Arizona Republic Editor Phil Boas got it right this morning (March 15) in his editorial “Jeff Flake didn’t change; Trump voters did.” I can attest to this because I have followed Flake’s political career from the beginning when he was hired as the Goldwater Institute’s executive director. At the time, I was on the Institute’s executive committee and I was serving as executive director following the resignation of our founder. Consequently, I had the primary responsibility for vetting the applicants. Our primary concern in seeking a new director was to find someone committed to the principles of liberty that the Goldwater Institute was formed to defend. I can attest to the fact that Jeff Flake has always maintained the strongest commitment to these principles. And, as I mentioned in a prior editorial, Jeff has a secret weapon: niceness. You can disagree with him (and I do on a few issues) but you can’t not like him. He may face both a tough primary and a tough general election but he will prevail.
There is a legislative proposal to eliminate the Arizona Parks Board. Bad idea. Normally I am in favor of eliminating boards and commissions but those are the ones that restrict the public, such as all the licensure boards (Arizona has the most onerous regulation of professions in the entire United States). But boards that oversee and restrict government activities should be retained. Besides, with all the recent problems in State Parks management it is obvious that they more supervision, not less.
However, an even better idea would be to privatize the management of the State Parks.
President Trump Wants a Bigger Hammer
Most of us are familiar with the phrase “When you have a hammer in your hand, every problem looks like a nail.” This explains my fear over President Trump’s request for a substantial increase in military spending. We already have a military budget far larger than that of any other country in the world. I wonder how many problems Trump will see that look like nails? Most problems in the world are not best addressed with a hammer. We should be concerned.
Forget about trying to unseat Senator Jeff Flake. He is unbeatable. He has a secret weapon which is……niceness. You can disagree with him but it is impossible not to like him.
No Tax Money for a Stadium
The sun must have gone down and there must be a full moon because I see the Dracula of tax spending for a hockey stadium arising. The Coyotes are howling again. But this time it is especially embarrassing for me as a lifelong registered Republican to have such a wasteful expenditure of tax money being proposed by a Republican state senator.
Most people know that there have been many economic studies showing the folly of these sports venue ideas but, like Dracula, they never die. I can’t help remembering the comment I heard a few years ago, that we have two political parties in the United States, the stupid party and the evil party. I just can’t remember which one I am in.
I really dislike the phrase “the question becomes,” especially as it is frequently used by PBS talk show host Diane Rhem. Part of my dislike is due to her very liberal bias and what I perceive to be her attempt to hide that bias. She is very emphatic about her commitment to having people on the show with diverse viewpoints but her bias is not expressed in her choice of guests but rather by the nature of her questions. For example, if there is a discussion of cuts in some government welfare program Diane would always inquire about the potential harm to the recipients but never ask about the potential benefit to lower taxes. And she obfuscates the issue even more when she attempts to suggest that the question she is about to ask is not her own but comes out of thin air. I think she should accept responsibility for her questions by saying “my question is….” rather than “the question becomes.”
Betsy DeVos—yes
If you want your children to be open minded and intelligent, then you should support Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education because she believes in trusting parents more than pointy headed bureaucrats to know what is best for their children. Our bureaucratic top-down government run schools are a mess. The costs keep going up but the student performance is stagnant. The programs that DeVos supports like tax credits, charters, vouchers, and educational savings accounts are exactly the kind of changes that are needed to improve educational outcomes. Remember, he who pays the piper calls the tune. In education, that means that government monopoly over education will produce students who are obedient servants of the government. Freedom and choice are what is needed. Betsy DeVos will provide that.
There has been much hyperbole lately about the new jobs in the military that females will be allowed to enter. As a former military person and someone who pays attention to these issues I would like to issue a warning. Whenever you hear some senior military official loudly proclaiming that the physical standards will not be lowered for the women, there is only one thing you can be certain of and that is that the standards WILL be lowered. And, if that senior official makes the claim twice within the same newscast, that means the standards will be lowered immediately. (If the standards were not being lowered, there would be no need for the announcement.)
A couple of months ago, I attended a meeting of the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC). One of the agencies being reviewed was the Arizona Lottery. The representative of the Lottery started her presentation by stating that the goal of the Lottery. It was to “maximize revenue for the state while maintaining its dignity.” During the public comment period at the end of the meeting I stated that the Arizona Lottery has an impossible mission because there is no “dignity” in a government entity running a gambling enterprise. (I also stated that the GRCC should spend less time looking to reduce government regulations and more time simply abolishing many of the regulatory agencies.)
I just heard a segment on NPR that reported on the financial “challenges” that President Obama will face after leaving the White House. The reporter admitted that Obama has a government pension but stated “that will only go so far.” I guess that implies the Obamas will have to buy a manufactured home in some remote suburb of Chicago. But wait, didn’t they just buy a mansion in a “leafy” (per press accounts) part of Washington DC?
Give me a break. The Obamas are millionaires and the perks provided an ex-president go well beyond the pension. Besides, there are obviously many ways an ex-president can make money. This is just more liberal bias from NPR. (Remember that the Clintons left the White House broke and, within a few years, were reported to be worth over $100 million.) Let’s save our tears for the truly needy who, overall, made no gains during the Obama presidency.
roymilleraz 