This episode of Jon Caldara’s TV show the Devils Advocate first appeared on Colorado Public Television – Channel 12 on Friday, December 17th, 2010. It features a 30 minute discussion about the Citizens’ Budget and features Independence Institute Fiscal Policy Center director Penn Pfiffner – director of the Citizens’ Budget project.

The report provides an overview of the structure, timing and size of the State budget. We speak to how the problems originated and how things have gone wrong in recent years. The Citizens’ Budget includes legislative, constitutional, and policy recommendations to close the looming state budget gap – without raising taxes – and move Colorado [...]

Thanks to our friends at the Independent Institute out in Oakland, California, regular folks like us can figure out just how much the government is costing us in direct payments and in lost earnings over our lifetime.  From the About Page on the MyGovCost website,
The Government Cost Calculator is a unique service from The Independent [...]

A good friend of the Fiscal Policy Center and Free People, Free Markets alumni Tom Ryan has a wonderfully informative organization and website called Reclaiming Moral Government. Tom has created a slide show that displays the changing role of government from 1850 to present day.

Automobiles made America great, playing a large or dominant role in raising the standard of living, increasing home ownership and advancing civil rights.

A short history of Colorado Statehood
By Jerry Kopel
It could have happened to Colorado in 1865 or 1867, but thanks to President Andrew Johnson, it didn’t. Eleven years later, on July 1, 1876, Colorado voted 15,443 to 4,062 to adopt a state constitution proposed by a constitutional convention and to become a state. On August 1, [...]

There is no gun show loophole. Guns sales at gun shows are subject to exactly the same laws as apply to gun sales anywhere else. Research for the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as research by other scholars, and even research by Sarah Bradys organization shows that gun shows have almost nothing to do [...]

Synopsis: House Bill 99-1212, which makes driving or riding in a car without a seat belt into a quot;primaryquot; traffic offense, is yet another attempt to control peoples own decisions about risk taking. Research shows that when reckless drivers are forced to buckle up, they drive even more recklessly. Thus, careful drivers (who wear seat [...]

Some promises shouldn’t be taken seriously. The check is in the mail, or Of course I’ll respect you in the morning, or I won’t raise taxes. To that list should be added, Your answers to census questions will remain completely confidential.
Already this census season, many of homeless people have refused to divulge personal information to [...]