2013 Legislature: Testimony in favor of SB 53 — intergenerational welfare reform

Posted on February 12, 2013 by

Testimony given by Stan Rasmussen Tuesday in support of Sen. Stuart Reid’s Intergenerational Welfare Reform (SB 53, 2013) before the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee:

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair, and good afternoon, Madam Chair and Representatives. I am Stan Rasmussen, Sutherland Institute director of public affairs. We appreciate Senator Reid’s leadership in this important matter of intergenerational poverty and the need for related welfare reform. As part of our expression of support for this bill, I would like to read a brief statement from William C. Duncan, director of the Sutherland Center for Family & Society. Bill resides in Utah County and was not able personally to be with us this afternoon:

The study on intergenerational poverty commissioned by the Legislature last year demonstrated a substantial challenge with intergenerational poverty in Utah. It is clear that many children are being victimized by the poor choices of others and even by misguided government programs. Sutherland Institute is therefore grateful to Senator Reid for taking the next step by sponsoring legislation to formulate the plans necessary to provide help to children who would otherwise be stuck in a cycle of poverty. We particularly appreciate the inclusion of participants representing civil society — in other words, non-governmental individuals — in the advisory committee this bill creates.

The need to break the cycle of poverty for thousands of Utah’s children calls for our best efforts and we urge you to take a constructive step in that direction by approving this important legislation.

Thank you.

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Abortion essay shows breathtakingly honest brutality

Posted on February 11, 2013 by

National Review Online’s Katrina Trinko draws our attention to a Salon essay that is as revealing as it is breathtaking in its honest brutality. Trinko quotes the Salon article, written by Elizabeth Williams:

 I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice. . . .

Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

Trinko responds, “By this same logic, isn’t infanticide also fine and dandy? After all, if we’re talking about autonomy, kids aren’t exactly independent as soon as they are born. No infant can take care of themselves. And even later on in childhood, children rely heavily on the adults in their life to provide shelter, food, and emotional support. What about kids and adults who become disabled in life? What about quadriplegics?”

Both articles are worth your consideration.

(And speaking of infanticide … see this post about “after-birth abortion.”)

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3 reasons BSA shouldn’t cave in

Posted on February 8, 2013 by

The following post is a transcript of a weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations:

The Boy Scouts of America were scheduled this week to decide whether or not to lift its long-standing ban on accepting homosexual Scout leaders in local troops. [The decision has now been delayed.] The push to lift the ban comes from two members of its national board who both support homosexual Scout leaders but worry more about how progressive-minded corporations extort BSA over its no-gay policy. These corporations threaten to quit donating to BSA until the ban is lifted.

There are no serious political threats to BSA driving this renewed debate. Nobody beyond homosexual activists and those two BSA board members are pushing the issue. There’s no legal threat against BSA – in 2000, the United States Supreme Court settled the issue: BSA does not have to accept homosexual Scout leaders if it doesn’t want to.

There are at least three good reasons why BSA should not cave to the pressure of homosexual activists.

Continue reading →

Posted in Gay Rights | 6 Comments

Amicus brief to Supreme Court explains churches’ interest in Prop 8 case

Posted on February 7, 2013 by

Among the submissions to the U.S. Supreme Court explaining why the federal Constitution does not require states to redefine marriage is an important amicus brief representing a number of religious denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The groups explain their interest in the case as follows:

Tens of millions of Americans are represented in the diverse group of faith communities that join in this brief. Despite their theological differences, these communities are united in declaring that the traditional institution of marriage is essential to the welfare of the American family and society. This brief is submitted out of a shared conviction that the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit the people of each State from choosing for themselves whether to preserve the traditional definition of marriage.

Here is the summary of their argument taken from the brief: Continue reading →

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Can we save marriage by redefining it?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by

A peculiar case for redefining marriage posits that the institution can be strengthened by redefining it. More people will then, the argument goes, want to marry or at least will want to strengthen marriages generally.

The challenge is that the new legal understanding of marriage codifies the idea that marriage is about what adults want over any other non-personal consideration, including the opportunity of children to be reared by a mother and father who are married to one another. Such an assumption about the nature of marriage makes efforts to rein in the negative effects of radical personal autonomy in other aspects of marriage law.

While some suggest that there will be greater support for strengthening marriage if we stop worrying about the meaning of marriage, the efforts to gather a broad coalition around the proposition that an undefined or redefined concept of marriage needs strengthening must, at some point, deal with difficult questions. Continue reading →

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Spinning the news to create wedges in Mormondom?

Posted on February 5, 2013 by

Just a quick thought on how the pro-homosexual media spins even the clearest statements to favor its ideological … oops, I mean journalistic … opinions. The Salt Lake Tribune’s religion reporter, Peggy Fletcher Stack, relishes every opportunity to create wedges within Mormondom, point out Mormondom’s uniqueness (which she thinks is peculiar) and otherwise create policy relationships between Mormons and homosexuality where none exist.

Case in point: her recent article about the Boy Scouts of America.

In writing about the decades-old debate about allowing homosexuals to serve as Scoutmasters, she not-so-subtly slips this paragraph into the mix:

If the proposed change moves forward, however, it could bring the Scouts into alignment with the LDS Church’s policy of allowing chaste gays to serve in volunteer positions.

“Chaste gays”? Her implication is that human beings can be “born gay” and that when Mormons are “born gay” they are allowed to hold LDS Church callings as long as they don’t have homosexual sex. Continue reading →

Posted in Gay Rights | Tagged | 45 Comments

America’s demographic cliff

Posted on February 4, 2013 by

Will a lack of children lead to America’s decline? Jonathan V. Last wrote a thought-provoking essay for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about “America’s Baby Bust”:

For more than three decades, Chinese women have been subjected to their country’s brutal one-child policy. Those who try to have more children have been subjected to fines and forced abortions. Their houses have been razed and their husbands fired from their jobs. As a result, Chinese women have a fertility rate of 1.54. Here in America, white, college-educated women — a good proxy for the middle class — have a fertility rate of 1.6. America has its very own one-child policy. And we have chosen it for ourselves.

Forget the debt ceiling. Forget the fiscal cliff, the sequestration cliff and the entitlement cliff. Those are all just symptoms. What America really faces is a demographic cliff: The root cause of most of our problems is our declining fertility rate.

Last is the author of the book “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: American’s Coming Demographic Disaster.”

To read more of the essay, click here.

 

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Activists launch their effort to overturn Utah’s marriage amendment

Posted on February 1, 2013 by

According to a recent news report, “gay rights” activists in Utah are filing legal briefs in the pending U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning the definition of marriage. Specifically, it is reported that these briefs are citing Utah’s marriage amendment (and a few other events) “as examples of discrimination against the LGBT community.”

In other words, Utah’s “gay rights” activists are attempting to get the U.S. Supreme Court to state that Utah’s constitutional definition of marriage is motivated by hatred and bigotry against homosexuals (i.e. discrimination … or in legal-speak, motivated by “animus”). Because if that happens, then under the precedent set by previous Supreme Court opinion[1], Utah’s constitutional marriage amendment would likely be subsequently struck down as unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution, and the courts would impose “gay marriage” on Utah by fiat.

So there it is. Utah’s homosexual activists have laid out their strategy to relentlessly label their political opponents as discriminatory bigots who are motivated by irrational hatred of homosexuals, in order to use the courts to then bring “gay marriage” to Utah, without all of the fuss and bother of going through democratic processes.

Now that all the activists’ cards are on the table, the real question is: Will Utah policymakers aid this strategy?

[1] Romer, Governor of Colorado, et al. v. Evans et al. (94-1039), 517 U.S. 620 (1996)

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Utah tax revenue leans heavily on income, consumption

Posted on January 31, 2013 by

According to a new Tax Foundation analysis of Census Bureau data on state and local government tax revenues, state and local governments in Utah rely more on individual and corporate income taxes and sales taxes, and less on property taxes, than the rest of the nation, on average.

According to the report, state and local government tax revenues in 2010 broke down as follows: 35 percent property tax, 34 percent sales tax, 20 percent individual income tax, and 3 percent corporate income tax (other taxes and fees represent the remaining 8 percent). In Utah, on the other hand, the breakdown was 27.6 percent property tax, 37.5 percent sales tax, 25.3 percent individual income tax, and 3 percent corporate income tax (other taxes and fees were 6.6 percent). Presumably, a primary reason why the property tax portion of tax revenues in Utah is lower than rest of the nation is due to the state’s Truth in Taxation law, which requires an advertised public hearing whenever an increase in property tax revenues is proposed.

This seemingly academic question on the structure of tax revenues in a state has real impacts on Utahns’ lives. According to economic research on this issue, different forms of taxes impact economic growth differently, and thus the ability of Utahns to get a good job and earn the income they need to support their families. The results of this research suggest that the tax that harms the economy the most (and thus jobs and incomes) is corporate income taxes, followed by individual income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes.

There is no single answer to the question of what the best structure/mix of tax revenues is, and there are non-economic factors that should be considered, and perhaps take precedence (e.g., fairness) concerning this policy question. But knowing what Utah’s tax structure is and how that likely is impacting economic growth and prosperity is a critical component to making good tax policy decisions for Utahns.

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What the Republican Party needs to champion

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

The following post is a transcript of a weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations:

There is growing angst in Republican circles over the direction the Republican Party ought to take. While I am not a Republican operative (far from it), Republican concepts of government appeal to me more than Democratic concepts, so I feel somewhat equipped to recommend a course of action for Republicans, especially Utah Republicans, to keep their party relevant and attractive to all people of good will.

First, Republicans ought to champion fiscal prudence that lies at the heart of limited government. Understanding and articulating the proper role of government (even acknowledging that there is a proper role of government in this day and age) should be their constant drumbeat. They must also strive to understand and then articulate the nature of limited government, especially the vital understanding that government cannot be limited if society continues to marginalize and denigrate the power of the private sector to address public problems.

In this spirit of fiscal responsibility, Republicans need to understand and articulate the natural but ultimately destructive spending bias that exists at every level of government. Continue reading →

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2013 Legislature: Testimony in favor of education transparency bill

Posted on January 29, 2013 by

Testimony given by Derek Monson before the Senate Education Committee on Monday:

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Derek Monson and I am Director of Policy with Sutherland Institute. I am here to speak in favor of SB 128.

In the broad context, while this bill is about transparency, what that means is it is really about good representative government.  Without access to information, there is no transparency. Without transparency you do not have good representative government, because people do not know how to make decisions concerning their elected officials.

Concerning the particulars of the legislation, which are important, I would suggest that you trust the Utah Transparency Advisory Board, which is tasked with administering the Utah Public Finance Website and will be tasked with getting this information to the public. They have done a spectacular job of taking complex data with a lot of intricate coding, accounting rules, etc., and making it public in a way that people can get a basic understanding of what is going on with their tax dollars; and if not, they can call someone to find out. The same thing will happen here.

We recommend you support SB 128 as a “step in the right direction” toward increased transparency in public school finances.  Thank you.

The Senate Education Committee approved the bill, which will go to the Senate floor next. You can find more coverage of this bill here in The Salt Lake Tribune and here in the Deseret News.

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2013 Legislature: Lockhart and Niederhauser on Medicaid expansion

Posted on January 28, 2013 by

During the 2013 Sutherland Institute Legislative Policy Conference, House Speaker Rebecca Lockhart and Senate President Wayne Niederhauser shared their thoughts on whether they believe Utah should accept Medicaid expansion as part of Obamacare’s implementation. See video below:

They both stated strongly they prefer to receive a block grant that would allow Utah to craft its own solutions. Since 2006, Sutherland has written extensively on the power of an authentic charity care system that would feature the private sector helping our fellow Utahns in need, in lieu of government expansion. Continue reading →

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Contest to win iPad closes tonight!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by

If you haven’t given Utah Citizen Network a try, today’s a good day for it. In fact, there’s still time to win an iPad – but the giveaway closes tonight!

The first 50 UCN members who play the Freedomville game on the UCN site and reach the level of City Mayor will be entered into the iPad giveaway. So get started now.

Utah Citizen Network gives you the tools to be informed and influential as the 2013 Utah Legislature begins. Inform yourself on the many topics there – you can learn more about conservative environmentalism, for instance, or gun ownership – and use the super-easy contact app to email your legislators.

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Talking past each other

Posted on January 23, 2013 by

"Conversation," by Camille Pissarro

The phrase “talking past each other” surely applies to the “debate” in which we are supposedly engaged over the meaning of marriage as it relates to divorce, redefinition, cohabitation, unwed parenting, etc.  On one side, there are discussions of the channeling function of the law, the importance of upholding ideals in the face of real-world tragedies, and the rightful expectation of children to know and be raised by their own mother and father or a very close alternative.

On the other side, the message is simpler: I hurt because of you.

The subtext is that if the laws are changed to be more inclusive or if standards are relaxed, then pangs of conscience will be alleviated or thoughtless people will stop saying unkind things.

As Maggie Gallagher noted recently, it seems that there will always be the potential for unmet desires, but the call for a truly civilized society is to prioritize our response to the hurt this situation engenders. Will we respond to expressions of pain in a way that increases it for another person? Continue reading →

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Obama’s utopia

Posted on January 22, 2013 by

The following post is a transcript of a weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations:

With the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, his speech was impressive – even Reaganesque. He began by citing the Declaration of Independence – always a safe bet and very conservative sounding.

Who said this, Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama?

We have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.

Of course that was Barack Obama. His inaugural speech is an interesting mix of traditional values mingled with utopian comments about how the world should be. Listen to this,

We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.

Surely every American deserves a “measure of security and dignity.” But when he says, “we must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit,” Obama actually means “you” not “we.” Continue reading →

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