Still, No Plan(ners) required
In 2003 the Portland Business Journal editorialized about how Portland needed a grand economic plan – soon. I responded, arguing that, no, what we needed was freedom – and soon. Today, The Oregonian...
View ArticleWill an Education Czar solve Oregon’s education problems?
Governor Kitzhaber’s latest attempt to reform education in Oregon took a major step forward today with his Oregon Education Investment Board’s hire of Rudy Crew as the state’s first Chief Education...
View Article“You Didn’t Build That”
“If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”* —President Barack Obama, July 13, 2012 Perhaps the President is angling for a cameo role in the upcoming movie...
View ArticleShould we make Government Better, or Smaller?
The concept of Reinventing Government, from the 1992 book by the same name, offers no clue about what government should or shouldn’t do. Should we try to make government better, or smaller? Should the...
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Rest In Peace, Don McIntire
Don McIntire, best known as the father of Oregon’s property tax limitation Measure 5, died unexpectedly this week at his Gresham home. He was 74. I knew and worked with Don on various tax and...
View ArticleCascade in the Capitol: Opposition to more subsidies of student higher...
State Treasurer Ted Wheeler has proposed that the state obligate its citizens to repaying hundreds of millions of dollars in General Obligation bonds to subsidies student higher education costs. Below...
View ArticleDebunking Tax Myths
Two of Oregon’s top private economists, and Cascade authors, have now produced a national publication which debunks seven popular tax myths commonly used by advocates of higher taxes. Dr. Randall...
View ArticleThe 2013 Film Awards you didn’t see on TV
Every now and then I decide to watch a TV program that has nothing to do with politics; nothing to do with public policy; nothing to do with government. I have enough of those things in my day job....
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This Week in the Capitol: Virtual Schools, Tobacco Taxes, and Land-Use
We are a month and a half into Oregon’s 2013 legislative session. Cascade’s John Charles and Steve Buckstein are in the capitol several days each week, bringing free-market and fiscally responsible...
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This Week in the Capitol: Sales Tax and TriMet
Cascade’s John Charles and Steve Buckstein talked with legislators in Salem this week about the need to reform the TriMet transit agency and why Oregon voters are wary of instituting a sales tax. On...
View ArticleJob Creation Shouldn’t Be Our Goal
The next time someone argues that we need government to “create jobs,” show him or her this three-minute video. Then show it to them again, and again, until they grasp the concept:
View ArticleCascade in the Capitol: Testimony Opposing an Oregon Single Payer Health Care...
Audio of the entire hearing is here. Steve Buckstein’s oral testimony begins at the 36:37 mark. Testimony in Opposition to HB 2922 The “Affordable Health Care for All Oregon” Plan Before the House...
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This Week in the Capitol: Health Care and Hair Braiding
In the waning days of the legislative session in Salem, Cascadians are still at work representing the views of free-market and limited-government Oregonians. On Monday, Steve Buckstein took up the...
View ArticlePublic School Bounty Hunters
How many of us remember the scenes of young East Germans risking their lives to escape under, over or around the Berlin Wall? Happily, those memories are fading since the wall came down in 1989....
View ArticleBond Proposal Turns Charity into “Crony Philanthrophy”
It was wonderful to hear that Phil and Penny Knight recently offered a $500 million cancer challenge to OHSU if the public would match their donation. But now OHSU wants taxpayers to come up with $200...
View ArticleFreedom in Fiction: The Taxman Cometh
Who would have thought the IRS could be this funny? Award-winning television reporter Marvin Kalb compares Oregon author Jim Greenfield’s new novel, The Taxman Cometh, to Joseph Heller’s classic, Catch...
View ArticleLegislative Update – Education Equity Emergency Act (E3)
Cascade founder Steve Buckstein orchestrated testimony Thursday on an exciting Education Savings Account bill that may represent the future of school choice in Oregon. The bill had a “concept hearing”...
View ArticleCascade in the Capitol – Testimony Against Placing Limitations on New Charter...
February 6, 2014 Testimony Against SB 1538 before the Oregon Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee By Steve Buckstein Chair Hass and members of the committee, my name is Steve Buckstein....
View ArticleCan You Lie About a Politician…
…Without Breaking the Law? We all know that lying is bad. But should it be illegal? That’s the crux of a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. At issue is an Ohio elections law that makes it a crime...
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Tonie Nathan, R.I.P.
Oregon’s own Theodora “Tonie” Nathan, the first woman to ever win an Electoral College vote for Vice President of the United States, died yesterday in Eugene at age 91. I first met Tonie at a meeting...
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