Tag: Indiana

Categories
Accountability folly general freedom government transparency moral hazard too much government

Buying Quality of Life

Indiana, pork, Mike Pence, Regional Cities initiative, Common Sense, illustration

People who spend other people’s money in Indiana are applauding their amazing ability to write big checks and hand them out.

The Regional Cities initiative — enacted by the Republican legislature and heralded by the Republican governor — just awarded grants of $42 million of taxpayer dough to three of seven county consortia in the Hoosier State.

“This is big. This is a big deal in Indiana,” Gov. Mike Pence told reporters, “and I believe it’s part of a third century strategy for growth that will pay dividends for generations.”

Really? Government redistribution will fuel “growth” … and “pay dividends”?

The more-​spending “strategy” is “geared toward quality of life projects ranging from economic development and job creation, to improved recreational and arts opportunities,” according to WNDU-​TV in South Bend, adding that, “The Regional Cities Initiative is aimed at the younger generation and giving those people more reasons to love — than leave the state.”

Love it or leave it, eh?

“The public has been told that we have some sort of $42-​million jackpot to spend on wonderful things,” explains Fort Wayne City Councilman Jason Arp in his Indiana Policy Review. “What hasn’t been made clear is that with the award comes [an] obligation not only to match that $42 million with taxpayer and private money but a separate eight-​year commitment to a portfolio of $1.4 billion in projects.…”

In other words, it’s a classic government-​spends-​our-​money-​better-​than-​we-​can program.

The Regional Development Authority will, in the end, “have discouraged actual entrepreneurship, innovation and free enterprise,” Arp explains. In their place? A “sort of unaccountable directorate.”

Growing ever bigger to better spend our hard-​earned dough.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Indiana, pork, Mike Pence, Regional Cities initiative, Common Sense, illustration

 

Categories
ideological culture responsibility

Custom and Customers

Muncie’s Traci Markcum remembers when the news was free. The Indiana citizen wants a return to those carefree days.

“I think it is pretty bad The Star Press is trying to charge people to read the paper online,” she wrote in a letter to the editor. “Whatever happened to being able to see the news on the Web for free?”

Free? Well, you can find plenty of news on the internet for free, sorta, once you’ve bought a computer and Internet access — and paid the electric bill, of course. In the really olden days, before cable TV, network news was free once you had a TV set. (Why computer and television manufacturers, internet providers and electric companies dare to charge us money, when we’re simply being good citizens and keeping up on current affairs, I’ll never know.)

Ms. Markcum “used to buy the Sunday paper and would read the news at work or on the go on [her] phone, but not now.” Not now, because The Star Press has “stooped to a new low by having to charge Muncie citizens who live and work in the city a fee to read something. Your paper prices have increased and people cannot afford to get the paper.”

In fact, Markcum became so desperate, she asked, “Are we supposed to start stealing the news you are supposed to be providing?”

Paperboys beware!

“Go back to the way it used to be, or lose a lot more customers,” she concluded.

Customers? A customer “purchases a commodity or service.”

For its part, The Star Press tells online visitors to “Enjoy a limited number of articles over the next 30 days” offering a button to “Subscribe today for full access.”

Oh, the humanity!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption term limits

Bye Bye Bayh

Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is calling it quits, leaving the Congress after two terms. What’s not to like?

Without mandatory term limits for the office, Mr. Bayh’s self-​imposed limit seems an honorable second-best.

Bayh has also openly expressed his disgust with the behavior of this Congress, calling it “brain dead.” No argument from me.

On CBS’s Early Show Bayh clarified his decision to leave government for the private sector, saying, “If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”

Ouch!

If he’s talking about sustainable, productive jobs, he’s no doubt correct.

But there is something about Evan Bayh’s leave-​taking announcement that leaves me more than a little disgusted.

Bayh’s decision surprised most. But it was certainly no surprise to Bayh. Surely contemplating re-​election has been on his mind for some time.

By waiting until to the last minute to drop out, Bayh ensures that the people of Indiana will have no say in choosing the Democratic candidate for his position — no campaign, no primary election. The Democrat’s nominee will be installed by the party’s State Central Committee.

Bayh’s departure is unfortunately no departure from the brand of politics that continually games our elections, where the insiders offer voters as little choice as possible.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.