Category: Taxes

14-06 Why Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics | Mainstream Media is Lying

14-06 Why Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics | Mainstream Media is Lying

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Show 14-06 Summary: This week, it’s all about cutting through the mainstream media propaganda about the economy. Especially the lies about Bidenomics. Because it’s more Bidumbnomics than anything. Bidumbnomics is a good way to kill the economy, interfere with markets, and promote products and ideas that don’t work and cost more. Bidumbnomics are dumb economics policies that require dumb people in the media to not ask questions and keep people misinformed about how bad things really are. Like not questioning the miracle January 2024 jobs report. Or looking at the failure of 100s of billions wasted on “green energy.” (It’s not green.) Plus, Oregon is not immune. Oregon democrats also love Bidumbnomics. Spend more. Tax more. Ignore reality. Like Oregon democrats’ plan to raise statewide property taxes and do away with the current caps on property tax increases.

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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: February 10th & 11th, 2024 | Guest: Jonathan Williams

This Week – Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics

All you need for dumb economics policies like Bidumbnomics to be perceived as “working” is to have a willing media to spread government propaganda. And the media needs to be dumb enough about economics to not ask any questions about what they’re told. And certainly not do any kind of even simple analysis.

That way, the media keeps people uninformed. Because if people really knew how bad things were, they would be demanding answers. And politicians never want that. They want compliant sheep people who stay out of the way. Miserable peasants.

Dumb economic policies like Bidumbnomics depends on people staying quiet. But EU farmers won by speaking up.
Public outcry works! (click image for full-size)

Why? Because when people do know what their politicians are actually doing, and the actual outcomes of their schemes, people tend to revolt. And, yes, public outcry really does work.

Take a look at the win in the EU when farmers had had enough. The public joined them. And now the EU gave in to their demands.

Farmers win! “Why Europe’s green plan balked on farming”

Bidenomics is Bidumbnomics Examples

Look no further than the boondoggle of Biden’s dream of a wind farm in every pot. Bidumbnomics sank several 10s of billions of your money into expensive wind farms. Especially very expensive offshore wind farms. But these expensive Bidumbnomics boondoggles have done so poorly, despite all that free cash from U.S. taxpayers, that multiple wind farm companies have cancelled contracts. And they were willing to do so because the economics of it was so poor that unless they get free cash it was a better deal to cancel the deal.

Think of that. Companies willing to take a loss of 100s of millions rather than go through with it and lose even more. And in the case of one company, they took a 4 billion loss.

Now that is Bidumbnomicsat work. Waste companies’ money, waste taxpayer money, and all for products that are less effective and more expensive to ratepayers.

Wow.

An Actual Economist Breaks Examines Bidumbnomics

We welcome back Jonathan Williams, the executive vice president of ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council. Jonathan is also their chief economist. And we walk through the truth about that blockbuster January jobs report. It turns out, it is more fantasy than fantastic. See this great analysis from ZeroHedge: “Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History“.) And we all know this fantasy will be corrected downward in a month or two after they got their useful idiots in the media to repeat their headline to the point where most people will think Bidenomics is working.

But to be fair, not all economic news in the mainstream media is propaganda to prop up Bidumbnomics. Sometimes, it’s more of a confession. Like Jerome Powell appearing on 60 Minutes. Who told America that we just can’t spending like we are.

But other times, it is definitely propaganda. We take a look at the slumping EV (electric vehicle) sales. After spending, yet again, 100s of billions of taxpayer dollars on the EV boondoggle, including mandating sales quotas, Bidumbnomics strikes again. EVs sales are way down.

Don’t miss the terrific article mentioned during the show about the impact of government interference in a normal market. “The West’s Humiliating Electric Car Climbdown has Begun“

And even in Oregon, they are nowhere near their lofty goals of 250,000 EVs by 2025.

Oregon Democrats Embrace Bidumbnomics

Speaking of Oregon, the democrat governor and democrat-controlled house and senate want their own version of dumb economics. Like ignoring people’s economic reality to impose their ideology. And mainly, that’s more spending of taxpayer dollars to reward the political allies. There is never enough money to spend all they want on everything they want.

The answer? Raise taxes. And not just a little. They want $3 billion in more taxes. And, as if they haven’t driven enough people away, they want to eliminate and caps on statewide property taxes.

The only reason why even more Oregonians haven’t driven away is their EV must have run out of charge. Maybe that’s why Oregon wants to mandate even more of them.

But wait, it gets worse. Not only do Oregon elected democrats want to spend more, Tobias Read, the democrat in charge of Oregon’s Treasury wants Oregon’s PERS to make less money. By forcing Oregon’s investment into “Net Zero.” Uh, Toby, in case you missed it due to Bidumbnomics government propaganda media, but Net Zero funds are losing money by the day. Intelligent investors are getting out of Net Zero funds, not in. Perhaps Oregon’s PERS being in the hole by a mere $28 billion just isn’t enough?

Tune in to get the info you need. to be better informed on economics and real economic policies. So when your legislator wants to go full Bidumbnomics, you have the info you need to convince them otherwise.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Jonathan’s organization is ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. Find out more at ALEC.org.
    • Encourage your representatives to join ALEC! There are state and city memberships. Help elected officials understand economic problems and the real solutions available to get out of them! Send them this link: https://alec.org/membership/.
    • And you too can join as a private-sector member!
  • You can follow Jonathan on Twitter at @TaxEconomist.
  • Farmers win! “Why Europe’s green plan balked on farming” (Semafor, via Yahoo News, Feb 7, 2024)
  • Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History (ZeroHedge, Feb 03, 2024)
    • All job gains in the past year have been part-time workers (+870,000). Full time have decreased by 97,000
    • Native vs Foreign-Born workers . All job creation in the past 4 years has been for foreigners. Zero job creation for native since 2018
  • The West’s humiliating electric car climbdown has begun” (The Telegraph, via Yahoo News, Feb 2, 2024)
  • Bidumbnomics in Oregon: “PGE and why the EV revolution is stalling” (Oregon Catalyst, Feb 4, 2024)
    • “In 2019, Senate Bill 1044 set a target of 250,000 registered Zero Emission Vehicles on Oregon roads by 2025. … [But] the number of Oregon-registered zero emission vehicles on Oregon roads as of September 2023 (with less than a year and a half to go) was just 70,000. … The likelihood that this number will grow to 250,000 over the next 12 months is nil.”
  • Plan to make Oregon retirement fund carbon neutral relies on industry, Wall Street doing the same (OPB, Feb 7, 2024)
  • HJR 201 is a Statewide Property Tax (Taxpayer Assoc, Feb 5, 2024)
  • “1,287 testify against Statewide Property Tax (HJR 201)” (Taxpayer Association of Oregon, February 14, 2024).

For further reading on Bidumbnomics

 

13-44 Green Hydrogen Can Work – Just Ignore Economics and Common Sense

13-44 Green Hydrogen Can Work – Just Ignore Economics and Common Sense

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Show 13-44 Summary: People have been chasing the elusive dream of hydrogen as a fuel source for decades and decades. Billions have been poured into it before now. But there’s no such thing as a bad idea as long as the government is willing to pour even more billions into it. But now it’s even worse as they chase “green hydrogen.” Tune in to hear why hydrogen isn’t viable as a mass production “fuel,” how it isn’t even a fuel, and even far more expensive than it already is if we try to make it the way the Greenies want. And remember how CO2 is the enemy? Yeah not so much, apparently.

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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: November 4th & 5th, 2023 | Guest: Frank Lasee

This Week – Why Green Hydrogen Doesn’t Make Sense

Hydrogen has been the elusive clean energy society has been chasing for decades. Well before G.W. Bush threw nearly $2 billion at (which went nowhere), scientists were trying to use hydrogen back into FDR’s days and even before then. (The Hindenburg largely derailed the whole idea.) But if clean hydrogen was a pipe dream, green hydrogen is a fanciful nightmare. Especially if you don’t care about things like economics or common sense.

The elusive dream of green hydrogen. Hydrogen is not cheap. And if not handled well, can go boom. See the Hindenburg.
The Hindenburg derailed hydrogen. Rightly so.

In a nutshell, green hydrogen costs 5–6 times more than current methods and does not return as much energy as it costs to produce.

But why let a few dozen billions of narrow-minded taxpayer dollars stand in your way of your grand vision? Especially when states like Oregon and Washington just got handed a billion dollars each of free taxpayer dollars to create hydrogen hubs.

But First: A Big Win!

Thanks to public outcry, which CFACT helped mobilize, Orsted has cancelled its two planned offshore wind farms in New Jersey waters. The Danish company our American taxpayer dollars was funding, pulled the plug. Despite a $100 million penalty for failing to complete delivery. And wrote off a $4 billion loss. Amazing how these “green energy” schemes cannot work without massive government subsidies.

Public outcry works. Don’t be silent. And let’s do that here in Oregon. See Show 13-42 for more information.

Green Hydrogen Defined

We welcome first-time guest, Frank Lasee, a former Wisconsin state senator, president of Truth in Energy and Climate, and a senior policy advisor to CFACT. As you might be able to tell from the name of his organization, there’s not a lot of truth out there in either climate or energy. And nowhere is that more true than green hydrogen.

First off, hydrogen is itself not really a fuel. It’s more akin to a battery because while it has energy, it first has to be created. It would be a bit like creating oil out of various elements first before drilling for it.

Hydrogen must be made; it is not a fuel. It is a storage device, like a battery. If not handled properly, it can go boom! In a great big ball fire.
– Excerpt from “Hydrogen – Will this Green dream prove an expensive nightmare?” by Frank Lasee

What is green hydrogen? The label “green hydrogen” is all about how the hydrogen is made. There are several ways to make hydrogen. One is a simple electrolysis method, applying a current to water that splits the molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.  Your high school science teacher might have demonstrated this. Another is gasification that extracts hydrogen (and other elements) from natural gas with high-temperature steam.

Green hydrogen is extracted from whatever source but must use “renewable” energy to do so. The most common being pushed right now is to use solar and wind as the energy source.

How Green Hydrogen is Made

Except there’s a major problem with “green” wind and solar. They do not produce energy 70% of the time. Barely any wind. No wind. Not enough sun. Darkness. But to make clean, green hydrogen at scale takes enormous amounts of electricity. And water. Lots of water.

To make one kilogram of hydrogen (which has roughly the same potential energy as a gallon of gas), you need 13 kg of water to split. The water is heated to 2,000 degrees. That’s a lot of electricity. And then after it’s split, it has to be superchilled to near absolute zero so it can be pressurized and stored. And that takes another 40 kg of water to cool it.

So for every 1 kg of hydrogen produced, it takes 53 kg of water — and a massive amount of electricity.

What happens if the wind’s not blowing? Or it’s night time? You don’t have to be a paid TV scientist to realize this is not a process you can start and stop because of the unreliability of your “green” power sources. Gosh. You’ll have to supplement all intermittent green energy with coal. Or have massive batteries.

The Green Hydrogen Dilemma

One notion to get past the unreliability of so-called green energy and its unreliability is to tap into hydroelectric dams. Which the Pacific Northwest has plenty of. Except for the last decade, the environmentalists have been busily trying to yank them all out. To “save the salmon.”

Now what? Save the salmon or have green hydrogen?

In fact, the hypnotic allure of billions free taxpayer dollars has put a halt on at least one lawsuit to force the government to pull out dams on the Snake River.

Whoops.

But it’s not just the dams. You’ve got California, which on Thursday emptied 7 billion gallons (7,559,743,200 gallons to be precise) of fresh water from its reservoirs into the ocean. Why? To adjust the salinity levels in a delta to “save the fish.” The Delta Smelt. Of which a grand total of zero Delta Smelt have been seen in annual Fall Surveys since 2017.

Well there goes 142,636,664 gallons of hydrogen they could have made.

Fish or dams for hydrogen? What to do, what to do…

Green Energy: It’s All About Money

Tune in to hear how “green energy” is not green. And it’s not really about energy. What it’s really all about is the money.

And it’s not about “Climate Change” either. Why? Because while we’ve been shrieked at about CO2 emissions for two decades, it turns out they will not only sacrifice fish to get those billions. They’re also willing to emit more CO2 to get those billions.

Just like wearing the inappropriate “green” label for green hydrogen, to get the label “clean hydrogen” all you have to do is not emit more than 2 kg of carbon dioxide per hydrogen produced.

Read it for yourself: The National Clean Hydrogen Standard is 2 kg CO2e/kg H2. That’s 2x the amount of CO2 for every one Hydrogen (H2). See page 75 of the H2IQ Presentation from the U.S. Dept of Energy.

Yes. You can emit twice the CO2 you get of hydrogen. So much for CO2 as the enemy.

Don’t miss the show. That’s just one of much of the green hydrogen nonsense.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Articles/Info Mentioned During the Show

  • Frank Lasee’s website is TruthinClimateandEnergy.com. Be sure to check out this website for great articles and information.
  • Major wind energy developer scraps two big offshore projects (NBC News, Nov 1, 2023)
    • The move by Orsted, a Danish company, adds fresh uncertainty to an industry supporters see as a way to help end the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.
  • Read it for yourself! Page 75 of the H2IQ Presentation (Dec 2021) from the U.S. Department of Energy states “clean hydrogen” allows for twice the amount of CO2 emissions as the hydrogen produced.
  • Interview with Frank Lasee: “Biden Sabotaging U.S. Energy Grid, Warns Expert” (Conversations that Matter, via YouTube, March 13, 2023)
    • Great example of replacing a gasoline car with a solar cars. Now you’re paying for 3 cars to get the same reliability you had in one.
  • Hydrogen – Will this Green dream prove an expensive nightmare? – (CFACT, Oct 26, 2023)
      • Hydrogen embrittles nearly every metal it comes in contact with.
    • Needs 13x more water than hydrogen made, 40x to cool it
    • The hydrogen lobby duped Congress into $9.5 billion for hydrogen hubs and $100s of billions more for subsidies to make it. These hydrogen jobs will last only as long as the subsidies do.
  • Great Analysis! Why Hydrogen Cars Flopped (YouTube, April 12, 2021)
  • The decades-long elusive dream: “The Truth About Hydrogen” (Popular Mechanics, Oct 31, 2006)
  • Study: ‘True Costs’ Of Electric Vehicles Far Higher Than Most Believe (The Daily Wire, Oct 27, 2023)
  • Auto execs are coming clean: EVs aren’t working (Business Insider, via Yahoo News, Oct 26, 2023)

Oregon’s Green Hydrogen Scheme

More of Frank Lasee’s Terrific Articles & Interviews

  • Bidenomics Is Scarier Than A Haunted House On Halloween (Frank Lasee, Oct 31, 2023)
  • Interview with Frank Lasee from Truth in Energy and Climate (Alliance for Free Citizens, Sept 7, 2022)
    • 8,000 square miles of solar panels to make enough electricity for the U.S. plus 1 million wind mills. We have 75,000 now.
    • Bi directional batteries – so the cars can power the grid, which got its power off the grid.
  • Joe Biden’s Hydrogen Slush Fund Means More Dollars Wasted On The Green Energy Boondoggle (ShoreNews Network, Feb 26, 2023)
  • Don’t Buy Green Hydrogen Hype (Iowa Climate Science Education, Apr 12, 2023)
  • Bidenomics at Work: ‘Green’ Hydrogen Is a Very Expensive Waste of Money (RealClearEnergy, Oct 6, 2023)
  • Frank Lasse article: “The Expensive Impossibility of Green Hydrogen From Part-Time Wind and Solar” (Truth in Energy & Climate, October 25, 2023)
    • “The fact that the world is desperately short of lithium and cobalt for electric vehicle batteries, at the scale they want to force, is dawning on them”
    • “Wind and solar produce little or no energy 70% of the time.”
  • Frank Lasee: Joe Biden’s Hydrogen Slush Fund Means More Dollars Wasted On The Green Energy Boondoggle (ShoreNews Network, Feb 26, 2023)

Related Stories

 

13-29 Bidenomics is Killing Capitalism and The Little Guy

13-29 Bidenomics is Killing Capitalism and The Little Guy

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Show 13-29 Summary: This week, we’re looking into Bidenomics and what’s happening in the wider economy, what’s supposedly real (allegedly booming) and what’s real (it’s not booming). We also take a look at the hand-in-glove relationship between Big Government and Big Business — as they partner to make each other stronger, bigger, and more powerful. Meanwhile, there’s small businesses and the taxpayer but government’s relationship with them is more hand-in-pocket. And, as one might expect, Oregon dropped two spots in the latest Rich States/Poor States ranking of state economies. We discuss why.

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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: July 22nd & 23rd, 2023 | Guest: Jonathan Williams

This Week – Bidenomics Killing Capitalism

It’s no secret that socialists hate real capitalism and the free market system because it means government is not in control. People are. And it makes the little guy wealthy and independent of government. And that’s the mortal enemy of socialism.
Enter Bidenomics. Which is the perfect (for socialism) answer to capitalism. Bidenomics marries Big Government with Big Business providing the socialist kill shot for capitalism.

Under Bidenomics, Big Business flourishes. Why? Because Big Government squeezes out Big Business’s competitors by using regulations to choke smaller companies’ profits while Big Business plays by different rules. In a regulation-heavy market, guess who wins? The ones who can afford the most lawyers and lobbyists.

Take a listen to this brief video mentioned during the show to see how Bidenism is causing a lurch toward monopolies in the banking sector. To squeeze out their smaller competitors. (The original tweet is from Dr. Peter St. Onge.)

Jonathan Williams of ALEC

We talk Bidenomics with Jonathan Williams, the Executive Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist for ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is the nation’s leading economic policy think tank, working directly with state legislators to pass free-market solutions to Big Government’s constant overreach.

Jonathan discusses what’s really happening with Bidenomics. No surprise, the Biden admin is on full spin mode trying to make people disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes. Inflation, high prices that keep getting higher, and more. But we’re told but the Bidenomics priesthood this is all a good thing.

And we talk about the corruption happening now in Washington, D.C., which Jonathan likes to call, the Land of Make Believe. Did anyone ever expect to see this much corruption and no one do anything about it? Not even pretend to be interested?

And what about that lurch away from capitalism to monopolism — where Big Government works hand-in-glove with Big  Business to kill off their competitors.

Finally, we talk about ALEC’s latest Rich States, Poor States edition, which came out in April 2023. Oregon dropped a couple of spots. Which probably surprises no one who lives in Oregon. But find out why.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Visit Jonathan Williams’ terrific organization, American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. And urge your state representatives and senators to get become part of ALEC.

You can follow Jonathan on Twitter at @TaxEconomist

How did Oregon do in the 2023 edition of Rich States, Poor States? Not so good. Explore all the states or jump to Oregon’s rankings.

Disney Might Sell Off TV Assets Like ABC, CEO Bob Iger Says (Forbes, July 13, 2023)

Disney CEO Bob Iger in ‘damage control’ mode over possible sale of ABC, ESPN (NY Post, July 19, 2023)

Millions of U.S. Jobs Are at Risk From Climate Policy: Joe Trotter in Delaware Valley Journal – American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC, June 22, 2023)

Kotek doles out 22% raises, $1500 inflation bonus (Oregon Catalyst, July 19, 2023)*The end result is the latest agreement for these Oregon government employees which includes a 6 point 5 percent raise this December and another 6 point 5 percent raise in 13 months. Other employees will be getting between 13 and 22 percent raises. It also includes a one-time $15 hundred dollar bonus to handle inflation.

Not Mentioned but Related

Field Office, Defaults on $73.8 Million Loan (Willamette Week, July 17, 2023)*Field Office, a 2 hundred 90 thousand-square-foot office complex near the Willamette River, have defaulted on their $74 million dollar loan. It’s due to being unable to find enough tenants.

Oregon Doctors seek to form a union (Oregon Catalyst, July 17, 2023)*Doctors seek unions due to being pressured and negatively impacted as they’re forced to accept more patients. More and more doctors are being forced into consolidation and away from smaller, family care environments. Along with more rules and legal requirements. A result from heavy handed taxes, fees, red tape, and legal impositions imposed by governments.As Oregon hospitals lost nearly half billion dollars in just a half year.

Lebanon considers asking voters for new tax (Democrat Herald, July 17, 2023)*Lebanon elected officials are considering raising taxes to avoid depleting the city’s general fund by 2024 and operate at a deficit by 2026. The city was up against a $1 point 2 million dollar shortfall when its fiscal year started this July.

The Rise and Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer (Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2023)

 

13-23 The Truth about the Oregon Republican Senator Walkout | HB2002

13-23 The Truth about the Oregon Republican Senator Walkout | HB2002

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Show 13-23 Summary: Unsurprisingly, the Oregon democrats and their media have been spinning a lot of lies about the Republican Senators walkout. They’re saying Republicans are refusing to come to work. A dereliction of duty. A vacation on the taxpayers’ dime. Weird. What do democrats call not showing up for work when public unions do it? Could it be a “strike”? But the democrats are also lying about why the republican senators walked out. HB2002. The democrats are claiming this is an important, emergency abortion rights bill, given the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. But they’re lying about that too. HB2002 is perhaps the most extreme, Far Left bill ever passed in Oregon. Tune in and keep reading to find out why.

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Original Air Dates: June 10th & 11th, 2023 | Guest: Senator Dennis Linthicum

This Week – The Truth about Oregon Senate Republicans’ Walkout

Oregon Republican Senators walked out of the legislature in early May 2023. Doing so denied the democrats the needed legislative quorum to pass any bills at all. The reason is simple. The democrats, who lost seats in both the Oregon house and the Oregon senate but still act like they have a super majority, refused to compromise the extreme far left bill, HB 2002. (Sometimes also called HB2002B.) And while HB 2002 alone would have been enough to make any sane person walk out it wasn’t just HB2002. It was also to stop other far-left bills such as HB2005, an anti-Second-Amendment gun grab bill. And bills that would steal Oregonians’ kicker refund. Not just this year but forever.

But make no mistake. The real reason the Republican senators walked out was to stop HB2002.

The Reason for the Walkout: HB2002

HB2002 is perhaps the most extreme far-left ideology bill of all times to come out of Oregon.

Long-time listeners of I Spy Radio already know that under Oregon’s “healthcare transformation,” much of what HB2002 proposes is already in place. Thanks to Oregon’s Healthcare Authority (there’s that Nazi-esque name again), underage girls can already get abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Why and how? Because the OHA changed the insurance rules covering children from FERPA to HIPPA.

Remember when you couldn’t get aspirin from the school nurse without your parents’ consent? That’s because the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (or FERPA), acknowledged that parents have the ultimate say about their child’s health. And the raising of them. But the OHA changed the guidelines from FERPA to HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). You might know about HIPPA. Because that’s the health care privacy that guides adult insurance policies.

In other words, the OHA now treats all children as if they are adults. Allowing them to make adult decisions about their own healthcare, including mental health. And parents have no rights to know or to “interfere”. The only right parents have is the right to pay for whatever their child wants.

What Oregon democrats want to do with HB2002 is to codify this extreme, anti-parent, far-left ideology into law. Why? Because laws are much harder to undo.

And let’s not forget. The democrats nearly lost the governor’s office in 2022. This is why the democrats are so willing to sell everything to try to get HB2002 through.

So what’s in HB 2002? Read on.

The Truth about Oregon’s HB2002

The Oregon democrats are desperate to confuse people about HB2002 and what it does. What they say it does is guarantee abortion rights and access. It’s an emergency! Women have to have access now that the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. Well. To use one of Biden’s favorite terms, that’s malarkey.

Women already have access to abortion in Oregon. Hell. Women and children can come here from other states and get abortions. For free if they claim they can’t afford it. Those are already in Oregon law. And absolutely nothing about Dobbs or the overturning of Roe v. Wade changed any of that.

If that’s the case, why are the democrats claiming that’s all there is about HB2002 as if guaranteeing “access” to abortion is the sole and only purpose of HB2002. Well, probably they don’t want people to know what’s really in the bill.

What’s in HB2002

So here’s what’s really in the bill. HB2002 would…

  • Lower the age girls could get an abortion without parental consent to, effectively, zero. Girls can already do this as young as 10. HB2002 makes it age 8 but technically could be lower.
  • Allow children from other states to come here and get abortions. Yes, HB2002 is a great boon for human trafficking. If girls as young 12 or 10 or 8 are getting pregnant a crime has occurred. HB2002 hides the evidence from police and from parents.
  • Allow children to get life-altering puberty blockers. without parental knowledge or consent.
  • It would allow children to get permanent “gender affirming” surgeries. On their own. Without parental consent or knowledge.
  • Allow teachers to indoctrinate children about gay, lesbian, transgender, and all the rest. Without parental knowledge or consent.
  • Punish those who oppose any of the above far-left ideologies.
    • If health care providers refuse or attempt to refuse to provide mental health care that affirms a child’s confusion, they can lose their license.
    • Health care providers who refuse to perform permanent, irreversible surgeries on children, they can be fined and/or lose their license.
    • If you interfere with the operation of an abortion clinic, you can be fined or jailed. “Interfere” is open for interpretation. Does that include simple protesting outside a clinic? Or posting critical social media posts about abortion or clinics?

What you can do about HB2002

Speak up! Don’t be silent!

  • HB2002 has already been voted out of Oregon House but there’s no reason to not contact your representative and let them know what you think about this horrendous bill. Perhaps they didn’t know the details about it. (How many times have we seen politicians vote for bills they didn’t reads personally and merely did what their caucus told them do?) Let them know what you think by using the link below.
  • Contact your senator right now using the link below to let them know you oppose this bill. Ask them why they want to take away parental rights. Ask them why are they helping child traffickers. And ask them why do they think children should have adult rights.
    • Ask your democrat senator if they realize removing parental rights to raise their own children was exactly what the Nazis did. Are they trying to be Nazis? Seriously?
    • Tell your republican senator how much you appreciate their bravery and that you support their walkout.

How to do all that? Easy! Just go to this Oregon legislative map, enter your address, and there you go. The link will conveniently give you their contact info, including phone numbers and emails. Start writing, stop being silent. This only stops when enough people raise their voices.

When contacting your representative and senator, remember: be firm. But be polite.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Why we’re denying quorum in Oregon’s Senate (Washington Examiner, May 29, 2023)
  • Read the June 2023 ORP Legislative Update (PDF), which discusses HB2002 and other horrible bills worth walking out over
  • Dennis Linthicum Newsletter: Irreversible Harm (May 29, 2023)
  • From Senator Bonham: Protesting the Unconstitutional Actions of the Majority Party (May 9, 2023)
  • Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek hasn’t convinced Republicans to return to Salem as walkout continues (OPB, May 23, 2023)
    • “ Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, pledged his members would return on June 25 — the day the session is scheduled to adjourn under constitutional deadlines — in order to pass ‘lawful, substantially bipartisan budgets and bills’.”
  • Cutting Early Kicker Checks part of negotiations with Boycott Republican Senators (KATU, May 30, 2023)
  • Kicker theft SJR 26 would be blow to charities (Taxpayer Assoc of OR, June 1, 2023)
    • “…the May revenue forecast predicted the 2024 kicker rebate would grow to a record $5 point 5 billion dollars. But some [democrat] lawmakers want to ask voters to end the annual taxpayer payout.”
  • Boycotting Oregon senators believe loophole will allow them to win another term (OPB, May 30, 2023)
  • Paychecks, perks continue for absent senators amid GOP-led walkout (Oregon Capital Chronicle, May 30, 2023)
  • Federal Subpoenas Issued to State Agencies (Willamette Week, June 7, 2023)
Oregon democrats go full Nazi
13-17 What are Oregon Democrats Up to Now? | Legislative Lowlights

13-17 What are Oregon Democrats Up to Now? | Legislative Lowlights

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Show 13-17 Summary: Oregon democrats continue to find new ways to emulate Nazis. You, your children, and certainly your money belong to the state. Democracy dies when democrats are in charge. It’s our monthly legislative update with Sen. Dennis Linthicum — hitting all the highlights and lowlights. Okay. There really aren’t any highlights. And the democrats STILL want to rob Oregon families of an average $5,200 kicker refund because they’ve discovered new ways to spend.

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Original Air Dates: April 29, 2023 | Guest: Sen. Dennis Linthicum

This Week – Oregon Democrats: Killing Democracy

Have you noticed that when democrats get in charge of something, the first thing they do is want to kill democracy?

But it didn’t always used to be this way. Democrats used to be about individual rights, civil rights, free speech, and so much more. Even Robert F. Kennedy recently pointed this out. Modern-day democrats have destroyed what the party used to be for.

Now, put them in charge, and their inner Nazi suddenly comes out. Democracy is about all voices. But democrats want to eliminate opposition. (Like the FBI going after Trump before, during, and after his presidency.) And not just politicians. Even every day citizens who don’t fall in line. (Like all those parents targeted by the FBI for daring to stand up to woke.)

The democrats hate being called Nazis. That’s their term for everyone else. But they hate it because it’s so blazingly true. That’s what they hate.

Monthly Legislative Update with Sen. Dennis Linthicum

This week, we talk with Senator Dennis Linthicum about the latest from the legislature. It’s not pretty. Not least of which because Oregon democrats, like Senator Dembrow, are steamed that things like democracy are happening. He’s ticked that republicans are slowing down the 1000s of bills democrats want to ram through. Dembrow hates that republicans have any say at all, apparently.

We talk parents rights. (Oregon democrats want to take them away.) And taxes—democrats can’t get enough of them. The business climate in Oregon. (Oregon democrats are trying to drive businesses out, apparently.) And we talk about that kicker refund. (Democrats want to spend it.)

There’s a business poll that came out recently and we get Sen. Linthicum’s take on it. It is not pretty. The thing is, Oregon democrats seem to not understand even basic economics. But why do you need economics if the government can just take everything, control the means of production, ensure only party loyalists are in business, and then tell people what they can and can’t buy.

You know. Just like the Nazis.

Oregon Democrats: Stealing your Kicker Refund

Oh, and that kicker? It’s not chump change. It kicks in whenever the state rakes in more than 2% above what they had budgeted. This year, it was 4% more. And the way it works is that it’s not based on what you paid. Instead, the giant pie (some $2 billion this year) is divided evenly among Oregon taxpayers. And this year, that’s about $5,200 per family.

But Oregon democrats have come up with new things they just have to buy. With your money. So watch for them to delay handing it back right up until the budget needs to pass. By law, the budget must be balanced. (Thank God Oregon democrats can’t just print money!) And legislators must balance it before the legislature can adjourn. So watch for Oregon democrats to try to strong arm republicans to spend all or some of the kicker to make up the difference or they can’t adjourn and go home.

Don’t miss this week’s show. Lots to discuss. Including Oregon democrats gleefully opening the door to Oregon becoming a “deathstination.” Happily willing to provide abortions and euthanasia for people from other states where killing isn’t allowed.

Get involved! Don’t be silent! It’s easier than ever now to let your voice be heard on bad — and the occasionally good — legislation. Head to olis.oregonlegislature.gov, type the bill number into the search bar (upper right), and you can send in your testimony.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Critics shred Biden for claiming ‘our nation’s children are all our children’: ‘Absolutely wrong’: Biden’s claim echoed Hillary Clinton’s ‘It Takes a Village’ (Fox News, Apr 24, 2023)
  • But what about Oregon? Parental Rights Bills Sweeping the United States (The Epoch Times, Apr 22, 2023)
  • Former Trump appointee: ‘Bureaucratic administrative state must be brought under control’ (Legal Newsline, Apr 5, 2023)
  • Actions to Protect Our Kids: Combating the Woke in our schools and institutions (Cody Benson, March, 2023)
  • How does Oregon’s ‘kicker’ tax rebate work? (KGW, Apr 7, 2023)
  • The Death of a Proposed Beer and Wine Tax Highlights Vast Differences in Oregon’s Taxes on Intoxicants (Willamette Week, Mar 29, 2023)
  • But, wait! It’s not dead yet! “Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission considers doubling tax on hard alcohol” (Oregon Capital Chronicle, Apr 17, 2023)
  • Legislature logjam as guns, abortion, rent control bills percolating (Bulletin, Apr 24, 2023)
  • Amid uncertainty in leadership, some PCC faculty are worried the nursing program could close (OPB, Apr 23, 2023)
  • HB 2002B – seeks to codify government-sanctioned secrecy between parent and child by providing abortions and “gender affirming” interference for children. Without a parent’s knowledge. Compliments of the Oregon democrats. (Note: Senators like Kim Thatcher, writing in her newsletter, aren’t quite correct on this. That level of secrecy already exists in Oregon statutes thanks to HB3650, which ushered in the grand, “Oregon Healthcare Transformation.” Which she and a bunch of other republicans voted for.)

That Oregon Business Climate Survey

  • Survey: Small Businesses Feel Overtaxed and Overwhelmed (OBI & Oregon Chamber of Commerce, Mar 2023). Some of the lowlights:
    • 41% of respondents say they’re considering closing, selling or moving their businesses because of taxes, Oregon’s regulatory environment or a combination of the two.
    • Only 18% of respondents believe that state lawmakers care about the success of their businesses.
    • Only 7% (wow!!) of respondents believe the state’s business climate will improve in the coming year.

Not discussed but you might find interesting…

Democrats' socialist plans for Oregon - All your money are belong to us
13-12 The Democrats’ Socialist Plans for Oregon – Legislative Update

13-12 The Democrats’ Socialist Plans for Oregon – Legislative Update

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Show 13-12 Summary: When it comes to the democrats’ socialist plans for Oregon, they can be summed up by borrowing (pun intended) from an old video game: “All your money are belong to us.” We check in with Senator Dennis Linthicum about their plans for socialized medicine, the tools Republicans have to stop bad bills, and whatever happened to that $5,200 kicker for Oregon families?

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Original Air Dates: March 25th & 26th, 2023 | Guest: Senator Dennis Linthicum

This Week – The Democrats’ Socialist Plans for Oregon

This week, it’s our monthly check in with Senator Dennis Linthicum to talk about what’s happening in the capital. The democrats’ socialist plans for Oregon are legion.

Democrats' socialist plans for Oregon - All your money are belong to us
“All your base are belong to us”

To sum up the democrats’ socialist plans, your money doesn’t belong to you. And we’re not taxing you enough to give away all this free stuff. And Oregon continues its lurch toward socialized medicine with SB704 which would create single-payer health care. Because it’s worked so well in other countries. Like Canada. Where it’s worked so well that people are dying to escape it. Literally. Canada is now actively encouraging the elderly and people with long-term health problems to kill themselves. Not kidding. And they’re not even hiding it. They want people to kill themselves because their care is expensive. And killing themselves will save the system money.

Please, democrats. By all means. You go first.

And that’s just one among other disasters.

Fighting Back against the Democrats’ Socialist Plans

We welcome back Senator Dennis Linthicum (Klamath-28) to give insights into the democrats’ socialist plans. In case you missed it, last year’s democrats spawned a ballot initiative, Measure 111, to make health care a “fundamental right.” It’s not. Anymore than if they had pushed out a ballot measure that made owning unicorns a fundamental right. But now Oregon has it in its state constitution.

Catch Sen. Dennis Linthicum’s previous legislative updates: 13-04 (Have Democrats Learned the Lesson?) and 13-08 (The Mad, Mad Spending)

Now, democrats are using that ballot initiative to make socialized, single-payer, universal healthcare the law of the land. Except while the legislative initiative that created Measure 111 may have urged socialized medicine, that’s not what the ballot measure actually said. It just required “universal access” and cost-effective. We already have “universal access.” Sick and show up in the emergency room with no money? Guess what, you get treated. As for cost-effective, how is $54 billion for “free” healthcare cost effective? So why are democrats determined to lurch down the road to socialized medicine?

Because, as usual, it is about bringing more money and more control under the government’s sway. Now, not only will your money not belong to you. But neither will your own health.

Oh, and what’s the deal with the kicker? All that and more but there may be some solutions to at least some of it.

Get Involved! Don’t be Silent.

olis oregon legislature submit testimonyWe are in this mess because too many sane people stay silent. While the insane shriek their weird opinions at the capitol. Did you know that it is now easier than ever to submit testimony against bad bills and for good bills. Don’t let “testimony” scare you. It just means your opinion.

All you really need is the bill’s number. And if you don’t know the bill number, you can still find it on the site (see steps below). Or use your favorite search engine.

Here’s what you do:

  1. Head to olis.oregonlegislature.gov.
  2. Select the bills icon at the top right of the page
  3. Type the bill number in the popup. Select it the correct one. (If you don’t know the bill’s number try a word search in the “bill text” tab.)
  4. At the top of the bill’s page you’ll see a “submit testimony” tab. That brings up a form.
  5. Enter your name, your city, your comments in the text window, select whether you oppose or support and – boom you’re done.

See how easy that is? You don’t need to be elegant (although do be polite) or have a thousand unassailable facts. (Hey. The democrats just have feelings.) Just be heard. It’s your opinion. No excuse to be silent.

Remember: silence has never changed anything. Don’t be silent.

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Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Get involved. Head to olis.oregonlegislature.gov. to submit your testimony — you opinion — about bills. Good or bad. See the steps above for a walk-through.
  • Measure 111, passed in 2022, via Ballotpedia
  • $200M homeless package heads to governor’s desk (Statesman, Mar 21, 2023)
    • 7 Republican Senators voted against the pkg, Linthicum was one of them
  • Where did the $400M Oregon allocated last year for homelessness go? (Statesman, Mar 19, 2023)
    • “At least 14,600 people are experiencing homelessness across Oregon”
    • Julie Fahey (D): “That $400M was a ‘catalyst” for the larger set of goals we have.”
  • Cascade Policy Institute Research Finds School Choice programs Can Boost Public School Performance (Cascade Policy Institute, 2023)

Just a few dangerous bills

  • SB 85 – Dennis Linthicum mentioned this dangerous bill during the show.
    • Senator David Brock-Smith says, “This bill deals with CAFO’s and has democrats attacking our dairies, chicken and cattle farms and ranches. As they do, the bill itself is just a “study” but the amendment goes far beyond that and will shut down current farming operations.” Under this bill, the State Department of Agriculture would not issue or renew a license or permit to allow the construction or operation of: “(a) A new industrial confined animal feeding operation; “(b) An addition to, or expansion of, an existing industrial confined animal feeding operation; or “(c) An addition to, or expansion of, an existing livestock farm if the addition or expansion would cause the livestock farm to become an industrial confined animal feeding operation.”
  • HB 2004 – Establishes ranked choice voting as voting method for selecting offices of statewide races: the President, U.S. Senators and Representatives, Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Attorney General and Commissioner of Bureau of Labor and Industries.
  • HB 3509 – Establishes ranked choice voting for selecting winner of nomination for and election to nonpartisan state offices and county and city offices except where home rule charter applies.
  • Oregon lawmakers consider new gun legislation (Oregon Insider, Mar 21, 2023). The three bills are:
    • House Bill 2005 bans the sale, manufacture and importation of so-called ghost guns with homemade parts that are untraceable;
    • HB 2006 raises the age of legal purchase and possession of firearms from 18 to 21, but allows exceptions for hunting and shooting; and
    • HB 2007 extends to cities, counties and special districts the authority that the 2021 Legislature had granted to public schools, community colleges, and universities regulating or barring firearms from their buildings and grounds, including people with concealed-carry licenses.
13-09 Insane Government Spending – 2023 Essential Policy Solutions

13-09 Insane Government Spending – 2023 Essential Policy Solutions

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Show 13-09 Summary: This week, it’s all about insanity. Meaning, our governments’ insane spending that shows no signs of letting up. And that there’s just always more money on the national credit card. So when the inmates are running the asylum, what can we do about government spending? We talk with Jonathan Williams of the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC has just released its 2023 Essential Policy Solutions, which should be required reading for every legislator out there. Listen in for policies, economic and otherwise, that make sense in an insane world.

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Original Air Dates: March 4th & 5th, 2023 | Guest: Jonathan Williams

This Week – Government Spending. It’s Insane.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (or ALEC), is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. If you don’t know, they work with state legislatures — the 50 test tubes of democracy — to pass legislation that upholds principles of limited government, free markets and federalism You don’t last 50 years if you’re not having successes. And ALEC has had tremendous success stories. Including encouraging states to lower taxes. Even adopting a flat tax.

Don’t miss it! Be sure to RSVP for The Capital City Republican Women’s Luncheon, March 9th, 2023, starting at 11:30am (Mark will start his presentation at noon). To RSVP, send an email to CCRWSalem@Reagan.com. Lunch is $14. Coffee is $2. No cost to just come listen. Location will be sent to you after you RSVP.

This week, we talk with Jonathan Williams, ALEC’s Executive VP of Policy and their chief economist, about the insane government spending. After blowing through $1.9 trillion in the “American Rescue Plan” and another $2 trillion with Build Back Better, and still trillions more — in just 2 years — we’re facing a looming showdown over the federal debt ceiling. Addicted to government spending, Biden and the democrats don’t want any spending cuts. Of course not.

Maybe it’s because they just spent $360 billion on “global warming” and climate change in the most recent $1 trillion “inflation reduction act.” None of that money is going to conservatives or conservative organizations. So of course the democrats don’t want any cuts to government spending. That would be cutting off cash to their political cronies.

Government Spending: 2023 Essential Policy Solutions

Fortunately, to tackle this insane government spending ALEC has just released its 2023 Essential Policy Solutions. This essential guide is definitely essential for every state legislator.

Get your free copy! Download the PDF version of the 2023 Essential Policy Solutions. And then email it to all your legislators!

Jonathan Williams walks us through some of the more exciting solutions. Not just for government spending but also price transparency for hospitals and health care but also some model legislation for school choice.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Essential Policy Solutions for 2023 – (American Legislative Exchange Council, March, 2023). Free PDF! Download it and email it to your legislators!
  • RSVP for The Capital City Republican Women’s Luncheon, March 9th, 2023, starting at 11:30am (Mark will start his presentation at noon). To RSVP, send an email to CCRWSalem@Reagan.com. Lunch is $14. Coffee is $2. No cost to just come listen. Location will be sent to you after you RSVP.
  • US stocks enter ‘death zone’  (Daily Mail, Feb 2023)
    • Morgan Stanley issues dire warning to investors who ‘followed prices to dizzying heights’ amid fears S&P 500 could plummet 26% within months.
  • American Rescue Plan (Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Package (Investopedia, updated Sept 21, 2022)

Additional Related Research, Not Specifically Mentioned

13-08 The Mad, Mad Spending – Real School Choice Needed in Oregon

13-08 The Mad, Mad Spending – Real School Choice Needed in Oregon

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Show 13-08 Summary: Two guests this week and both talking about government spending. Donna Kreitzberg talks about redirecting portions of education spending to parents so they can make their own best school choice for their children. Then Senator Dennis Linthicum who says there is no end in sight for the amount of spending Oregon is looking to do in this legislative session. And be sure to stay through the closing where you’ll hear what he told us off air about the real reasons why democrats want to spend the kicker. Un. Believable.

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Original Air Dates: February 25th & 26th, 2023 | Guests: Donna Kreitzberg & Dennis Linthicum

This Week – Oregon‘s Insane Spending

It’s not just the amount of spending. It’s what they are spending it on. And it’s insane. Especially given that most economists and major financial institutions are predicting a recession this year. Not to mention continuing inflation and mounting job losses. So why is Oregon inflating its budgets like there are no limits of money?

And for goodness sake. Don’t miss the final closing when we reveal the real reasons democrats don’t want Oregonians to get their kicker refund.

Getting Real School Choice in Oregon

Since it’s not looking positive for school choice legislation in Oregon, Oregonians can still use ballot measures to do what the Oregon education lobby doesn’t want. Give parents the choice to pick the right school for their child.

Why does the education lobby want to keep kids in failing schools? Probably because they know government loves to throw even more money at problems. A failing school? Clearly, what they need is even more money. But, given that our schools already soak up a whopping 40% of our entire state budget, that clearly isn’t working. Especially since Oregon routinely ranks need the bottom but spends more than the national average per student.

So what’s the answer?

As usual, it’s less government. And more free market.

We talk with Donna Kreitzberg who is leading the effort to get school choice in Oregon. Not a pat-on-the-head choice. A real school choice. Where parents decide how to spend the money assigned to their child and will have the option to send their child to the school that best fits their educational needs.

But what about that money? Can parents just buy anything with it? And, if the state gives them the money, doesn’t that mean the state gets to say how it’s spent — not to mention all the woke regulations they’re pushing now in schools?

Nope.

Tune in to find out why.

Find out how you can help to get real school choice in Oregon. Head to Education Freedom for Oregon. Download and sign petitions. Volunteer. And please donate to help make this happen!

The Spending. Oregon’s Endless Spending.

And next we welcome Senator Dennis Linthicum back to discuss what’s happening in Oregon’s legislature. We’ll be having him on on a monthly basis to give us his inside the capitol view and the truth. Like the real reason why the democrats don’t want you to have your kicker refund.

When last we spoke, the 2023 legislative session had just started. And he wasn’t sure if the democrats, who had lost some of their stranglehold on power, would react. Or how they’d treat their republican colleagues.

So this week, we wanted to know more. And to hear about the budget. Oh yes. And what about that kicker refund. You know. The one that, by law, the state is supposed to return to the taxpayers. Why? Because it means they over collected taxes. They charged too much. So they are — again, by law — supposed to return that to the people they overcharged. And this year, that kicker would be, on average, $5,200 per working family. So why are the democrats so eager to spend it before taxpayers can get their grubby hands on what the democrats see as the democrats’ money?

Yeah. Sorry. You’ll have to tune in to hear why. Stay through to the very end.

Previous Parental Rights and School Choice Shows

Did you miss our previous shows on parents rights in education?

  1. Show 13-03: overview of parents rights in education with Suzanne Gallagher, CEO of Parents Rights in Education
  2. Show 13-04: the legal side of parents rights, especially if push comes to lawsuit with Ernie Trakas, senior litigation counsel for the Child & Parental Rights Campaign
  3. Show 13-05: the way out; real school choice with Ed Ludlow of the national school choice organization, EdChoice
  4. Show 13-06: you’ve made the choice, now how to choose a new school with Marc Thielman, former Alsea school superintendent
  5. And Show 13-08 (today’s show): getting school choice in Oregon with Donna Kreitzberg, head of Oregon’s school choice 2024 ballot initiative

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Links mentioned during the show

  • Education Freedom for Oregon – This is Donna’s real school choice website. You can:
    • download and sign petitions (single-signature petition sheets for yourself or 10-line ones to gather signatures from your friends, families, fellow parents at school, or neighbors)
    • Volunteer
    • And please donate to help get school choice on the ballot in Oregon!
  • Freedom Watch Alert: Second dangerous School Choice constitutional amendment petition (OCEAN Network, July 15, 2022)
  • Kotek proposes $13.5 billion for education (Oregon Capital Insider, Feb 6, 2023)
    • “Education accounts for $13.5 billion, more than 40% of her proposed $32.1 billion in spending of the state’s general and lottery funds.”
    • “But most of the money – an historic $9.9 billion – is devoted to the State School Fund, which pays for educating Oregon’s 550,000 K-12 students and for district operating expenses, transportation costs and other needs.”
    • The $9.9 billion marks an overall $600 million increase in K-12 spending for the biennium and would average out to about $9,682 per student in 2023-24 and roughly $10,000 per student in 2024-25, according to preliminary estimates from the Oregon Department of Education. The state is paying $9,468 per student in the current 2022-23 school year.
    • BUT: “Accounting for all education funding, Oregon spends about $12,855 per K-12 student, according to 2020 census data. The national average that year was $13,187, with some states spending more than $20,000.”

Additional School Choice Info and Related

 

13-06 Killing Title IX Protections in the Name of Woke | Plus Part 4: Choosing New Schools

13-06 Killing Title IX Protections in the Name of Woke | Plus Part 4: Choosing New Schools

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Show 13-06 Summary: This week on I Spy we continue our mini-series on parents rights in education. We are looking at what the Biden administration’s abandonment of Title IX means (it used to mean protection and equal access for girls and women) and what real school choice looks like — when parents make the choice to find a better school. What are the options and how to decide? How to even know if it’s the school or the child? And what about funding — should taxpayer dollars really go to private schools? And is it protected from frivolous parents? Are schools accountable top meet competency and proficiency standards? Maybe if the public schools had such standards, parents wouldn’t be looking elsewhere…

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Original Air Dates: February 11th & 12th, 2023 | Guests: Kimberly Hermann & Marc Thielman

This Week – So Much for Equality

If there’s one thing elected democrats say, it’s that they want equality. But if there’s one thing they do it’s remove equality. Which is why they are all for racial discrimination in the name of equality. Like affirmative action. Where, in their “logic” it makes sense to discriminate against Whites in favor of other races. Which is a bit like saying a little slavery is okay, as long as it’s done to the right kind of people.

Hint to democrats: discrimination is discrimination.

But maybe this mindset explains why the Biden administration thinks removing protections for girls and women in education is a good thing.

The Biden Administration: Killing Title IX

Title IX was intended to give girls and women an equal footing in education. Prior to Title IX, schools could discriminate against women and, perhaps most famously, not fund women’s sports. But now, the Biden administration’s new “guidance” would remove such protections. How? By doing away with the concept of women and girls. And making anyone who identifies as a woman a woman in their view.

Basically, if there are no women as a distinct entity, there are no women to protect.

To try to make sense of the nonsense, we welcome Kimberly Hermann. She is the chief legal counsel for Southeastern Legal Foundation and they have file da brief in support of states pushing back against the Biden administration’s guidance.

Visit SLFLiberty.org to find out more about the great work Southeastern Legal Foundation is doing to defend your constitutional rights. You can even submit a case they might be interested in.

Kimberly walks us through what Title IX is, what it was intended to do, and why Title IX is so important to defend. You’ll also hear how the courts, including appellate courts, are, in fact, defending the notion that there are two sexes. Which is extremely encouraging.

But can you believe this? Has society gone so far down the woke toilet that we will end up needing the Supreme Court to tell the rest of society what a woman is?

Yikes.

Parents’ Rights Part 4: Choosing a New School

This week, we also continue our mini-series on parents rights in education. Last week, we discussed the Real School Choice movement. So far, five states have already adopted real school choice. (This means parents can choose whichever school they want to send their kids and the education dollars attached to that child.) And there are nearly a dozen more close to adopting real school choice and over two dozen in total that have at least some form of legislation on the table.

This is not only a win for parents, it’s a win for education itself. And it’s thanks to exercising free market principles.

Think about it. Parents (consumers) can choose to spend the education dollars how they want and where they want. Funding students not systems, means that the school systems must become competitive to attract consumers (parents). Better up your game or you lose out.

That is what real school choice is all about. Give parents the power, not bureaucrats.

Find out more about Oregon’s real school choice battle. If parents can’t get it in the legislature, they are prepared to go with a ballot initiative

But if you’re a parent and  you exercise your school choice, how do you choose a school? How do you know it’s the school and not your child? What are the signs you should be looking for? And with the dozen-plus types of other schools out there, how do you find the right one for your child.

We talk with Marc Thielman, the former superintendent at the Alsea School district, to answer those questions and more.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

More Info on Title IX

  • Title IX: 50 years later (American Psychological Association, June 28, 2022)
    • “Changes to Title IX regulations dispensed by the U.S. Department of Education in 2020 removed the mandatory reporting requirement. These Trump-era changes also narrowed the definition of sexual harassment, excluded off-campus assaults from the law’s protections, and made a series of other changes that left some Title IX offices scrambling to update their institution’s procedures”
  • Title IX’s Positive Impact on Education Life BEFORE Title IX (Vector Solutions, No Date)
  • 10 Facts Everyone Should Know About Title IX (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, Aug 23, 2017)

More Info on Choosing a School

 

Real School Choice - the Way out for Parents
13-05 The Way Out: Real School Choice | Parents Rights Part 3

13-05 The Way Out: Real School Choice | Parents Rights Part 3

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Show 13-05 Summary: Part 3 of our mini-series on parental rights. Week 1 was a general overview or parental rights and a look at what parents and kids are facing. Last week was a look at the legal side of things, especially if push comes to lawsuit. This week, it’s a look at the way out: real school choice. Where the dollars pegged to a child, follows them and parents can use those public funds to spend on whichever school best suits their child. Competition. It’s a wonderful thing!

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The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.

Original Air Dates: February 4th & 5th, 2023 | Guest: Robert Enlow

This Week – Real School Choice

The answer to most problems with Big Government is simple: take money away from big government and apply free-market principles.

Don’t miss the other two parts our series on parents’ rights: Part 1 (overview of parents rights) and Part 2 (legal aspects and, if necessary, lawsuits)

And when it comes to bad education systems, this means real school choice. Where bad schools in bad education systems either improve to good schools. Or they lose the money when they lose a child whose parents take their child elsewhere.

In the past, this option was only available to the rich. Who were still paying school taxes and paying to put their child in a better school.

But right now, thanks to parents staying home due to covid lockdowns—who got to see just how bad things really were thanks to virtual classrooms—there is a movement sweeping the nation. And it’s real school choice.

Real School Choice Defined

Real school choice. What is it? It’s when parents can decide how and where to spend the dollars “pegged” to their child on a school of their choice.

Real school choice happens like this: Education systems get a pot of money every year. Think of that as the “education bank.” These monies are drawn from different sources. Broadly speaking, federal, state, and local taxes all pay into the bank. States, the bank’s administrators, determine how many students there are and determine a per-student amount. A percentage of that per-student spending is pegged to the student as the parents decide where to spend it. Usually, this takes the form of an education savings account, commonly referred to as an”ESA.”

How much of that percentage, where, and how the funds can be spent vary from state to state.

And, unlike what this Kansas State Board of Education member thinks, parents can not use the funds to buy latte machines. (Although it makes one wonder how many schools have used their funds to put latte machines in teachers’ lounges…)

For more information on what school choice is, see this definition from one of the nation’s leading school choice organizations, EdChoice.

Our Guest: Robert Enlow of EdChoice

Speaking of which, this week we welcome Robert Enlow, the President and CEO of EdChoice, to talk to us about this nationwide movement. As of this writing, five states (with three in just the last two weeks) have adopted real school choice. And at least 28 more — including Oregon! — have introduced legislation for some form of school choice.

This didn’t happen over night.

Be sure to visit EdChoice.org. They have research, polls, tools, trainings and more to make universal school choice happen in your state!

No surprise, Milton Friedman, who advised President Reagan to get America’s economy back on track (which mainly boiled down to getting government out of the way), came up with the idea. Now, some 50 years after he came up with the idea of a school voucher system, we’re seeing it take hold.

Real School Choice in Oregon

Oregon has been at the bottom of education for decades. Oregon even removed competency requirements for graduation under former governor Kate Brown. So, not surprisingly, even here in Oregon, parents are fed up. We wanted to talk to experts who have actually made this happen in other states, who’ve been part of successful campaigns to get school choice. So we turned to EdChoice to talk about how these states made it happen. How did they win? And we talked about the arguments for and against school choice so you’ll know what to face.

As Robert Enlow said — echoing the mission of I Spy Radio — if want to be a successful advocate, you need to be an informed one.

If you want real school choice in Oregon, or in your state, don’t miss this show!

Want more information and insight on school choice here in Oregon? Check out these past I Spy Radio shows.

The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version

Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.

Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Our guest’s organization is EdChoice. They are the nation’s leading organization for and advocate of school choice. They have research, tools, polls, even training if you want to help bring school choice to your state! Find them at EdChoice.org
  • Arizona leads on school choice. Should Utah follow suit? (Deseret News, Jan 16, 2023)
  • Achieving the potential of school choice (The Gazette, Colorado, Jan 17, 2023)
  • “Public education funding without boundaries: How to get K-12 dollars to follow open enrollment students” (Reason Foundation, Jan 24, 2023)
    • How to ensure state and local education funds flow seamlessly across district boundaries.
    • States are increasingly enacting open enrollment policies that give students options across school district boundaries. But this is only half the equation. Policymakers must also ensure that education dollars follow the child to the school of their choice, a concept referred to as funding portability.
    • Download the full policy brief: Public Education Funding Without Boundaries (PDF)
  • Iowa Gov Kim Reynolds signs historic school choice bill: ‘We will fund students not systems’ (Fox News, Jan 24, 2023)
  • ‘Fund Students, Not Systems’ with Universal School Choice” (Townhall.com, Jan 23, 2023).
  • Legislators in 28 states have introduced bills to fund students instead of systems this year. (Corey DeAngelis, Twitter, Feb 1, 2023)
  • 25 million eCommerce companies in the world – Myth or Fact? Dissecting the $4.9 Trillion industry with 2022 data. (Pipecandy.com, March 2022)

Oregon Centric

  • Kotek proposes spending $765M (Register Guard, Feb 1, 2023) Increases school budget
  • Portland School District announces hiring freeze due to dwindling enrollment (Pamplin Media Feb 1, 2023)
    • Portland  lost 3,000 students from 2020 to 2022. The district said its “dramatic, unprecedented enrollment decline” isn’t over. It expects to lose about 500 more students next year. But despite fewer students, “Superintendent Guerrero, along with leaders from other Oregon districts, are calling on state leaders to pour more money into public school funding. ”
  • See our previous shows on this topic, including the referendum movement for 2024 if the legislature ignores Oregon parents. These show pages have additional links and info.
  • Parents Rights in Education (Oregon and other state chapters)