The state constitution, like the federal Constitution, begins with the words, "We the people." The constitution doesn't begin with the words "we the governments" or "we the cities" or "we the bureaucrats."
I point this out only because certain city government officials believe it is their responsibility to "educate" us on the constitutional amendments that are on the ballot this November.
That's not their job.
The way the urban planners describe it, you’d think portions of Boise resemble the tribal enclaves of Afghanistan. You know, dilapidated buildings, barely functional infrastructure, chaos, black cats, broken mirrors and unpermitted, non-conforming uses.
Some of that I made up. But then again, most of the conclusions in a 40-page report to Boise’s urban renewal agency and City Council are also made up.
BOISE -- Records obtained through the state's Public Records Act show Boise city officials are engaging in campaign activity on the taxpayers' dime, attempting to win passage of a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. The Idaho Freedom Foundation filed a public records request in June, asking for documents related to House Joint Resolution 5. HJR 5, if approved during the November general election, would allow cities to debt finance airport projects without a vote of the people.
Here is the latest update from Elizabeth Hodge, in an email to her husband, Alan, on Ralph Smeed, our dear friend.
The future of socialized medicine is already here, and it looks like this: The government is going to insist that doctors treat patients according to the government's terms and conditions. If they protest, argue, complain, fight or plead, they will be pegged as part of a grand conspiracy and silenced. It's happening already.
Recently, the state and federal governments fought a group of Idaho doctors because they decided they would no longer participate in the government's worker's compensation system.
Two news stories last week present an incredible teaching opportunity when it comes to how the media and academia promote statism by insisting that big government is the solution to all our problems. First comes the story out of Siena College Research Institute in Loudonville, New York, which announced last week that more than 238 so-called presidential scholars had concluded that Franklin D. Roosevelt was the nation’s top president. The legacy news media giddily reported these findings, and the story appeared in hundreds of news outlets worldwide.
My weariness for party politics came about midway through my time working for Republican Congressman Bill Sali.
Back when gasoline was $4 a gallon, I remember House Republicans issuing a treatise on high gasoline prices. The fault, the House Republicans said at the time, was those darned Democrats for failing to allow oil drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Less than a month ago, the U.S. debt clock, which tracks the federal government's accumulated red ink, struck $13 trillion dollars. As I write this column, the clock has added another $100 billion. That doesn't even count our broken entitlement programs -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Needless to say, Congressman Walt Minnick is 100 percent correct when he says deficit spending does matter.
I challenge conventional thinking because too many people believe efforts to restrict freedom are appropriate, necessary and natural. I got a good dose of that last week after I had the temerity to tell people that police shouldn’t be running dragnets to catch Idahoans not wearing their seat belts.
“But it saves lives!” well-meaning Idahoans e-mailed me.
For months, we freedom lovers have been bemoaning the socialistic atrocity that is Obamacare. But keep in mind where Obamacare originated: In general, it is from the belief of politicians that they can make you do things under the altruistic notion that a law is in your or society’s best interests. That’s a notion that is as old as many other state and federal laws.
