$2.50 25,000 Blue Chip Readers VOL. 41, NO. 10 An Independent Journal of Commentary MAY 25, 2009 Henry’s Veto Pen Gets Workout Mightier Than A Sword By Arnold Hamilton With majorities in both houses for deserve an equal shot at the American the first time, Republicans wasted no dream and becoming all their creator time dismissing Democratic Gov. Brad intended – the governor’s veto was a Henry – and his devotion to Kumbaya- rare breath of fresh air and hope in an esque bipartisanship – as the political otherwise dismal session. equivalent of a 90-pound weakling on Further, Henry’s veto of HB 1975 muscle beach. – it would have severely limited the They kicked sand in the governor’s Legislature’s authority to consider face by filing a lawsuit that sought to insurance mandates – kept alive hope restrict his line-item veto power and that Republican legislators, beholden by jump-starting an assembly line to the big money of insurance compa- for bad bills aimed at – among other nies, will someday soon do the right targets – destroying public educa- thing and demand insurers cover tion, breaking the teachers’ union, treatment for autism. smooching big insurance, crippling How strong is the insurance indus- trial lawyers and imposing a funda- try’s grip on the Legislature? Not a mentalist theocracy. single insurance mandate has been Legislative Democrats often weren’t approved by lawmakers since the GOP much kinder: They openly fretted the took control of the state House in nice-guy governor might not have the 2004. The last to be approved: mam- stomach for a session-long test of mography. wills. And at the session’s mid-point, Four hundred Oklahoma children some even joked they were issuing an each year are being diagnosed with APB – All Points Bulletin – for an im- autism. With proper and timely di- portant part of the governor’s anato- agnoses and treatments, they can my they thought had gone missing. grow into productive adults. Without Henry fooled them all. either, they represent a ticking time As the session entered its final bomb that eventually will explode in week [tentative May 22 deadline], the laps of Oklahoma taxpayers who the governor was poised to break his will pay dearly for adult care for those single session record for vetoes – 13 whose hopes and dreams were stolen in 2008. But more importantly, he by pure corporate greed. emerged as the force that minority The insurance gurus don’t care – Democrats prayed for. I’ve ever seen.” act, which was nothing but a thinly- they’re collecting record profits each The governor’s willingness to veto As a result, Brown said, House Dem- veiled blueprint by the Republican year. And neither do the Legislature’s – often in opposition to the state’s ocrats in the closing weeks presented pro-voucher crowd to destroy public Republican leaders – they’ll be term- most powerful interests and deepest Henry a list of 67 questionable bills education so it can be replaced with limited before the results of their baf- pockets, including Chambers of Com- for which they could deliver the votes religious schools and home-schools. flingly bad public policy are fully real- merce – emboldened and united leg- to sustain gubernatorial vetoes. The veto not only saved collective ized. islative Democrats, forging a critical Henry, whose wife Kim is a former bargaining and teacher protections, Among the governor’s other key ve- last line of defense against GOP chi- school teacher, kept his commitment but also kept alive important educa- toes: canery and power grabs. to common education by vetoing at tion standards – including class size • HB 1326 that would have prohibit- As state Rep. Mike Brown, D- least three measures that could have restrictions – created by former Re- ed embryonic stem cell research, one Tahlequah, put it, “He’s awakened to crippled public schools. publican Gov. Henry Bellmon’s mar- of the engines driving the state’s cut- the fact that these guys are bent on The most important veto: SB 834, velous HB 1017 reforms. ting-edge Oklahoma Medical Research passing the most caustic legislative the so-called school deregulation Bellmon’s cutting-edge program is Foundation and a beacon of hope that on life-support because past Legisla- some of life’s most debilitating and tures, both Democratic- and Repub- deadly maladies can be someday suc- lican-controlled, failed to deliver on cessfully treated or cured; promises to put education first, espe- • SB 4, the mean-spirited Voter ID cially when it comes to funding. bill, a solution in search of a voter But for all who believe that pub- fraud problem that doesn’t exist [a lic education is a cornerstone of the GOP blueprint to reduce voter turnout United States – a collective commit- among the poor and elderly, two tradi- ment to the egalitarian ideal that all, tional Democratic constituencies]; whether rich or poor, genius or devel- • HJR 1003, a laughable resolution opmentally disabled, urban or rural, See VETOES Page 9 Observations Mad Dog Vice President Cheney is conduct- stocks climb 13% and a whopping ing an unrelenting and vicious attack 113% during that period, beating the on President Obama while vigorously benchmark S&P 500 which fell 18%. defending the Bush Administration Oklahoma taxpayers may be un- – one of the worst in history. knowing funders for the business of Cheney told the rightwing Weekly incarceration as more are sent to pri- Standard why he’s emerged as such a vate prisons, including detained im- vocal Bush defender and Obama critic migrants. in contrast to President Bush. Coffee has noted more than 1,000 The last straw came when he said private beds are available in Oklaho- Colin Powell had left the Republican ma. Unfortunately, write-ups in pri- Party and given a choice, he would vate prisons mean longer stays at tax- prefer Rush Limbaugh to Powell. payer expense. Oklahoma is fourth in He’s not fit to shine Powell’s boots. lockup of men as a percentage of the Bush is sore at Cheney and said he population, first in women. said the new President “deserves my Since Dec. 31, 2000, the number The extent and effects of bureaucra- cases by more than 20 points. Gener- silence.” of federal inmates held in private fa- cy would surprise people. Yet Repub- al Electric, for instance, paid just 5.5% Cheney said that when he was a cilities has increased 102%, while the licans in control of the Legislature for in taxes in 2008. member of Congress during the Iran- number of state inmates held in pri- the first time wanted to create more In 2004, U.S. multinationals paid an Contra investigations [of which he vate facilities has increased 32%. bureaucracy – a stand-alone testing effective U.S. tax rate of just 2.3% on was a prominent critic], he saw first- Twenty-one states had at least 5% entity outside the scope of public ed- $700 billion in foreign profits. hand senior administration officials of their prison population in private ucation [vetoed by the governor]. According to U.S. PIRG, a $100 bil- absolving themselves while unfairly facilities as of Dec. 31, 2007. lion annual tax burden is shifted onto pinning blame on the “little guys.” Cash-strapped state and federal U.S.-based companies and taxpayers Because of this, Cheney said, he agencies, faced with the problem of due to tax avoidance. “sure as hell will” continue to speak ever-increasing prison populations Shameful Obama’s proposed changes are rea- out. In fact, he was the power behind and shrinking incarceration budgets, One of the sorrier bills of this sorry sonable measures that will bring the the throne and the chief architect of save money by outsourcing their in- session of the Legislature is House tax code closer to responsibly and the Middle East folly. He had his eye mates to the likes of CCA and Geo. Bill 1595 pushed by fanatic anti-abor- fairly calculating income to be taxed. on oil. Neither Democrats nor Republicans tion proponents. Check their oil and gas contribu- His next move will probably be to have remotely funded corrections ad- You don’t have to be for or against tions before believing the Oklaho- invite Obama on a hunting trip. equately, feeding the prison machine abortion to know this bill is not only ma delegation’s outcry – especially that has grown exponentially. an unnecessary spending of tax dol- by lone Democrat Dan Boren. They lars, it also would be a horrible inva- should hang red lights over their of- Private Prisons sion of a woman’s right to privacy. fice doors. What Works? HB 1595, would create the “sta- Republican Senate leader Glenn Even before Obama formally an- tistical abortion reporting act,” and nounced his plan to reform the tax Coffee has been flirting with private School reformers for decades have passed in the House 93-4. The report- code, the business lobby was gear- prisons, obviously a way to avoid ad- tried different ideas and techniques to ing requirements would be listed on a ing up to fight the proposals, form- equate appropriations for operations make schools work better. All these state-run website, so detailed that you ing a lobbying coalition called Protect and infrastructure of Oklahoma’s reforms have been based on the as- could actually identify in rural towns America’s Competitive Edge that is crumbling corrections facilities. sumption that better organization is who had an abortion. devoted specifically to defeating the Private prison companies have ex- the key to fixing what ails schools.