Have your boss try on the thought of a retiree health plan that kicks in after six years on the job, offers coverage at today's premiums, lasts for life and even covers ex-spouses.
Just don't blame us if the peals of laughter ring in your ears as you slink back to your cubicle. Blame [Indiana] senators who just don't get it.
The bill, proposed for the second year in a row by Gov. Mitch Daniels, seeks to go after the pensions of some government workers -- such as excise police and gaming agents -- who take bribes or otherwise rip off the state...
This proposed law would let the state cancel the taxpayer-funded portion of a pension if the worker "is convicted of a felony arising out of (their) service." The felony must be tied to on-the-job "fraud, deceit or abuse," and must result in "financial loss to the public or an unlawful benefit to an individual."
To summarize: If you use your state job to steal money from taxpayers, don't expect taxpayers to fund your retirement...
The bill, however, does not meet Garton's Rules of Good Government. This year, that rule appears to be this: If an idea has anything to do with good government, there's a good chance Garton will make sure it's good and dead...
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, who introduced the bill for the governor, ... got the bill through the Senate Pensions Committee last month, only to watch Garton dump it. Kruse made clear the decision to kill the bill was Garton's...
Garton... acted amid talk of amending the bill to include scofflaw lawmakers -- not a popular idea with some lawmakers. The problem was that passing the bill without lawmakers would be a bad public relations move. So Garton did the easy thing. He shelved the bill.
Still, Garton is not the only one at fault. Some Democrats opposed the bill because unions opposed it. Sen. Sam Smith, D-East Chicago, told me he voted against the bill in committee because he was asked to by "somebody back home."
He would not elaborate beyond saying the bill opponent was a woman who could lose her state pension. Hmm, who could lose a pension under the bill? Only felons who stole from the state. Is that a solid source of advice for a state legislator?
Just about every major piece of legislation passing through the Senate has needed Garton’s imprimatur. While Gov. Mitch Daniels and other Republicans have often blamed the three previous Democratic govenors for this weedy mess, it was actually Garton and the previous Senate Finance Chairman, Larry Borst, who determined what was in the budget, which tax got cut, or which Hoosier industry was revitalized...
Garton is powerful. Governors worried about angering him. Legislators quake in their boots...
He’s got two opponents this election cycle. Greg Walker, a Republican accountant from Columbus, is challenging the president in the May primary. Urged on by state and national Right to Life organizations, he will take on Garton’s 81 percent pro-life voting record (he has mixed votes on informed consent and has voted against cloning restrictions).
In the November election, Garton finds Democrat Terry Coriden, who served as city attorney for Columbus from 1996 to 2004...
The recent formula for dislodging Senate dinosaurs has been the primary, as Sens. Brent Waltz and Jeff Drozda pulled off in 2004 and 2002...
Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton can now expect a serious Democratic opponent in this November's election if he survives a primary challenge he faces in May according to the Howey Political Report. Long-time former Columbus city attorney, Terry Coriden, shown above, filed to run as a Democrat in Senate District 41 today.
Garton is already facing primary opposition from Greg Walker, a conservative accountant from Columbus...
Earlier this week Howey reported that Garton told The Republic in Columbus that he was planning to make changes to the legislator health care for life perk, but he made it clear that he did not understand the public's outcry over the benefit. Both Walker and Coriden should have success in exploiting this issue to their advantage.
In the last election differing Republican interests gathered to topple the long-time chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Larry Borst (R-Indianapolis) in the Republican primary with a little-known candidate Brent Waltz. With the announcement at week's end that the longest serving Senate President Pro Tem in Indiana's history, Robert Garton (R-Columbus) will have a primary opponent, it appears those same forces may be coalescing to bring about a similar fate to Garton.
The Howey Political Report tells us that Greg Walker, an accountant from Columbus, filed the necessary papers with the Secretary of State on Friday to challenge Garton in District 41. Garton has never had a serious primary challenge since joining the Senate 36 years ago in 1970, and he has rarely had a serious general election opponent. If Garton isn't running scared yet, he should be.
Garton has never endeared himself to the Christian right. He struck out a moderate position early in his Senate career when he fought for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, parting company with many of his more conservative Republican colleagues...
It is likely that Walker will not only have plenty of grassroots support from the Christian right in getting out the vote for him in the May primary, but he will also likely have money from disparate Republicans. That would probably include the likes of former Indiana State GOP Chairman Rex Early, who was instrumental in helping Brent Waltz raise big bucks to challenge Larry Borst two years ago...
Garton's enemies will have plenty of political fodder with which to chip away at him. The worst albatross he faces is the ridiculously self-serving health-insurance-for-life benefit he and his fellow lawmakers created for themselves several years ago. In the face of the staggering liability and public outrage over the program, Garton has remained steadfast in his opposition to modifying the program...
[I]f we merely tinker with current attitudes about what role the federal government ought to play in our lives, it won’t do much to solve the ethics crisis. True reform is impossible without addressing the immorality of wealth redistribution. Merely electing new leaders and writing more rules to regulate those who petition Congress will achieve nothing...
Could it be that we’re all looking in the wrong places for a solution to recurring, constant, and pervasive corruption in government? ...
Believe me, if everybody benefited equally there would be scant outcry over a little bribery and influence peddling. As our country grows poorer and more indebted, fewer people benefit. The beneficiaries are not the hard-working, honest people who pay the taxes. The groups that master the system of lobbying and special interest legislation are the ones who truly benefit...
The founders detested democracy and avoided the use of the word in all the early documents. Today, most Americans accept without question a policy of sacrificing life, property, and dollars to force “democracy” on a country 6,000 miles away. This tells us how little opposition there is to “democracy.” ...
Our system of democracy has come to mean worshipping the notion that a majority vote for the distribution of government largesse, loot confiscated from the American people through an immoral tax system, is morally and constitutionally acceptable...
Buying influence is much more lucrative than working and producing for a living. The trouble is the process invites moral corruption...
Dealing with lobbying scandals while ignoring the scandal of unconstitutional runaway government will solve nothing. If people truly believe that reform is the solution, through regulating lobbyists and increasing congressional reporting requirements, the real problem will be ignored and never identified. This reform only makes things worse...
The theft that the federal government commits against its citizens, and the power that Congress has assumed illegally, are the real crimes that need to be dealt with. In this regard we truly do need a new direction. Get rid of the evil tax system; the fraudulent monetary system; and the power of government to run our lives, the economy, and the world; and the Abramoff types would be exposed for the mere gnats they are. There would be a lot less of them, since the incentives to buy politicians would be removed...
Even under today’s flawed system of democratic government, which is dedicated to redistributing property by force, a lot could be accomplished if government attracted men and women of good will and character...
Considering the [Iraq] war had nothing to do with our national security, we’re talking big bucks being wasted and lining the pockets of many well-connected American corporations. Waste, fraud, stupidity, and no-bid contracts characterize the process. And it’s all done in the name of patriotism and national security. Dissenters are accused of supporting the enemy. Now this is a rip-off that a little tinkering with House rules and restraints on lobbyists won’t do much to solve...
[W]e now qualify as the greatest international debtor nation in history. Excessive consumption using borrowed money is hardly the way to secure a sound economy...
The biggest rip-off of all – the paper money system that is morally and economically equivalent to counterfeiting – is never questioned. It is the deceptive tool for transferring billions from the unsuspecting poor and middle-class to the special interest rich...
Wealth is transferred from one group to another, and it’s all related to the system that allows politicians and the central banks to create money out of thin air. It’s literally legalized counterfeiting...
The incentive for Americans is to buy consumer goods from other countries whose people are willing to save and invest in their factories and jobs. The only way we can continue this charade is to borrow excess dollars back from the foreign governments who sell us goods, and perpetuate the pretense of wealth that we enjoy...
During this administration the dollar has... depreciated in terms of gold, the time-honored and reliable measurement of a nation’s currency, by an astounding 55%...
Once Rome converted from a republic to an empire, she depreciated her currency to pay the bills. This eventually led to Rome’s downfall. That is exactly what America is facing unless we change our ways...
We have come to accept our role as world policemen and nation builder with little question, despite the bad results and an inability to pay the bills...
The Abramoff-type scandals come and go in Washington... [b]ut our efforts should be directed toward eliminating the greatest of all frauds – printing press money that creates the political conditions breeding the vultures and leeches who feed off the corrupt system...
Counterfeiting money never creates wealth – it only steals wealth from the unsuspecting. The Federal Reserve creation of money is exactly the same. Increasing the dollars in circulation can only diminish the value of each existing dollar. Only production and jobs can make a country wealthy in the long run. Today it’s obvious our country is becoming poorer and more uneasy as our jobs and capital go overseas...
The Abramoff scandal can serve a useful purpose if we put it in context of the entire system that encourages corruption. If it’s seen as an isolated case of individual corruption, and not an expected consequence of big government run amuck, little good will come of it...
Congress was not meant to be a rubber stamp. It’s time for a new direction.
