One of our taxpayer activists, Dorothy, wrote me an email (which I have pasted below), complaining about the huge increases in preschool fees that have been mandated this month by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Here was my response:

Dear Dorothy—

Your daughter is dealing with a rotten government scam, from start to finish.

This is a fairly typical example of the emails I have been receiving for the past two weeks:

From: LOIS POSTIL
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:25 PM
To: tjenney@afphq.org
Subject: Arizona Federation of Taxpayers

http://reason.org/blog/show/policy-stinker-of-the-day-ariz

In response to queries about the Morrison report, I told a reporter that we need to work toward making state parks pay for themselves, by granting long-term park management concessions to private companies. And I saw that Byron Schlomach of the Goldwater Institute told a TV reporter the same thing.

"If low taxes were the deciding factor for economic development, Antarctica would be booming right now. Clearly, quality of life, infrastructure and a skilled workforce are key ingredients," said Dana Wolfe Naimark, President and CEO [of the Children's Action Alliance]. [From an October 22nd CAA e-news letter.]

That's almost as silly as the "Make health, not wealth" signs carried by some of the medical socialists at the Obama protests over the summer.

Dollar MeltdownIf you want a great primer on monetary economics, and tips on how to deal with the worst-case scenarios for macroeconomic turmoil, you should get a copy of the The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments by Arizona's own Charles Goyette.

http://www.thedollarmeltdown.com/