Paul Curtman

Remarks on local control, the minimum wage and sound money.

Emerging digital technology has made it easier for us to communicate with our friends and family, but it has also made it much too easy for our own government to listen in on those communications. When we send messages to friends, family and co-workers we have the reasonable expectation that those communications are private, whether they go through the post office or our internet provider...

If you give a tax break to huge corporate interests but then turn around only to refuse to give a tax break to the people ................ .....................................you might be a politician.

Consider this: If we know that drug courts provide significantly better outcomes, such as reducing recidivism as well as reducing reliance on social service programs than those who are just sent to prison, where would you rather your tax dollars be spent? Moreover, where should the money for the drug courts come from come from?

For one, it doesn’t seem prudent to take money from people and then use it paying membership dues as if we were a private business. And of course there’s the obvious conflict of interest we create by basically funding ...

There’s a company business slogan that says something to the effect of “We’ll leave the lights on for you”. Unfortunately, that phrase rings all too true at the Missouri Capitol Building. The lights are always on, the escalators ...

Debating about cars isn’t the most popular policy area, but consider this: every dollar wasted on an unnecessary expense is a dollar the government shouldn’t have taken from you in the first place and its a dollar that leaves our local economy because it is consumed by government bureaucracy.

Missouri currently has over 200 boards and commissions. Many of these are defunct and in all there are over 1,300 vacancies on these boards leading me to believe, among other things, that we have a MUCH bigger government than we really need.

In todays Podcast I would like to offer a perspective on “Rightsizing” State Government through Auditing. Those who founded this state knew early on that an unchecked bureaucracy could give rise to practices that were less than efficient and in some cases wasteful, abusive, or even outright illegal. To address this concern, our state's constitution provides...

We all want Boeing to come to Missouri but it is important that we carefully deliberate the details of the bill and not respond on emotion or impulse. People hear the word "jobs" and immediately attach orthemselves to a "jobs bill" but in many cases they never define their terms let alone read the bill and crunch the numbers. Do we still approve a "jobs bill" even if it shifts a tremendous tax burden on to the rest of the state causing small business and families to somehow make up for it? ........

The concept of Federalism in a nutshell.

"Its good hearing our government talk about protecting our rights and property after all, According to the declaration of independence, the only reason governments are instituted in the first place is to protect our rights.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, documents were obtained from the Department of Defense, which labeled the Founding Fathers as extremists and states, “participation in extremism is inconsistent with the duties of military service.” The documents further state, “Nowadays, instead of dressing in sheets or publicly espousing hate messages, many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better...

Most people understand income taxes to simply be a tax on wages and although that is a true assessment, I would argue that income taxes are a lot more than just taking a few dollars out of our paychecks. Let me explain this. If I were going to pay you to mow my lawn, we would first have to agree on a price for your labor. You might....

Economic prosperity follows the path of least resistance- it always has and it always will. When we keep 100% of our income, we are free to use all of it to meet our needs and wants. The more income that we loose to taxes, fees......