Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Channel 13 Covers Our Budget-Closing Ideas
In case you missed it, on last night’s 10pm news, I sat down with the folks at Channel 13 news to discuss our budget cutting ideas. The full report is available below:
Certainly, the ideas are not popular with those who we are trying to place on the chopping block, but the only other set [...]
Lack of Permits (and government jerks) Stop Teen Bake Sale
Check out this news story (disregard slightly annoying ad) from New York on an effort by a few local teens to do something productive by holding a bake sale. A busybody council man “caught” the two engaging in such nefarious activity and shut the effort down because “the two were selling for their own benefit [...]
Time to Abolish the Transportation Security Administration
Just in time for the Holiday travel time, the TSA’s searches have become ever more intrusive and absurd, not to mention expensive with the newest scanners costing between $130,000-$170,000 per unit. . As a government bureaucracy, however, we have very few options for opting out of their system or going elsewhere for the “service” of [...]
Cutting New Mexico’s Budget
Tom Molitor writing over at New Mexico Politics describes just a few ways in which New Mexico’s budget either doesn’t make sense. Also, today, the Rio Grande Foundation released more than $450 million specific savings that would adhere to Governor-Elect Martinez’s campaign pledge to not cut Medicaid or K-12 education.
Read the short report here. [...]
Obama’s Fiscal Commission: Much to Agree on, Much will not happen
There is a lot for fiscal conservatives to like in President Obama’s Fiscal Commission. A full explanation of the first draft can be found here. A shorter summary can be found here. Specifically, the discretionary and defense spending cuts need to be considered and, while politically difficult, should attract some support from both sides of [...]
Government Licensing Gone Wild
One way that President Obama, Congress, Susana Martinez, the Legislature, and even city governments could spur their respective economies is by abolishing most professional licensing or at least making such licensing optional. Thus, if you wish to go to a business that is licensed by the relevant government agency, you are free to do that [...]
Who is the best president????
On Wednesday the 10th of November, the Rio Grande Foundation hosted Ivan Eland, author of “Recarving Rushmore” for a talk on the best and worst presidents in US history and how President Obama ranks among those.
Rob Nikolewski over at Capitol Report has an excellent account of the event and a brief interview with Eland. [...]
In: Uncategorized
The Importance of Divided Government
While I certainly look forward to working with increased numbers of conservatives here in New Mexico, I am also excited about the prospects of divided government putting the brakes on out of control spending in Washington. Why is that? Simply put, spending growth is far lower when power is split among the parties in Washington. [...]
In: Uncategorized
Where Does New Mexico Rank?
On Tuesday, November 9, Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation presented to a group of senior citizens as part of an OASIS class. The title of my talk was “How Does New Mexico Rank?” My powerpoint presentation with lots of interesting charts and graphs can be found here.
There’s lots of information on [...]
Another Bite at the Eminent Domain Apple?
One of the Rio Grande Foundation’s greatest achievements includes having worked with the Legislature and Governor Richardson to reform New Mexico’s eminent domain laws to protect property owners against eminent domain abuse in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision. In fact, according to the Castle Coalition, which works on such issues, New Mexico’s [...]
