Feb. 3, 2010, 11:02 a.m.
By Greg Giroux
Roll Call Staff

Coats, who retired from the Senate in 1999 and was succeeded by Bayh, released a statement to the Indiana-based Howey Political Report that said he has “become increasingly alarmed and frustrated about the direction of our country and the failure by leaders in Washington to listen to those they were elected to represent.”

Coats, now a senior adviser with the firm King & Spalding, drew support for his Senate bid from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who had considered challenging Bayh but recently passed on the race.

“I am very excited about the possibility that former Senator Dan Coats may run for the United States Senate in 2010 and I sincerely hope he does it,” Pence said in a statement. “His integrity and conservative record would make him the ideal candidate for Hoosiers. If he runs, I will support him.”

Meanwhile, in a sign that Democrats are concerned about having another seat put into play this year, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a statement that attacked Coats as a “federally registered lobbyist whose client lists include banks, private equity firms, and defense contractors.” It also described him as “a Washington DC insider.”

Coats would become the instant frontrunner in a May 4 Republican primary that already has four candidates, including former Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman.

Coats has about two weeks to collect the signatures of 4,500 Indiana voters, including at least 500 in each of the state’s nine Congressional districts.

In a statement, Hupfer said:

Direct communication with the voters of District 37 will be my highest priority over the next 12 months. I want to hear from the folks who live, work and own businesses in the District about their concerns and the issues that matter the most to them.

KyleHupfer.com will be one way that I can be connected with voters, exchange ideas and discuss the ways in which we can make our community and state a better place to live and work. Please visit the site often as every effort will be made to keep the content as relevant and up to date as is possible.

District 37 consists of the southern half of Madison County, including Chesterfield, Pendleton, Lapel, Edgewood, Ingalls, Markleville and parts of Anderson.

Please tell your family and friends that you don’t have to be a political insider or have received illicit payoffs from government officials. We don’t discriminate. Our team is eager to meet you and listen to your ideas and concerns.

We would appreciate if you click our Evite and let us know if you can attend. It’s easy. Just enter your name, your email address, and click Yes or No so that we know how many are coming.

The suggested donation is $5, but if you find it in your heart to give more, we would greatly appreciate. After the dinner, we will begin Voter Vault training will begin promptly at 7 p.m. RSVP required for the training.

We sincerely appreciate the efforts of John M. Blevins for making this event possible. Please take a moment to thank him for all that he does for our party. Thank you, John!

GOP Headquarters is located on the southwest corner of 6th and Merdian Street, just two blocks north of the county building in scenic downtown Anderson.

Links

• Use Evite to Let Us Know You’re Coming

Everyone is welcome! Please tell your family and friends that you don’t have to be a political insider or know anyone in politics. Our team is eager to meet you and listen to your ideas and concerns.

No RSVP is necessary, but we would appreciate if you click our Evite and let us know if you can attend. It’s easy. Just enter your name, your email address, and click Yes or No so that we know how many are coming.

We are shooting for an attendance record and there will be lots of food, fun and fellowship.

Special Guest

Gregg Puls, the newest member of the Mike Pence campaign team will be on hand. He has been active in the Hamilton County Republican Party and currently serves as president of the Fishers GOP Club.

Our Goals

Your contributions help us in many ways. Many folks have chipped in to make this a memorable event. The suggested donation is $5, but if you find it in your heart to give more, we would greatly appreciate.

First, your donations help us keep the lights on and the pipes from freezing. But more importantly, your generous contributions help us:

• Identify and support candidates for office
• Increase voter registration
• Increase voter turnout at the polls
• Train precinct committeemen to ensure fair & honest elections
• Preserve the integrity of absentee votes and ballots
• Collaborate with the state party
• Promote Republican leadership in local, state and federal government

Our vision for the future is a strong local party that does not sway from its core values and principles.

We sincerely appreciate the efforts of Jay Stapleton for making this event possible. Please take a moment to thank him for all that he does for our party. Thank you, Jay!

Add this Event to Your Calendar

Download our iCalendar file, and add the Chili Luncheon to your Outlook, Google, Apple iCal, or Facebook calendars. (Works with just about any calendar software. Suggested by John Richwine. Thanks, John!)

Links

• Use Evite to Let Us Know You’re Coming
• Download our iCalendar file

We often hear Rep. Mike Pence say it in his speeches and interviews, and it’s true.

Taken from lessons of economics, the idea is that while legislation and government programs often provide measurable public good, the costs often outweigh the benefits. Let’s look at the unintended consequences of Social Security.

Workers Retire with Less

For years, Democrats have lauded Social Security as the defining moment of FDR’s presidency. Although millions indeed benefit from it, unfortunately, the tens of millions who pay for it are often worse off than the program’s recipients. Further, the program’s true cost far exceeds the payroll taxes collected from workers and employers.

In anticipation of receiving Social Security checks, workers save less for retirement. With less money saved, retirees invest less, and the overall economy and wages suffer as a result. Untold billions of dollars, decades of progress, and foregone individual opportunities are lost to oppressive social programs like those favored by Democratic leadership — and made possible by an ever-expanding government.

Nowadays, the power-hungry Obama administration speaks of “fundamental transformation” in advancing an insidious fiscal policy that threatens our liberty. Starting with socialist programs in the 1930s, namely Social Security, and continuing with Medicare in the 1960s, today we see the same old ideas dressed up as modern and progressive. Does taking a step back into the 1930s sound progressive to you? It’s regressive. And, when the government mandates it — it’s oppressive.

Handouts Repress All Takers

Democrat politicians and their endless entitlements work to repress minorities by making them less inclined to work. Their own government robs them of any financial incentive to break free from a nanny state of continual coddling via food stamps and other government benefits.

In an article by black conservative commentator Juliette Ochieng, she describes many government programs as “life subsidies” that reward indolence, whoredom and irresponsibility.

Welfare Case Study

A friend of mine who lives in Madison County, we’ll call him “Mike,” once took a job for minimum wage and hated it. He didn’t even last a week. He was somewhat of a deadbeat, and when he saw an opportunity to mooch off the government indefinitely, he immediately jumped on the idea.

His plan was to gamble on a career as a world-famous rap music artist — a huge longshot for anybody and especially for Mike. To help finance his plan, he would count on our tax dollars to provide him a mediocre subsistence. He got the idea for welfare fraud from a friend, and, sadly, other friends soon caught wind of the scheme.

Mike first committed fraud by faking a disability to a doctor — no, not the doctor in Middletown, Indiana. In one visit plus a follow-up, his doctor supplied him the necessary authorization to start monthly paychecks for Supplemental Security Income. In addition, he obtained a legal prescription for anti-depressant medication.

The constant panic attacks made him unable to work, or so he told the doctor. We all knew he was faking it. With all his wheeling and dealing, Mike would not have survived if he were a socially inept recluse. In fact, he was an extrovert and also a philanderer. He was a father to no fewer than five children from three different moms. And, was he current on his child support payments? You already know. I think that if he applied the same energy to ongoing employment instead of ongoing debauchery, he might have made something of himself.

He would even barter his medication for electronics obtained “from a friend of a friend.” The drugs would eventually make their way to the black market. To this day, Medicare provides the meds for Mike’s phony illness, and the USDA provides food and the occasional block party cookout courtesy of monthly food stamps.

A Decade Later: Going from Bad to Worse

With Mike now in his mid-30s, 10 years have since passed and government assistance still supports him. Every August, he hustles and scrounges for money to buy his kids new sneakers for school. Any money left over from his SSI income he uses to feed an addiction to hydrocodone pain pills to get high. He crushes and snorts the pills to intensify the effect. Not even the drug overdose death of a friend could stop his illicit behavior.

I see Mike less and less these days, as he has drifted into an underworld of drug dealers and crime. It’s a bleak existence that I prefer to avoid.

When I last I saw him, I noticed that he had taken up smoking cigarettes, and you can bet our tax dollars are indirectly fueling his newly acquired habit. He lives the life of a bum because the Democrats’ massive government entitlements make it all possible.

Links

• Why is the Black Vote in the Democratic Pocket?
• Middletown Doctor Linked to Overdose Deaths Faces Suspension

“Gregg has a solid reputation for integrity, hard work and professionalism. I am pleased to announce that he has joined our campaign team as our new finance director,” Pence said.

Puls has been active in the Hamilton County Republican Party, where he has managed local campaigns for Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge and Fishers Town Council. He currently serves as president of the Fishers GOP Club.

Puls has also served as Director of Development for Conner Prairie Museum in Fishers and prior to that was the Manager of Annual Giving for Kiwanis International Foundation. He has also worked in development and fundraising for the American Lung Association and Ball State University.

“It is an honor for me to join the Congressman’s campaign team. I look forward to meeting his supporters around Indiana and working to make sure the Pence campaign has the resources it needs to be victorious in the 2010 election,” Puls said.

Now with 49.5% of the County Income Tax Council’s “allocated votes,” the County Option Income Tax needs only the approval of the Madison County Council or of the Elwood City Council, which both vote next week.

Upcoming Votes

• Madison County Council, Mon., Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.
• Elwood City Council, Tues., Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.

The local firefighters union has a lot of skin in the game, selling scare tactics to the community. Union reps are floating the idea that without the tax, lost jobs will thrust the community into immediate danger with longer response times and fewer hands to save lives and put out fires. It sounds feasible, but fails to address the fact that as staffing increases, individual firefighter effectiveness declines, an economic concept known as diminishing returns.

Further, as their salaries increase beyond what the market will bear, performance drops as men feel less inclined to run into a burning building. Over-compensated employees are simply “paid too much” to face that kind of peril. The same concept applies to law enforcement, where overpaid officers feel less likely to chase an armed gunman.

On the other hand, too few public servants paid too little, ironically, yields the same result as overstaffing and paying too much. Therefore, if public safety is the key issue, then we must find the optimal level of both staffing and compensation that taxpayers can support.

Links

• Alexandria Council OKs Tax Increase
• Alexandria City Council Home Page

The fate of COIT rests with either:

1. The county’s approval
2. The approval of the Democrat-controlled Elwood City Council

If COIT passes, then taxpayers will suffer from inept officials who refuse to make difficult budget cuts or make better use of taxpayer money. At the heart of the matter is whether government bloat should continue to thrive at the expense of taxpayers.

Despite the Democratic domination running rampant in all areas of government, the Republican party is building support in communities and holding elected officials’ feet to the fire.

This week, a Herald Bulletin editorial summed it up best:

“There are those still in government who act as if their first responsibility is to city employees. It’s not. … [It is] to the citizens of the city, to keep taxes low and to run lean while providing essential services.”

The Republican party boldly stands for lower taxes and smaller government. Our friends over at the bi-partisan, watchdog group Rebuild Anderson, also want to see our community grow and not wither under the duress of higher taxes.

Rebuild Anderson is organizing a walk to distribute flyers to alert citizens about what COIT means for Anderson, Elwood and all of Madison County’s taxpayers. Both Democrats and Republicans will take part. This is a great time to contact people who have been wanting to get involved — to reach out to those who want to speak out — but don’t know how.

Complacency is keeping folks fat and glued to America’s couches! It’s time to get off your can, and go door-to-door. Help educate the community about the pending tax hike that city and county councils want to keep secret. Besides, walking is an excellent way to start your exercise regimen that you’ve been putting off for months! Or years?

Only you can stop higher taxes, and it begins at the grassroots level.

Rebuild Anderson Walk Schedule

• Sat., Oct. 17 at 10 a.m. in Chesterfield at Millcreek Civic Center
• Sun., Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. in Pendleton at Fall Creek by the playground
• Tues., Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. in Elwood at Dairy Queen on State Road 13
• Weds., Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. in Elwood at Dairy Queen on State Road 13
• Sat., Oct. 24 in Elwood, Pendleton and other areas if they are not done (times to be determined)

Your Officials

Please send a polite email or call. It’s their job to listen to you!

Madison County Council

• Bill Savage (D-Dist. 1)
  savagewd@hotmail.com
  Ph: (765) 552-8384
• Buddy Patterson (D-Dist. 2)
  buddypatterson@comcast.net
  Ph: (765) 378-5345
• John Bostic Jr. (D-Dist. 3)
  Ph: (765) 649-2138
• Gary Gustin (R-Dist. 4)
  g.gustin3@verizon.net
  Ph: (765) 778-7804
• Larry Crenshaw (R-At Large)
  lcrenshawapd@yahoo.com
  Ph: (765) 649-0716
• Larry Higgins (D-At Large)
  bighig0928@aol.com
  Ph: (765) 208-0923
• Mike Phipps (R-At Large)
  mike@gophippsgo.com
  Ph: (765) 610-6442

Elwood City Council

COIT will surely pass with the Democrats’ domination in Elwood. Let these folks know that re-election is not an option if they vote COIT.

• Jason Leonard (D-Dist. 1)
  Ph: (765) 557-0504
• Debbie Brown (D-Dist. 2)
  Ph: (765) 278-7823
• David Savage (D-Dist. 3)
  Ph: (765) 552-6894
• John Wright (D-Dist. 4)
  Ph: (765) 552-6617
• Jack Powell (D-Dist. 5)
  Ph: (765) 552-7634
• Brian Courtney (D-At Large)
  Ph: (765) 552-0744
• Matt Leeson (D-At Large)
  Ph: (765) 552-0669

Links

• Rebuild Anderson Web Site
• Rebuild Anderson Facebook Page
• Editorial: Rise Up Against Local Tax Increase