Articles
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Budget & Tax
Have Tax Dollars, Will Travel
By focusing thousands of eyes on frivolous, careless, and just plain wasteful spending that is being done with your tax dollars, we can start to expose the unacceptable patterns of abuse that are apparently being practiced-not only in higher education, but throughout state government.Steve Anderson | April 14, 2009
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Education
School Choice in Obama's America and Our Oklahoma
In Barack Obama's America, there's good news and bad news for advocates of school choice. The same is true in Oklahoma.Patrick B. McGuigan | April 13, 2009
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Budget & Tax
Tax burden would appall founders
For as Jefferson said in his first inaugural address: "a wise and frugal Government ... shall leave [men] free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."Brandon Dutcher | April 13, 2009
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Law & Principles
Chamber: Obama and Biden more 'pro-business' than DeMint
As Stephen Moore has pointed out before ('Liberalism's echo chambers'), "pro-business" is not synonymous with "pro-free-enterprise."Brandon Dutcher | April 7, 2009
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Budget & Tax
Enhanced Financial Reporting for State Government
At the state level, Oklahoma faces a major problem with the unfunded liabilities of its retirement systems. Meanwhile, it struggles with the same problems as other states to provide for the education, health care, transportation, and other needs of its citizens.Tom Daxon | April 3, 2009
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Good Government
Where's the Fief?
As we pointed out in these pages in December ("Overcrowding on the Government Gravy Train"), data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) indicate that Oklahoma's state and local government workforce is too big and is overpaid.J. Scott Moody & Wendy Warcholik, Ph.D. | April 1, 2009
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Budget & Tax
Stealth Taxation 'Nonappropriated' Agencies Quietly Take Your Money
In its first hundred years Oklahoma's state government has managed to develop bureaucracies that would make it the envy of many socialist countries.Steve Anderson | April 1, 2009
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Budget & Tax
A Billion Dollars of Unnoticed Taxation
Over the past two years, I have been taking note of state government's hidden spending.Jason Murphey | April 1, 2009
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Budget & Tax
In Defense of Oklahoma's Tax-Hike Supermajority Requirement
State legislation is often described as an expression of majority rule. However, the legislative process contains steps that seem designed to hinder spontaneous expressions of majority sentiment.Joseph D. Henchman | April 1, 2009
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Higher Education
OU: Pay no attention to that article on our website
Public opinion surveys in this state consistently show that somewhere in the vicinity of 18 percent of Oklahomans described themselves as somewhat or strongly liberal, while 67 percent called themselves somewhat or strongly conservative.Brandon Dutcher | March 17, 2009