hideous ads promoting taxpayer funds for people who want to send their kids to private schools. The lobbyists from PCE have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying enough influence to get subsidies for private school attendees written into law and now they are spending more trying to convince us that the tax money spent on vouchers is as wonderful as a big drippy ice cream cone for a fat kid on a hot sunny day.

(more…)

Has The RIAA Purchased Utah’s Legislature?

I thought I had followed this year’s legislative agenda pretty closely but I definitely don’t remember hearing this one talked about. A little research shows that yes…Utah’s legislators decided in this past session to tightly regulate the sale of used CDs by requiring the 1. tracking of all used CD sales 2. that anyone selling a used CD to a shop be required to provide photo ID and a fingerprint and 3. that a database be created to keep track of who sells used CDs and when they do it.

Why would they create such legislation? Perhaps to provide a huge sop to the RIAA which has always complained about the financial suffering they experience because of used CD sales? This is bad for our freedom to do what we want with the music we legally purchase and its bad for a great Utah company that has made purchasing music an enjoyable experience for me since I first had money to buy CDs. I’ve been a patron of Graywhale CD for nearly 18 years because I like their knowledgeable staff and their used CD selection with its accompanying fair prices. It sure stinks to see them punished by our legislature.

Ugh…to top it all off…I just found out that it was MY Senator who sponsored this stupid legislation in the Senate.

UPDATE: 05/08/07 9:10AM

Jessie Harris commented:

What I immediately wondered is how this will affect secondhand stores like DI and The Salvation Army. All it’ll take is some high-profile reporting of how charities get hurt to make this law go buh-bye.

I haven’t read the legislation closely enough yet to see how this will apply to all “second hand” stores. I’m guessing that since DI and Salvation Army don’t actually buy second hand merchandise (they only accept donations) they won’t be affected. I’m sure the question could be raised about the many stores in Utah which buy and sell second hand children’s clothing though. It will be interesting to see how this law is implemented and enforced. Jesse was also correct in his comment about the need to reform the legislative process in Utah so sneaky legislation like this doesn’t make it past the legislature without significant public comment or debate.