Sick Of Government?
Why Socialized Healthcare In America Is Not The Answer
By Rev. Daniel de Gracia

At present, America spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation in the world at a rate of $7,600 per person. The California HealthCare Foundation estimates the U.S. spent 4.3 times more on healthcare than on national defense. By the year 2016, spending is expected to reach 20 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) or approximately $4.2 trillion. The cost of healthcare in America has prompted legislators at both the state and federal levels to consider government socialization of the industry to ensure that all persons have access to timely, affordable, and patient-friendly service. While the promise of such government sponsored services often proves to be an effective electioneering device for politicians, the actual implementation of a comprehensive social healthcare program may prove ineffective at reforming the industry and could lead to higher costs and lower quality of care.

(To read more, click here.)

GRASSROOT PERSPECTIVE

The Boat to Nowhere: One hour 43 minute Door-to-Door Commute Exceeds Time and Cost of 37 Minute Bus Ride
By Kristian Somi and Wendy Fujimoto

TheBoat (Honolulu’s city-run subsidized $2 ferry service) is an expensive and time consuming commute option plagued by high fixed costs and low ridership. Yet, the City & County of Honolulu continues to run the money-losing service despite the fact that its own existing bus service and commuting using personal vehicles are both less expensive and faster options.

(To read more, click here.)

Rail Transit for Everyone... Else
By Brandon Bosworth

We’ve all seen the results of the recent KITV/Honolulu Star-Bulletin poll. Forty-seven percent of Oahu residents polled believe light rail transit is the best solution to our traffic woes. Asked, “If a vote were held today, would you vote to continue development of rail transit for Oahu or to stop development of a rail transit system?” 60 percent said they would support continuing development. Since so many people are all gung-ho for mass transit, no doubt we can expect Islanders to eschew their automobiles en massé and hop on the rail when (and if) it’s ever built. Right?

Well, not necessarily. The aforementioned poll also asked, "How do you commute to work, school or other locations?" Eighty-one percent of Oahu commuters said they drive to work--alone--in their cars. ... Only 5 percent use mass transit.

(To read more, click here.)

Hawaii DOE -- Look to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for Budget Cuts!

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has released selected video highlights from the recent press conference in which Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto discussed the pending budget cuts recently requested by Governor Linda Lingle. Grassroot TV makes the suggestion that fake workers’ comp claims found in the 2007 DOE audit be investigated as a first step towards putting its fiscal house in order.

(To read more, click here.)

FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Grassroot Institute of Hawaii created the Fresh Perspective column exclusively to publish the work of high school and college students. In addition to work appearing on GRIH’s website, their work is also submitted to Hawaii Reporter. Submissions are welcome from any interested young adult, and we will publish work that is clearly written and grammatically sound. For earlier Fresh Perspectives please click here. Please contact tom@grassrootinstitute.org for more info.

Freedom Has No Borders
By Kristian Somi

From my youngest years I always liked freedom. I thought every single person on Earth should be free to do whatever he or she wants, as long as it doesn’t harm other people and do something to them without their consent. Soon I realized that freedoms are usually restricted by large and overgrown governments. In my home country of Slovenia (formerly southern Yugoslavia), I saw firsthand how communism and big governments failed. I studied in Austria before coming to the United States. It was a real eye-opener for me when I spent my first day shopping in the more capitalist Austria. It was interesting and at the same time ironic to see that food was cheaper in Austria, even though wages were three or four times higher than in Slovenia. Austrians appeared to be working the same numbers of hours. The only difference was that people in Austria were working more efficiently and producing more because they weren’t restricted by their own governments. I became interested in economics and wanted to know more about how the economies of different countries work.

(To read more, click here.)

GRASSROOT TV

Grassroot TV at YouTube.com features videos relating to public issues in Hawaii and beyond, as well as statements from the Institute on various concerns facing our communities. GTV has videos, viewer comments and more. We have some NEW videos up at Grassroot TV!

• Hawaii DOE Should Look to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Budget Cuts.
Video of recent DOE press conference where GTV suggests that fake workers’ comp claims should be investigated.

• The Price Tag of the Hawaii Legislature: Putting the Cost of a Con-Con in Perspective.
GRIH President Jamie Story discusses the new Con-Con cost report and the 2008 Grassroot Institute Legislative Scorecard available free at the GRIH web site.

We've also loaded up the library at the online TV station with new videos from The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and more. Please visit 'Grassroot TV' at http://www.youtube.com/user/GrassrootHawaii.

-GIR-

GRASSROOT INSTITUTE PODCASTS

GIR readers and visitors to the GRIH website are now able to enjoy 'Grassroot Insight', a periodic audio podcast hosted by the Institute’s Director of Communications, Tom McAuliffe. The audio interviews with VIP's, community leaders and special guests at GRIH's monthly meetings are available for download to your iPod or for listening via the Internet.

This issue's 'Grassroot Insight' podcasts feature Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, discussing his new book, Leave Us Alone. Norquist will be GRIH's featured speaker at our meeting on Oct. 17th. Additionally we feature an interview with Professor Ken Schoolland, author and member of the Grassroot Institute's Board of Scholars, discussing his recent trip to Japan and Europe.

Click here to listen to the interview with Grover Norquist
Click here to listen to the interview with Prof. Ken Schoolland

Please check out our other recent podcasts with:
• 2008 Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr
• Robert Bluey, Director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy
• Emily Zanotti from the Sam Adams Alliance
• Hawaii Attorney and Activist Bill Burgess
• Hawaii State Senator Sam Slom

We have more great audio interviews coming your way so we hope you'll give 'Grassroot Insight' a listen! If you have any ideas for the show please let us know at tom@grassrootinstitute.org.

-GIR-

GRASSROOT EVENTS

Information on the Institute’s upcoming events, research publication dates and speaking engagements are always available and updated via our website.

The Grassroot Institute has regular 'Members and Invited Guests only' meetings on Oahu, Maui, The Big Island and Kauai. Please contact our office for more details.

-GIR-

LIBERTY NEWS

Institute Selects New Analyst
Georgetown Grad to Tackle Public Policy Issues

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii announced that Pearl Hahn has joined the organization as a Policy Analyst. Hahn is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with additional coursework in Government. She has also held positions at the Department of Homeland Security and the Public Diplomacy Council.

"We're very excited to have her join us," said Grassroot President Jamie Story. "Pearl brings experience, insight and a great skill set that will help us analyze local and state government operations. She'll work on a variety of projects including our government transparency and accountability initiative."

Hahn served as a policy intern at the Grassroot Institute over the summer and after a brief trip to the mainland has returned and begun her new duties with enthusiasm. She helped create the Institute's 2008 Hawaii Legislative Scorecard and has continued work on a statewide pork report on government waste. "I'm thrilled. It's an honor to have been selected. I look forward to using my skills and efforts to promote freedom and prosperity for all citizens of Hawaii," she said. "It's an important time in the state's history and more important than ever that the principles of liberty, free markets and government accountability be kept at the forefront."

-GIR-

"Being An American"
Essay Contest Open To High School Students

High school students nationwide are invited to participate in the 2008-2009 "Being an American" Essay Contest, which explores the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship. Administered by the Bill of Rights Institute, a non-profit educational organization in Washington, DC the contest offers cash prizes totaling more than $189,000 to both students and their teachers. Top prize winners and their teachers also receive all-expenses paid trips to our nation's capital.

(To read more, click here.)

Grassroot Media Hits

Akaka Bill

On September 30, 2008, American Spectator Magazine and its website published "Trouble in Paradise", an article by Joseph Lawler, the Collegiate Network Fellow at the publication. A portion of the article is below:

In order to keep the handouts coming, the originators of the (Akaka) bill aren't afraid to inject racialism into Hawaii's famously harmonious multiculturalism. Furthermore, the bill's premise -- that the U.S. is a foreign force oppressing a marginalized ethnic group -- is shaky.

Jamie Story, president of the Grassroot Institute, a Hawaii-based public policy center, thinks so. She told TAS, "The Kingdom of Hawaii was never purely native Hawaiian." Rather, "it was created by a multi-racial coalition and finally unified in 1810, and the United States remained completely neutral throughout the Hawaiian Revolution of 1893."

Nor are native Hawaiians a tribe. "Assigning all native Hawaiians to a single tribe would be similar to combining the Navajo, Cherokee, Sioux and Crow tribes into a single governing entity," Story noted. The Native Hawaiians wouldn't have anything in common with the tribes of Native Americans recognized by Congress. They would share the same corrupt basis as casino tribes, without any of the legitimacy.

Instead of restoring a usurped nation, Story says, the bill is "an unapologetic attempt to undo the holdings of the Supreme Court of the United States."

(To read more, please visit The American Spectator.)

Liberal Q&A?

Honolulu's most liberal weekly newspaper, The Honolulu Weekly, recently featured a full page Q&A with Institute President Jamie Story. "A Likely Story", by Editor Ragnar Carlson, is the first time in collective memory when conservative free market ideas have been included in this widely read publication. Among the exchanges were:

The Weekly: "You’ve released a report on the cost of the proposed constitutional convention, to the effect that it costs less than a legislative session…what’s the significance of that?"

Story: "What we learned, through our government transparency initative, is that the Hawai’i State Legislature is the only one in the country that does not use fiscal notes when looking at legislation. All other legislatures as well as the U.S. Congress use them–they’re not called fiscal notes everywhere, but it’s the same idea–to inform legislators about what the bill’s fiscal impact will be on taxpayers. Lawmakers are then able to make an educated decision about how much money they’re spending. Here, they’re voting on bills without knowing how much they’ll cost. So now they’ve commissioned a study on the cost of the con-con. When it comes to a con-con that will give more power to the citizens, suddenly they care how much it costs! And it turns out that what the Legislature spends every session is almost equal to the highest estimate of what the con-con will cost."

(To read more, click here.)

In Addition...

Hawaii Reporter recently published several news releases from GRIH and also featured our recent video of the DOE press conference announcing budget cuts. Please visit the site at www.hawaiireporter.com.

On Sept. 25th, GRIH Communications Director Tom McAuliffe was on the Rick Hamada morning radio show as a call-in guest asking why DOE isn't looking at more than $60 million in possible fraudulent Workmen's Comp claims as a way to trim the department's budget.

The nationally recognized and popular site http://www.townhall.com has recently picked up for national distribution many of the articles you read in Grassroot in Review.

-GIR-

"Flunked"
New Movie Examines Who Will Win the Battle of Education Reform

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation is pleased to announce the release of Flunked, a new movie narrated by Joe Mantegna. With over an hour of special features, including interviews and an in-depth look at education in America today, Flunked is sure to enlighten, educate, and provide hope to families across America.

(To read more, click here.)

TRY THE GRASSROOT BLOGS
Join the conversation and express your views! Use these links to access our member blogs.

Dash of Calabash
http://dashofcalabash.grassrootinstitute.org/

The Mystery of Hawaiian History
http://historymystery.grassrootinstitute.org/

Read what others have written and add your own thoughts. See you there!

-GIR-

NEED A GOOD SPEAKER?
From taxation to education and health care to transportation, the Institute’s staff is excited to address your group regarding the important policy issues facing all citizens of Hawaii. Call (808) 591-9193 to check availability and make arrangements, or e-mail us at tom@grassrootinstitute.org.

-GIR-

SUPPORT GOOD PUBLIC POLICY IN HAWAII!
Please help us continue to provide independent research on issues important to Hawaii! The Grassroot Institute operates only through the generous donations of friends and benefactors from around Hawaii and the United States, and even the smallest of donations can be used to accomplish great things for the future of our beloved state.

Will you please consider becoming a supporter today? Donations are tax deductible and it's quick, easy and secure. Click here!

-GIR-

Grassroot Institute is a proud member of the State Policy Network, Townhall.com, Americans for Tax Reform, The Sam Adams Alliance and more.