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Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 35

Publication:
Arizona Republici
Location:
Phoenix, Arizona
Issue Date:
Page:
35
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

VIEWPOINTS SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 201 1 Dll PLUGGED IN Line 47 on income-tax form to help ease liberal minds John Stossel of Fox News did a piece recently about how the top 50 percent of Brewer rude in skipping Governor's Arts Awards The 30th annual Governor's Arts Awards event was held last week, celebrating individuals, artists, educators, businesses and arts organizations from around Arizona. Unfortunately, the headliner the governor SRP needs to match APS in renewable-energy goals Salt River Project, Arizona's second-largest utility after APS, is looking at revising its sustainable-portfolio standard. SRP should at least match the requirements for the regulated utilities, including achieving 20 percent Our governor sure (isn't) an education champion if you goto Gov. Jan Brewer's website, you'll find this: The Guv "has fought to prevent massive cuts in education." I guess that depends on what your definition of "massive" is. Last year, she approved an 18 percent cut in K-1 2 funding; this earners pay 97 percent of income taxes.

He showed tapes of rallies with Deo- was a no-show. No regrets sent. No video with her good wishes. Nada. Even Evan Mecham showed up for the event when he was governor.

The Arizona Town Hall convenes in a couple of energy savings by 2020 and 15 percent renewable energy by 2025: Sav-ing energy saves consumers money, and investing in renewable resources such as wind and solar will help reduce both air year, a $178 million cut. This is what Brewer calls "protecting education." While the cuts she signed off on are not the draco-nianones some of the anti-public-schools legis f-SMr pie carrying signs and crying Raise mv taxes!" A gentleman from Care-jFS-. free nas an idea for those i in Arizona who feel they are not taxed enough: Line 47 of Arizona Form 140 allows payment to a "I Didn't Pay Enough" fund. So, if you are a liberal losing sleep over not paying enough taxes, Line 47 is for you. I'm just guessing, but I'll bet Line 47 is the emptiest line on the page.

Jim McAllister Scottsdale blogger weeks to focus on Arizona's arts and cultural community. Will Gov. Jan Brewer further insult this job-producing, business-attracting segment of our economy by being a no-show at the town hall? A no-show would be beyond insulting. It would be tacky. Joanie Flatt Public relations, community advocate and water pollution, plus promote much needed jobs in our communities.

Now is the time for SRP to step up and match what APS is required to do and take a giant step forward toward transitioning away from dirty coal-fired power plants. Sandy Bahr Sierra Club Grand Canyon chapter lators wanted, the Guv should've done more, especially knowing that the stimulus money for education is quickly drying up. Mike McClellan Mesa English teacher THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC (W J. REFORMING THE PROCESS Supporters say these ideas would give voters a greater voice, elect more moderates and contribute to a more consensual style of lawmaking: Top-two-vote-getter primary: The two candidates receiving the most votes in a primary, regardless of party, would advance to the general election. Washington has used this model since 2008.

California voters approved the model in 201 0. Nonpartisan: Candidates would not be identified on the ballot by party, a system used in Louisiana and in many municipal elections. Unicameral: Join Nebraska in having a unicameral, or one-house. Legislature. The unicameral setup would be nonpartisan.

Open up legislative process: Strengthen open-meeting laws to open up closed-door political caucuses so the public can see how decisions are being made. Tighten rules governing conflicts of interest and gift-giving from lobbyists and interest groups. Structure legislative operations to lessen power of political parties and make it more feasible for "independent-minded" candidates to run. Sources: Morrison Institute, Ted Downing, Paul Johnson Johnson Continued from B10 open or available to the public. Not surprisingly, these closed-door meetings often make extremist decisions and select extremists as their leaders.

The process has been so corrupt for so long that we just seem to accept it. America's greatest challenge to the preservation of liberty is to ensure our place in the world economic system. To this end, America needs to make things again, produce goods, export products and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. We will only maintain our military might if we maintain our economic might. This centrist goal is easily sacrificed by party purists whose only goal is to gain or to maintain power.

Let's look at this from a national perspective. In 2002, President George W. Bush and the Republicans swept the elections. To hold on to power, they implemented a costly pharmaceutical bill, an energy bill, tax cuts and two foreign wars. The deficit ballooned to record levels.

Eight years later, with a financial collapse, the loss of American jobs and runaway deficits, President Barack Obama and the Democrats would respond with a health-care bill that could cost $180 billion in 10 years, taxing the private sector, thus reducing investment and capital formation. The well-being of the economy was sacrificed to the ability to win. From a local perspective, it's just the same. In 2010, after losing 300,000 jobs, Arizona had its own version of this political irony. Many peo- pie lost their jobs, life savings and their homes.

Legislators found themselves billions of dollars in the red. They responded by reducing regulations on guns, demanding a "birther bill" regarding Obama's U.S. citizenship and promoting secession from our nation, even seeking to replace the U.S. Supreme Court with a group of legislators determining what federal laws are constitutional. With partisan primaries and publicly funded elections, economic and business issues are no longer a priority.

Compromise is ignored. The average Arizonan has no voice. Extremists rule. And, so, with no organized effort, independent voters are on their way to becoming the majority party. Arizona's voters are giving up on realignment in the party system and have moved to dis-alignment with either party.

Within the next few years, independents are going to make up the majority of Arizona voters. But the political game is rigged against them. We will not change human nature. But if we change state and federal elections to a system more like our nonpartisan city elections, we will change behavior and thus outcomes. In partisan elections, candidates appeal to narrow groups of voters in the same party during the primary, and the winners of each primary face one another in a general election.

Candidates in these partisan elections, in gerryman- Barone Continued from B10 The fact is that the Obama Democrats increased the size and scope of government beyond anything ever seen except in World War II. The Republicans are trying to reverse this trend. Far from arguing about trivia, both Democrats and Republicans are arguing about the most fundamental issues of domestic public policy. Reporters who use the verbs "bicker" and "squabble" seem to believe that it is silly for opposing parties to waste their time negotiating they should just split the difference at the beginning. You can see something like this feeling in the polls showing majorities of voters "disgusted" with politicians.

Why don't they quit arguing and get it over with? The reason, as anyone who has ever negotiated anything knows, is that negotiations do tend to go on almost to deadline. This makes sense when you think about it. Concede one issue long before the deadline, and the other side will usually pocket the concession and ask for more. So you wait for the other side to make their concessions first, and that wait usually takes you up close to the deadline. Consumers of news stories should be able to understand this.

Most of us are used to working to deadline. We usually don't get things done until we have to. The dry cleaners doesn't have your stuff ready a day before the promised date. Moreover, negotiating tends to prod each side to indicate which demands it really cares about. In the fiscal year 2011 negotiations, for example, it became clear Democrats cared more about funding Planned Parenthood than Republicans did in de-funding it.

So Democrats had to agree to additional cuts in order to keep money flowing to the nation's leading abortion provider. Some labor-management Wliat we're watching is not children bickering but adults with sharply different ideas trying to shape public policy as much as they can. contracts have provisions to avoid such showdowns. One approach is to require both sides to submit an offer and let the arbitrator choose one or the other but not something in the middle. The idea is to give an incentive to both sides to make modest and reasonable demands rather than set out a maximalist position and hope the arbitrator splits the difference.

This works in some situations. But it's hard to set up a procedure that can bind officials' separately and independently elected by the people. The ultimate arbitrators are American voters. The 1 Constitution enables them to choose the political players in a variety of ways. So in 2006 and 2008, they chose Democrats, and thanks to the Constitution's four- and six-year terms, Democrats have a firm hold on the White House and a tenuous majority in the Senate.

In 2010, they chose Republicans, and thanks to the Constitution's two-year terms, they have a solid hold on the House of Representatives. The Constitution establishes not a single united government but an arena for conflict. The Founders expected the House, the Senate, the president and the courts to disagree, and they hoped the net result of those conflicts would be good governance. What we're watching is not children bickering but adults with sharply different ideas trying to shape public policy as much as they can. It's not squabbling, it's democracy.

Michael Barone, senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner www.washington examiner.com), is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. dered districts, are insulated from independents and people for the other party. In a nonpartisan, city-type elections, all candidates run in a general election, and the top two then face one another in a run-off. Turnouts are usually higher, and every voter, regardless of registration gets to vote. Elected officials talk to all voters regardless of their party registration.

Take this to the bank: Candidates are affected by who they talk to and whose vote they need. Officials elected in a nonpartisan system have to talk to a broader audience, tend to be much more willing to work with one another and much less extreme as a rule. Our federal and state elections currently subsidize partisan primaries, and at least one of the parties has suggested it plans to sue to keep independents from being able to vote in its primary. As independents are quickly becoming the majority party, this subsidy is not justifiable. If you are interested in changing the way we elect our officials, if you want to change the current system disproportionately dominated by the special interests of the two parties, we need help.

We will need a monumental effort to collect signatures, legal volunteers to defend against the parties who will not release power easily, and to help get our message out to voters. Contact us at OpenGovernment2012gmail need your help. Paul Johnson, a former mayor of Phoenix, is a businessman and a political independent, lie was formerly a Democrat and was the Democratic nominee for governor in 998. A growing number of Arizona voters almost one out of three -don't consider themselves Republican or Democrat. Why is that? stream and ready to lead." Andrei Cherny, Arizona Democratic Party chairman i '4 Nonpartisan elections are similarto driving cross-country without a map or road signs.

Party affiliation should identify the principles a candidate will rely on in office. Those principles make up his vision. Without a vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18." Tom Morrissey, Arizona Republican Party chairman Few people fit into neat little packages, which is i i one reason so many Arizonans check the independent box it fits. Trust in politicians is also at an all-time low.

When you register as an independent, candidates have to work a lot harder to get your vote. Independent voters make candidates show their true colors." Darcy Olsen, Coldwater Institute president and CEO we have entered the age of self-branding. From Facebook to footwear, people have come to expect maximum personal latitude in their choices. Political parties feel restrictive, narrow, and group-think-dominated in this new dynamic." Stan Barnes, political consultant ff Independents are frustrated by the two-party system but don't vote as a bloc since they run the gamut of political philosophies. What does unify many is a desire for pragmatic and balanced solutions." Kristin Borns, Morrison Institute senior policy analyst Independents believe our political system caters i.

j. i. i. to the extremes, is out of touch and fails to defend the priorities of the middle class. They're right.

It's up to Arizona Democrats to show we're in the main A TRUE WEST MOMENT By Bob Boze Bell MacEachern Continued from B10 madhouse shortfalls in entitlements, which approach an estimated $100 trillion. The budget Obama presented earlier this year the one that completely ignored the concept of historic deficits being problematic would have pushed federal debt to almost $21 trillion by 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office, representing 87 percent of gross domestic product. Ach-tung! Achtung! You now are approaching the Greek-Portuguese-Spanish frontier, with all its end-of-welf are-state landmines. Worse, it is unlikely that the U.S. economy even will get that far if Washington, D.C., doesn't seriously address deficit spending.

The International Monetary Fund says the U.S. may be just a few years away from a bond market that sees its IOUs as risky. If that happens, the implications for the world economy become very dark indeed. Just how important to the president is it to stick it to the rich, you wonder? The CBO looked at the deficits locked into the 2008 budget and concluded that to soak up that red ink, both the corporate-tax rate and the top individual rate would have to go up from the current 35 percent to 88 percent; the 25 percent rate for middle-class taxpayers would have to go to 63 percent. And even the poor would have to see a 10 percent tax hike to 25 per cent.

And, as the Cato Institute's Michael Tanner points out, that was before the additional costs of "Obamacare" were factored in. Or the stimulus spending. None of this tends to have much impact on those whose obsession is their own sense of "fairness." So goes the "fairness" meme: Tax increases on rich people, somehow, will pay for the entitlements the president refuses to reform in any significant way. And they won't affect business and jobs much at all. The economy will just sort of continue to happen.

But it doesn't just happen. There is reason to believe that some sort of "revenue enhancements" should be part of the tax and financial reforms needed to stave off the impending crisis. I see that even conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer thinks kindly about tax reform that leaves $100 billion or so extra each year in the fed's kitty. For helping mind all the Baby Boomer oldsters, you understand. But that is not even close to the vision set out by the president on Wednesday.

What we heard (and, alas, what sleepy Joe Biden missed) from George Washington University was the beginning of the 2012 campaign. And, maybe, the beginning of the end of precisely what the president so dearly wishes to defend. Reach MacEachern at doug. maceachernarizona republic.com or 602-444-8883. Lozen, woman warrior "Lozen is my right hand strong as a man, braver than most and cunning in strategy," said the Apache leader Victorio about his sister.

She also fought alongside Geronimo and his warriors, surrendering with him in 1886. XlmT ft She, too, became a prisoner of war, dying of tuberculosis sometime after 1887. i Ml.

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