The Bell Curve: Oh yeah, that’s a lot better… Property Tax "solution" Destroying Indiana Small Business

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The state legislators property tax solution may be starting to take affect. You may recall the push for a Constitutional amendment to cap property taxes at 1% of the assessed value for residential properties, 2% for agricultural properties, and 3% for business properties.

A lot of Democrats worried that it would limit the government's ability to collect enough money to fund everything they wanted to fund. A lot of Republicans claimed it was the only way to protect property owners. A lot of people, (Libertarians mostly, I think) worried that if the caps took effect, and even if the sales tax was raised 16%, the assessed value could change enough to negate any savings the property owners might temporarily receive.

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Maguire: How I will Vote on Wishard This Tuesday

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By Timothy Maguire, Libertarian Party of Marion County Chairman

Does Wishard need a new hospital? Is their old one deteriorating? Can Indianapolis survive if Wishard fades away? Will this new referendum increase my taxes?

All good questions. But Libertarians have good cause to mistrust the government’s claims: Its’s needed now, and it won’t cost you anything. Remember the library? The last couple of stadiums built? Bailouts?

I would urge everyone to tell the government “STOP!” this Tuesday, and let’s look at more solutions before we give approval to this new hospital, a building that we haven’t been told how it WILL be paid for.

Wishard’s side of this arguement has been circulated far and wide by the media and the marketing efforts of Wishard themselves. (They’re putting a lot of effort behind it, and they have a lot of money to gain from this referendum).

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Contrary to Popular Belief… There IS an Election TODAY

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Many did not expect to go to the polls on November 3, 2009. In most Indiana counties, they won't... But to be sure that you don't miss a vote, contact your county election board. They can tell you a polling location if an election is being held. The General Assembly has approved some school systems and other ballot questions for tomorrow. The LPIN questions the need for these questions to be held in an off-election year, causing county tax payers an expense that has not been budgeted for...

In Porter and St. Joseph County, residents will consider whether or not to increase the County Option Income Tax for the creation of a Regional Transit Authority. Both Lake and LaPorte County will consider this question in 2010 during a scheduled election. The Libertarian County Parties in this region all oppose the question. Find out why at LPIN.org or at http://www.no-rta.com/.

In Marion County, The Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County and Wishard Hospital will ask taxpayers to act as collateral for a new hospital. Here is press release from the hospital: Wishard to seek $703 million in bonding to replace deteriorating facilities.

If Lucas Oil Stadium, The Central Library, the Simon Building project, and the IPS School System have Marion County Chairman Tim Maguire questioning the leaders of Indianapolis' newest project, no one should be surprised. Maguire lays out the opposition to Wishard Hospital here.

Several school systems will ask taxpayers to approve either property tax increases, or a raise in the tax levy (which means you get less money back.)

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Press Release: Libertarian Party Reaction to Voters Defeating the RTD

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For Immediate Release:

Libertarian Party Reaction to Voters Defeating the RTD

On November 3, 2009, the voters of Porter and St. Joseph counties voted against the creation of a Regional Transit Authority, and against increasing taxes.

“I am glad that the citizens of these two counties voted against this referendum,” said Ron Cenkush, St. Joseph County resident and an organizer of the effort to stop this tax increase. Cenkush is also seeking the Libertarian Party nomination for House District 5.

Cenkush continued, “This was a convoluted plan to continually raise taxes for a public transportation system that would have been sparsely used. If Northern Indiana residents want a public transportation system, it should use a series of tax incentives for entrepreneurship, not income tax increases. Increasing the cost of living in a region that has been hit hard by the shrinking economy is wrong headed. It’s time for new leadership both here, and in Indianapolis.”

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An Easy Way To Email Your Senators on Obamacare and Responsible Energy Policy

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Editor's Note: Former LPIN Executive Director Brad Klopfenstein is putting together a project to fight for a responsible energy policy, along with an easy way to write Evan Bayh opposing Obamacare. He can be reached via email at klop@att.net if you are interested in participating.

Hi Friends,

I'm working on a project with the Hoosier Energy Forum to compile a list of Hoosiers that are concerned about achieving energy security, and are opposed to new taxes on oil and natural gas.

My goal is to get 100 names, address, and email address. Right now, I'm just collecting the information, but at some point in the future, you may receive an email from the Hoosier Energy Forum, or myself, asking you to send an email to our U.S. Senators Bayh & Lugar. If you have any friends that may be interested, please forward this message on!

Also, I'm organizing a letter writing campaign to Senator Bayh opposing the Health Care Bill currently in Congress. I have several sample letters ready to go! I'll put your name on one, send it to you for approval, and then I will submit a letter on your behalf. Even if you've written one yourself, I will take care of delivering that to Evan Bayh as well! Please email me at klop@att.net.

If you would like more information on either of these, please let me know and I can send some more in-depth talking points.

Thanks for your help!

Brad Klopfenstein
klop@att.net

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Cato: Federal Education Results Prove the Framers Right

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By Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute.

Yesterday, I offered the Fordham Foundation’s Andy Smarick an answer to a burning question: What is the proper federal role in education? It was a question prompted by repeatedly mixed signals coming from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about whether Washington will be a tough guy, coddler, or something in between when it comes to dealing with states and school districts. And what was my answer? The proper federal role is no role, because the Constitution gives the feds no authority over American education.

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Bell: If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a word worth?…

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There's something to said for brevity. The Ten Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights contains 463 words. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words.

A federal directive written to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.

Sometimes governments verbosity is just annoying. Sometimes it's expensive.

The House version of the national health care bill contains 1990 pages, and 400,000 words. With a 10 year cost of $894 billion, that figures out to about $2.24 million per word.

Who ever said that talk was cheap?

Rex Bell is a Wayne County Libertarian that writes a monthly column on events that shape our lives from a libertarian point of view. If you have a comment or question on a particular subject, you can e-mail him at lpwc@msn.com or snail-mail him at 17059 State Road 38, Hagerstown.

Rush County Residents Start Effort to Organize County

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RUSH COUNTY, IN -- Paul Morrell has been fed up with the status quo for many years. After patiently waiting for change within the Republican Party, he decided to take a bold action for the Constitution and for liberty. Morrell has decided to actively organize Rush County for the Libertarian Party of Indiana.

Join Morrell and other Libertarian Party members on November 3rd!

Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Posey Township Fire Department
Street: 7260 West U.S. 52 Arlington, IN

You can also RSVP on Facebook. Also, be sure to join the Libertarian Party of Rush County Facebook Group.

Libertarian Party of Marion County Announces Second Annual Canned Food Drive

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From James Majdak, the LPMC Treasurer:

Dear Libertarians,

In the spirit of voluntary charity, the Libertarian Party of Marion County is now collecting nonperishable food for our November food drive and new or gently used clothing for our December clothing drive. Additionally, we will also accept monetary donations this year.

This year’s beneficiary is Second Helpings. Second Helpings not only distributes food and clothing, they also provide job training opportunities. Their website is http://www.secondhelpings.org/.

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Letting the Sick Die on the Street

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Blogger Matt Yglesias has described my op-ed on health care as follows:

Meanwhile, in Harvard economist and Cato Institute senior fellow Jeffrey Miron’s dystopia, if your parents wind up with no money through bad luck or poor decision-making and then you get sick you’ll just die on the street for lack of money.

Did I really say such an outrageous thing? Well, I did not use exactly those words (as Matt makes clear), but yes, that is the logical implication of my position.

And I stand by it. Here's why.

First, my assessment is that even with no government health insurance, hardly anyone would die on the street for lack of health care. The poor would use their income transfers to buy some health care or insurance. The poor would receive private charity. And health care would be far less expensive due to elimination of the distortions caused by government health insurance.

Second, my position is that government provision of health insurance is enormously inefficient: it means worse health care for everyone, and it wastes resources that can be put to other uses. So the negative of having a few people suffer without government health insurance must be balanced against the good of having better medical care for all and against the good that can be accomplished with those saved resources.

That good might be lower taxes for everyone, or more government spending on education, or greater public health spending to combat HIV in poor countries. Whatever the alternate uses turn out to be, one cannot escape the fact that a tradeoff exists between protecting the poor and other goals.

Renewed Hope for Gridlock?

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The results of yesterdays two gubernatorial elections - big wins for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey - provide renewed hope for people with political preferences like mine:

The only thing worse than the Republicans is the Democrats, and vice versa.

Thus, I am not pleased because I want Republicans rather than Democrats to run the country; I am pleased because I want gridlock: a Congress with sufficient Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats to defeat most of the initiatives proposed by liberal Democrats.

Gridlock is not the ultimate goal, of course; I would like to see the U.S. eliminate huge amounts of existing government. But for starters, not enacting any new government would be an improvement over the path Democrats will adopt unconstrained.

It is nevertheless too early to forecast what will happen in the mid-term elections next year. If the economy has recovered substantially, the Democrats may hold their own. Last night's results nevertheless suggest that independents may be less enthusiastic about President Obama and the Democrats than they were last fall, and this should tilt the composition of Congress toward the Republicans.

That is one reason the Democrats are pushing so hard to get their agenda adopted immediately. They know their window of opportunity may soon close.

An Opportunity for Libertarians?

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Daniel Henninger of the WSJ writes about yesterday's election results:

What was learned Tuesday is that the American voter is absolutely, totally, unremittingly disgusted with both political parties.

I could not agree more. I am not persuaded, however, by Henninger's assessment of what the electorate wants. He says

More than anything, the American voter is desperate for political leadership.

This may be part of the story, but here's a different interpretation: a signficant fraction of the electorate is neither liberal nor conservative but libertarian.

Not over the top, wingnut libertarian like me, but moderate, restrained libertarian: fiscally conservative and socially tolerant.

I doubt this augurs a flood of officially libertarian candidates. But perhaps it means that more politicians will shift toward the soft libertarian perspective.

Not-so-Temporary Stimulus

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In separate actions to address Americans’ continuing economic hardship, the government moved Thursday to assist long-unemployed workers and struggling businesses, as well as home buyers and homeowners facing foreclosure.

Fannie Mae, the federally controlled mortgage company, announced a Deed for Lease program in which those in danger of eviction may be able to stay as tenants in their houses for at least a year.

At the same time, Congress gave final approval to a stimulus measure that will extend unemployment benefits for the longtime jobless, aid that will bring total assistance for many to nearly two years. Other provisions of the bill will expand two popular tax breaks — one for home buyers, the other for businesses operating at a loss.

The worst components of these extensions of the stimulus are those that support housing. The U.S. economy got into trouble in part because it over-invested in housing. The recession is a chance to re-allocate investment from housing to non-residential investment (factories, equipment, R&D) and for people who bought homes they could not afford to find smaller houses or apartments.

Propping up the housing market merely delays inevitable adjustments and perpetuates a misallocation of resources.

Medicare Shuns Seniors

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Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.

It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group.

Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care.

This outcome is inevitable under government provided health insurance. As health technology improves, expenditure on insured health care grows rapidly. Governments respond by limiting payments, lest deficits mushroom.

This problem is going to get worse, with or without Obamacare. Thus the only consistent position for those who oppose Obamacare is to also oppose Medicare and Medicaid.

Financial Market Reform

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My thoughts, at Reason.com. The gist:

In the coming weeks and months, Congress will be turning its attention to financial market reform, in hopes of avoiding future financial crises. According to perceived wisdom, the root cause of the 2008 financial crisis was excessive risk-taking, and proper regulation can detect and prevent such excess in the future.

This view is a pipe dream. Most new regulation will do nothing to limit crises because markets will innovate around it. Worse, some regulation being considered by Congress will guarantee bigger and more frequent crises.

No Government Health Insurance

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My thoughts on the current debate, at cnn.com. My bottom line:

The underlying presumption behind [proposals for "reform"] is that government health insurance should be expanded to cover the uninsured.

This presumption is wrong. Government should not subsidize health insurance -- for the uninsured, the poor, the elderly or anyone else -- or regulate health insurance markets.