Tea Party Archives - Voice For Liberty

Apr

Opinion: GOP economics devastated Kansas

An op-ed on the Kansas economy needs context and correction. An op-ed about the Kansas economy needs a few corrections before the people of Illinois get a wrong impression of Kansas. The article is Opinion: GOP economics devastated Kansas, published in the Alton (Illinois) Telegraph. The author is John J. Dunphy. First, Dunphy refers to Sam Brownback as the "Tea Party" governor of Kansas. As far as I know, the tea party favors reducing not only taxation, but spending too. Given the choice, Brownback preferred raising taxes rather than cutting spending. Not very tea party-like. Dunphy: "Moderate Republicans who voiced…

Mar

By Bob Weeks

Kansas newspapers against the children

A Kansas newspaper editorial illustrates that for the establishment, schools -- the institution of public schools, that is -- are more important than students. An unsigned editorial in the Garden City Telegram proclaimed "Another attempt to undermine public schools materialized last week in the Kansas Statehouse." (Legislators turn to ALEC for poor plan on schools, March 25, 2014.) What was in a bill that so worried the Telegram editorial writers? According to the op-ed, the dangerous provisions are "expansion of charter schools, overhaul of teacher licensing and tax breaks for private school scholarships." To the Telegram, these ideas are "radical"…

Feb

By Guest Author

Kansas Senator Jerry Moran wants to pick losers in the market: His choice is big wind

In Kansas, we have a lot of wind -- no doubt about that. But the economics of wind as a source of electricity generation is another matter. There's a split in Kansas over this. On one side are Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, who has been vocal in his support of wind power, along with Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, who has been busy promoting Wichita as a site for wind energy-related industry. Now we see Kansas' newest U.S. Senator Jerry Moran jumping in to promote the wind power subsidy program. Contrast this with U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita, who has…

Dec

By Guest Author

The creeping expansion of government power

Trackside is a column written occasionally by John D’Aloia Jr. He lives in St. Marys, Kansas. TRACKSIDE © by John D’Aloia Jr. 12 December 2011 A belief I encounter increasingly often is that, with few exceptions, the Guardians ensconced in Washington, and their minions in the bureaucracy, The Clerks, are driven by greed, corruption, fraud, power, and immorality, not by the Essential Liberty principles of our Founding Documents. The electorate is angry and frustrated. They see their resources and their freedom being whittled away for the benefit of the Guardians and their cronies. They see the basic morality of the…

Aug

By Bob Weeks

Lies of liberal progressives, Sunday edition

On the C-SPAN television program Washington Journal (Sunday August 14, 2011) Democratic strategist Mark Mellman appeared and gave viewers a lesson on how the political left lies and distorts in order to score political points against what it sees as easy targets. Mellman said: "The tea party comes out, and has really done real damage to this country. Most people in this country think it's okay to to stop giving subsidies to oil companies. The tea party says no. Most people say it's okay in the country to make corporate jet owners pay taxes, or hedge fund managers pay taxes.…

Mar

By Bob Weeks

Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Wednesday March 2, 2011

Duplication in federal programs found. Washington Examiner Editorial: "Nobody with even minimal knowledge of how public bureaucracies work should be surprised by the Government Accountability Office's conclusion that there is a 'staggering level of duplication' in the federal government. Duplication is inevitable when professional politicians in both major parties go for decades using tax dollars to buy votes among favored constituencies, and reward friends, former staffers, family members and campaign contributors with heaping helpings from the pork barrel. With the inevitable program duplication also comes an endless supply of official duplicity as presidents, senators and representatives rationalize spending billions of…

Feb

By Bob Weeks

Tea party has nothing on Wisconsin union supporters

While the political left likes to portray tea party protesters as racist neanderthals hell-bent on violent overthrow of the U.S. government, the tea party has nothing on government union members when it comes to protesting. Union leadership can't bring itself to condemn even the worst excesses of the union protests. On Sunday's episode of the NBC public affairs television program Meet the Press host David Gregory gave AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka a chance to condemn the very nasty tone of the pro-union demonstrators in Madison: MR. GREGORY: Richard Trumka, I want to ask you one thing, again, about the tone…

Jan

By Bob Weeks

Wichita’s vision, by the urbanist elites

Why are some in Wichita so insistent on pushing their vision of what our city should look like, and why are they willing and eager to use the coercive force of government to achieve their vision? In the article below, Randal O'Toole, using a work by Thomas Sowell, provides much insight into understanding why. Reading this post, I couldn't help think of Wichita: the "manufactured crisis" of too much driving and too little walking; the desire by many, including several Wichita City Council members -- even self-styled conservative members -- to expand the power and reach of government; and the…

Dec

By Bob Weeks

Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Tuesday December 21, 2010

Steineger switches teams. Chris Steineger, a Kansas State Senator from Kansas City, has switched to the Republican Party. As a Democrat, Steineger had compiled a voting record more conservative than many senate Republicans. On the Kansas Economic Freedom Index for this year -- recognizing that supporting economic freedom is not the same as conservatism or Republicanism -- Steineger had a voting record more in favor of economic freedom than that of 15 of the senate's Republicans. Kansas school funding reform to wait. Incoming Kansas Governor Sam Brownback says that the Kansas economy comes first, and then school finance, Medicaid, and…

Dec

By Bob Weeks

Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Friday December 10, 2010

This Week in Kansas. On This Week in Kansas guests Rebecca Zepick of State of the State KS, Joe Aistrup of Kansas State University, and myself discuss Kansas House of Representatives leadership, Governor-elect Brownback's appointments, and voter ID. Tim Brown is the host. This Week in Kansas airs on KAKE TV channel 10, Sunday morning at 9:00 am. Cato scholar to speak on economic freedom. Today's meeting (December 10) of the Wichita Pachyderm Club features noted Cato Institute scholar, Principal Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, and author Timothy Sandefur. He will discuss his recent book The Right to Earn…