The Loyal Opposition

The Oklahoman reports that a whopping 35 lefties (including a book-confiscating zoology professor) showed up at the capitol Saturday to protest conservative governance.

I haven't seen a crowd that small at the capitol since the last time the House Democrats caucused.

Parental Lethargy

Pivoting from the Tiger Mom conversation, Jeffrey Tucker points "to something that seems to be lost in this debate: the institutional context that has led to the American tendency to let the kids grow like weeds."

As a culture, we’ve come to trust someone else to take on the essential responsibility of molding the next generation.

The central plan has instilled a kind of parental lethargy. We let the state take over the core responsibilities from the age of 5 through 22, and then we are shocked to discover that kids leave college without a sense of work ethic, without marketable skills, and even without the ambition to succeed in the real world. So we let them become boarders in our homes, "reverts" who specialize in Wii and Facebook updates. Growing up takes longer and longer because the machinery we have in place saps individual initiative and punishes any outlying behavior.

 Greg Forster touched on some of these same ideas here.

I Made the Forbes List

No, not that one. In his Forbes “Fact and Comment” section, Steve Forbes (pictured here at OCPA) makes mention of a recent article I wrote:

Mother Knows Best

When Oklahoma legislators were debating the special needs scholarship bill in May, one state representative actually suggested that school choice was dangerous because parents “may think they know what’s best––but do they?” I promptly blogged on the matter, concluding with “a very important question for Rep. [Neil] Brannon: If the parents of House District 3 aren’t capable of choosing a good school for their children, how can they be trusted to choose a competent official to represent them in the Oklahoma House of Representatives?”

––Brandon Dutcher, vice president for policy, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, in School Choice Advocate  

School Board Follies

The state Board of Education stepped in it today. Peter (The Revolution Will Be Tweeted) Rudy had the early coverage. For the whole story, go to McCarville and start scrolling. Time now for some policy fixes.

This Young Man Has a Bright Future

And after his SOTU response tonight, so does Paul Ryan.

Bureaucratic-Bloat Argument Coming to a Head

I've been privy to an interesting exchange between an Oklahoma first-grade teacher and a prominent education reformer. I am sorry to report that things are starting to go to pot.

How Roe v. Wade Aborted America's Economy

It "ushered in a marriage and baby bust that has sucked the life-blood out of the economy."

'The Welfare State Has Done to Black Americans What Slavery Couldn't Do'

"Destroy the black family."

Your Papers, Please

Like state Sen. Mary Easley before him, state Sen. Jim Wilson wants to keep tabs on some of his subjects.

Don't get me started.

Time for Fallin to Cut the Budget, Then Clean House

[This Marlin Oil advertorial appears in the January 20 edition of The City Sentinel.]

Last year, the Legislature of Oklahoma passed, and Governor Brad Henry approved, a budget of $6.7 billion. It was balanced with the help of a Rainy Day Fund, federal stimulus funds, and some creative use of cash flow.

This year, the “built-in” spending -- if everything could stay constant -- is projected at $6.8 billion.

Projected tax revenue, without Rainy Day or stimulus money, is $6.2 billion, but is actually coming in above that, as the state economy continues to perform much better than the national. At the end of the whole process, late this spring, chances seem good (but not guaranteed) that the revenue versus spending gap will close another $245 million.

What our state actually spends includes other revenues, including fees, special levies, and federal matching funds. The total annual churn of spending in state government is far more than two times the announced budget figures.

Combining some government functions will save Oklahomans some resources, but in the end there will be no substitute for trimming government spending to match available resources. Simply put, that means budget cuts.

As Governor Mary Fallin said last week, "One of my top goals is right-sizing government, to look at our different state agencies, boards and commissions." That's good and in keeping with her historic campaign for the chief executive's position.

However, for Fallin's supporters, it's a little bit nerve-wracking that there are still no details on what is to be cut, where it is to be cut, and when those cuts will go into effect.

In short form, here is the problem. At a time when the gap between taxpayer revenues and government activities is known to fall somewhere between $225 million and $600 million, those who run the various departments nonetheless came in with budgets 25 percent higher than expected.

That says just about all you need to know about those who are still in charge of day-to-day work in our state government. Submission of such inflated budget figures may be the way business has always been done, yet it strikes many Oklahomans as a kind of casual defiance of not only Fallin, but also of voters who could not have been clearer in their endorsement of change at the Oklahoma Capitol.

For Oklahoma government, it’s time to cut the budget, and then clean house.

Unintended-Consequences Watch

"Electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade and instead created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup," the Associated Press reports.

Meth-related activity is on the rise again nationally, up 34 percent in 2009, the year with the most recent figures. That number includes arrests, seizures of the drug and the discovery of abandoned meth-production sites.

The increase was higher in the three states that have electronically tracked sales of medication containing pseudoephedrine since at least 2008. Meth incidents rose a combined 67 percent in those states — 34 percent in Arkansas, 65 percent in Kentucky and 164 percent in Oklahoma.

Whoops!

Comes now a renewed push by Oklahoma policymakers to ban texting while driving. Sounds like a good idea, to be sure, except that Patrick McGuigan reports that "a study circulated last fall by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the effect of texting bans is not a reduction in accidents, but a slight increase."

Charlie ...

... you're a star!

But What About Socialization?

The new Miss America, at 17 one of the youngest winners ever, was "home schooled until her junior year because she needed to grow out of being shy as a child."

Cato Analyst Raps Frank Lucas

I like Congressman Frank Lucas and many of his staffers, but I was intrigued by this post by Cato analyst Tad DeHaven on "Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Farm Subsidies)." Ouch.

Is Mr. DeHaven correct?

The Story of Charlie

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I meant to do a Christmas update right after Christmas and now it’s January 12. I feel like I’ve been about three weeks behind for a long time. I still might post about Christmas, but for now here is the story of Charlie.

A lot of people know that Brandon isn’t a small-dog person. He grew up on a ranch with big dogs -- Labs, Retrievers, Chesapeakes, German Shepherds, and so on. Sometimes in jest Brandon has referred to small dogs as "rodents," and my friend Ginger has heard Brandon use the words "small dog" and "microwave" in the same sentence (he was only kidding, of course). I, on the other hand, am a small-dog person. It’s not that I don’t like big dogs, I just don’t want to own one. And that’s okay. I’ve had it settled in my mind for a long time that we will be a no-dog family and we’ve gotten along just fine. From time to time the kids might mention getting a dog, and Brandon and I ho-hum around until they give up and quit asking for awhile. Once Jack Henry suggested that we could get a little dog and just keep in the attic when dad came home from work.

Several months before Christmas, we got to dogsit our neighbors' little dog, Deuce, a cute little Morkie (Yorkie and Maltese mix). It was like I had a new toy for the weekend. I would take Deuce with me in the car when I had to drop the girls at ballet or drive through the bank. I would carry him around and sit on the couch while he slept on my lap. And after Deuce went back to his house I may have mentioned a few times that I wanted a dog, knowing there was no way we were ever getting a dog.

Well, four days before Christmas, Kym (my friend and neighbor, and also Deuce's owner) e-mailed Brandon to say: "I hope you haven't done your Christmas shopping for Susie yet. Because THIS IS IT!" She then informed him of a breeder in Davis, Oklahoma, who had one little blond Morkie left.

Two days later, Brandon told me he would be home a little late that evening because he had a Christmas errand to run. I honestly thought he was going to be late because he was going to Target to get me new kitchen scissors for Christmas. So, on December 23 I’m standing in the kitchen scooping spaghetti onto everyone’s dinner plates. The girls and I had been baking that day and I had been doing a few last-minute Christmas things and it had been kind of a hectic evening. I hear Brandon walk in, and I turn around and see him holding my Christmas stocking with a furry little head peeking over the top. And I was speechless. The first thing that came out my mouth was, “Is that our dog?” And when Brandon said yes I would have cried, but Lincoln and his friend were also in the kitchen and I didn’t want to embarrass them.

Later, Brandon said to me, “I only got this puppy for one reason. I knew how much you wanted a dog and I love you.” And as it turns out, Brandon happens to love Charlie too. He and Jack Henry lie on the couch and watch football, and Charlie’s right there with them.

What Women Really Want

"To marry a rich man and stay at home with the children."

Is He Correct?

"The party of 'small government' has already in earnest expanded their government offices," writes state Rep. Al McAffrey (D-Oklahoma City). "This coming session we will continue to witness the unraveling of conservative principles in the face of political opportunities."

Ouch

"It's easier to get into ed. school in the U.S. than it is to qualify to play college football."

-- Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality

There's a State Budget 'Shortfall'? Good

Oklahoma's politicians are going to have less money to spend this year than they did last year, and some people seem to think that's a bad thing. I'm not one of them, as I explain in this week's issue of the Oklahoma Gazette:

Governor-elect Targets Marriage-Destroying Welfare Policies

Many thanks to Mike McCarville for linking to my recent post highlighting the perverse incentives inherent in Oklahoma welfare policy. It turns out that Kansas Governor-elect Sam Brownback (who, incidentally, has hired an OCPA research fellow to serve as his budget director) is all over this issue.

Competition is healthy, and I am hopeful that being sandwiched between the likes of Sam Brownback and Rick Perry will spur conservative governance in Oklahoma.

Rejection

Growing up in a stable, two-parent family is the exception, not the rule, for Oklahoma teenagers.

Using 2008 Census data to measure the proportion of children who have grown up in an intact married family, Patrick Fagan finds that the parents of 6 in 10 Oklahoma teenagers have rejected each other.

• Only 40 percent of Oklahoma teenagers have spent their childhood with an intact family, with both their birth mother and their biological father legally married to one another since before or around the time of the teenager’s birth.
• 60 percent of teenagers live in families where their biological parents have rejected each other. The families with a history of rejection include single-parent families, stepfamilies, and children who no longer live with either birth parent but with adoptive or foster parents.

Con Law for Dhimmis

Vicki Miles-LaGrange discovers a new fundamental right.

Yes, It's Offensive

... which means it won't be long before some parody-proof evangelical churches actually do it.

Bureaucrats Behaving Badly

In his latest column in the Durant Daily Democrat, new state Senator Josh Brecheen says he has been told many times that Oklahoma Department of Human Services employees "have encouraged prospective clients to quit a job or to not declare cash income in order to qualify for state aid. ... This is not just an isolated event. It occurs often."

Moreover, in a forthcoming publication called Oklahoma Policy Blueprint 2011, OCPA points out that under Oklahoma's current welfare system, "a young woman of modest means may find that she is economically better off remaining single than marrying the father of her children. Even if she does marry the father of her child, she may find herself better off economically to separate. In many cases, we literally bribe poor young women to leave the fathers of their children or never marry them in the first place."

These sorts of perverse incentives are ... well, perverse. It's time for Oklahoma's new center-right government to start fixing some of these things.