Conservative Donnybrook

I have been struggling for the last several weeks against the urge to begin referring to Barack Obama as President-elect Barack Obama. All indications are (until today, see awb’s post) that McCain had thrown in the towel, signed up James Baker as his campaing advisor and moved on with his life.

However, saying such a thing would be imprudent for the following reason. If those who are disposed to vote Republican (notice I did not say conservatives) were to disdain the voting booth because the election were foregone (indeed, many people vote only in national elections, but vote in local elections while in the booth), the Senate and House races might be skewed in a Democratic direction. The nation’s future is dependent on Republicans’ ability to filibuster. We are going to lose seats. We are almost certainly going to lose the presidential election. Obama will likely inherit a strongly Democratic House and Senate. Our only hope to obstruct his Marxist agenda is the threat of filibuster. As much as I hate to say it, the Democrats have cleared the way even to our filibustering of judicial nominees. We should take every opportunity we have to obstruct their ascendency. In the meanwhile, it is my fervent hope that our thrashing at the voting place will cause conservatives to reexamine their priorities and reorient them to more traditional modes of governance.

This presidential election may be lost. But, the governance of this country still hangs in the balance. It is important to vote in our local elections. Let us resolve to preserve our ability to filibuster and fight another day. The last two times that a Congress was so skewed as to prevent the filibuster was during the 30s – the New Deal – and during the 60s – the Great Society. Each of those periods profoundly changed the way America operates. We have not recovered from either and there is little hope that we can even roll back the innovations that were wrought even in the latest of those transformations. Vote on November 4. Vote for whomever pleases you for president, but preserve a Republican majority in the the House and Senate.

I beg everyone’s pardon for yet another post of strictly local concern.

On July 25, 2008, I sent the following letter to my state representative, Gregory Porter:

State Representative Gregory W. Porter
Indiana House of Representatives
200 W. Washington St
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204

Dear Congressman Porter:

I would imagine this is not the first such letter you have received regarding property taxes. I shall be direct. Property taxes must be lowered immediately. Your continued tenure in the Indiana General Assembly depends upon it. I will not pretend that I have ever supported you or cast a vote in your favor. However, by the same token, I have never sent campaign donations to your opponent either.

I have just received my latest mortgage statement and the news is grim. Because of the latest increase in property taxes, my mortgage payment has increased by 33%. When my wife and I were shopping for a house back in the late 90s, we calculated that we could afford a payment which did not exceed $900. We were frugal and purchased a house we knew we could afford. Ultimately, we purchased a house a few blocks from our church which would cost us $571.22 per month plus taxes and insurance. Therein lies the rub. While we knew we could afford a house payment in that range, that was in 1999 when property taxes were low. Since that time, we have seen our property taxes increase 100% (from around $740 per year to approximately $1,480 per year) and then again by an additional 62% (from $1,480 per year to $2,400). As of today, my monthly mortgage payment costs us $1,009.38 per month – far above the amount we originally budgeted. In the last four years, my taxes have increased by an astounding 324%! Nobody anticipates a property grab of such a large magnitude.

I note that, to your credit, you voted for Governor Daniels’ property tax cap. Thank you for that; it is a good beginning. However, I would urge you to sponsor legislation which would accelerate its implementation. Homeowners are feeling the crunch and cannot wait until 2010 for relief. The crunch is especially acute in light of escalating fuel and food prices and a 1% sales tax increase which was not similarly phased in over the course of three years. If anything, the short-term burden on the Hoosier taxpayer has been increased as a result of the “fixes” that were recently implemented.

There are things you can do immediately to begin to curb the appetite of government. Immediately commit to cutting non-public safety spending by 20%. Sponsor legislation which would limit the amount that the school boards may levy against homeowners. The schools represent approximately 50% of property taxes. Assuming this proportion has been relatively constant, that means that of the 324% increase which I have suffered, the schools accounted for 162% of the increase. I would assume that other homeowners in my district have seen similar increases. Meanwhile, there is little to show for the extra expenditures on education. One would expect that with the schools raking in almost three times as much money as they were when I purchased this house, that there would have been a dramatic improvement in test scores and educational outcome in IPS. There has not been.

One of the factors that my wife and I considered when we bought a house in this neighborhood was the fact that IPS schools were abysmal. It was apparent that if we were to have children in this neighborhood, we would be forced to send them to private schools. Of course, we always had the option of purchasing a house in Carmel where the public schools are exceptional, but property taxes in Carmel were prohibitive. However, because property taxes were low in this area when we moved in, we decided that in lieu of paying higher property taxes to obtain adequate schooling, we would make our extortion payments to IPS and spend the remainder on tuition for private schools. The numbers were about even. THEN. Now, if we were to have children, we would be forced to move out of this community.

No. We pay too much and receive little in recompense in the way of government services. Because government services are so poor, it is my view that we should start cutting them. If IPS will not educate our youngsters, we should cut their budget. Spend money where there are positive results – and only where there are positive results. I call upon you to lead the charge to reduce government spending (not just limiting its growth) and to immediately provide relief to property owners in your district. Perhaps a good start would be to slash non-public safety budgets across the board by 20%. Sponsor legislation that limits the school board’s discretion in levying taxes against property. Sponsor legislation that accelerates the implementation of the 1% tax cap to 2009. If you will not, we will find another who will.

Sincerely,

Karl [...]

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The McCain/Palin campaign has finally come out with an ad attacking Obama’s buddy buddy relationship with Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. In my opinion this relationship as well as Obama’s relationships with Rev. Wright, Franklin Raines, James Johnson, Tony Rezko, etc. have not been exposed as they should have by McCain. Obama’s relationships with these socialist criminals demonstrates his own ideology and flaws in judgment. Hopefully he and Governor Palin dig in and attack Obama for who he and his associates are. Here’s the ad: