Acclaimed talk radio host Jerry Agar has joined the Illinois Policy Institute while continuing to work
as a weekend talk host for the Chicago radio station WGN AM 720.
Jerry, who writes for TownHall.com as well as his radio
shows, will be blogging and podcasting on the daily issues facing Illinois and beyond.
Check out the latest from Jerry below! Have questions, comments or a news tip? E-mail Jerry here.
|
2/5/2010
At the 'In Our Hands' summit on vouchers and education Reverend and Senator James Meeks spoke about his voucher bill.
read more... |
2/4/2010
Lawmakers in Springfield eye the possibility of reviving the death tax - before it dies.
read more... |
2/3/2010
Many people object to the fact that they can't vote for a Republican for one race and a Democrat for another.
read more... |
2/2/2010
Slowly, but at a quickening pace, ice forms over the pool of global warming
read more... |
2/1/2010
A bill to mandate paid sick leave is up for consideration in Illinois.
read more... |
1/29/2010
Obama shows a disconnect with the American people.
read more... |
1/28/2010
Did you know all of these. Really? ALL of them?
read more... |
1/28/2010
The President tells us that the stimulus has saved jobs. At what cost?
read more... |
1/27/2010
Another example of a politician ignoring the real issue and blowing smoke instead.
read more... |
1/26/2010
Unemployment has passed 11 percent in Illinois, while government workers enjoy relative security. Is that a good thing?
read more... |
1/25/2010
The country does best when the citizens are involved.
read more... |
1/25/2010
Can we cut the spin and get to what matters? Can Quinn govern? Can Dorothy Brown run a county?
read more... |
1/21/2010
The election in Massachusetts was shocking. Are the right people shocked?
read more... |
1/21/2010
Christopher Horner talked about global warming at a recent IPI event.
read more... |
1/19/2010
Michigan can't sue Illinois over the Asian Carp. They don't have to.
read more... |
1/15/2010
We have made significant progress in opening up
read more... |
1/14/2010
Nothing is easier to spend than other people's money.
read more... |
1/13/2010
There is a socialist fever in Washington, DC at the moment. Socialism didn't make America great and cannot solve our problems today.
read more... |
1/12/2010
John O'Hara of the Heartland Institute
has written a book about the Tea Party
movement.
read more... |
1/11/2010
Chavez threatens to seize any business in Venezuela that raises prices. That could not happen in American could it?
read more... |
1/8/2010
Businesses are reluctant to employ people when they fear higher taxes.
read more... |
1/7/2010
Politicians, like anyone else, like to hear what they want to hear. Whether they like it or not, they need to hear from you.
read more... |
1/6/2010
If we can't an across-the-board tax cut, let's pile up the tax breaks.
read more... |
1/6/2010
Those of us opposed to the health care
read more... |
1/4/2010
'Green' power is possible. Satisfying 'greenies' is not.
read more... |
12/30/2009
Even some of the people who gain from pork, see it for what it is; a money wasting game that everyone loses.
read more... |
12/29/2009
Are we a nation of beggars or a nation of people who each do what we can to look after ourselves before we go to the government in search of the fruits of other people's labor?
read more... |
12/28/2009
The road remains rocky and the obstacles are many, but fighting to maintain freedom is the gift we give the future.
read more... |
12/23/2009
Presidents telling banks who to lend to got us into a pickle. It happened only recently. Obama forgot.
read more... |
12/22/2009
A list of the heroes and events that led to the freedom we enjoy today.
read more... |
12/22/2009
Despite the track the current administration is on, Rasmussen shows that Americans, including Democrats, want smaller government.
read more... |
12/22/2009
Gun sales up - murder down. Huh?
read more... |
12/21/2009
The people against the health bill are all crazy, dangerous nuts?
read more... |
12/18/2009
Climate scientist says peer-reviewed literature is not a true and unbiased sample of the state of climate science. He claims a manufactured consensus.
read more... |
12/17/2009
Power corrupts, and it seems to do so with ruthless efficiency in Illinois. We need to put a stop to it, or at least stun the process into a slow-down.
read more... |
12/17/2009
Rasmussen shows us that a movement is gaining ground on traditional parties.
read more... |
12/15/2009
Paid to teach, educators fail too often, but rarely take responsibility.
read more... |
12/14/2009
Eric Zorn scorns those who would look to hold taxes at current levels.
read more... |
12/11/2009
People who think that Obama's low poll numbers are a prediction of failure in the future, need to look to the past.
read more... |
12/10/2009
With the federal government on a roll, bailing out autos, banks, etc., here are some additional bailout ideas.
read more... |
12/9/2009
Harry Reid, given a chance to say
read more... |
12/8/2009
Against the lessons of economic history, Obama plans more government spending.
read more... |
12/7/2009
read more... |
12/4/2009
Where do your Illinois state taxes go? Now you can find out.
read more... |
12/3/2009
Not an easy list to winnow down.
read more... |
12/2/2009
Can mandated insurance expenses be compared to slavery?
read more... |
12/1/2009
You be the judge. Was the doctor telling the truth, or was he being hateful?
read more... |
12/1/2009
read more... |
11/27/2009
Danny Davis of Illinois thinks your money could save the US Postal Service
read more... |
11/26/2009
Take bribes. Admit it. Keep your job.
read more... |
11/26/2009
An interesting web site gives some surprising answers.
read more... |
11/25/2009
You don't know best. Dick Durbin knows best.
read more... |
11/24/2009
Are you a woman in your 40s? You may die. The government doesn't care.
read more... |
11/23/2009
Fighting city hall, advancing unpopular ideas and trying to engage a busy and sometimes apathetic public is tough work.
read more... |
11/23/2009
Lose jobs in a big way. As many as 169,000.
read more... |
11/23/2009
read more... |
11/20/2009
read more... |
11/20/2009
read more... |
11/19/2009
read more... |
11/18/2009
15 reasons that government health care
read more... |
11/17/2009
Tax payers are told that they have to contribute to society. What about tax eaters?
read more... |
11/17/2009
How many Congressional districts do we have?
read more... |
11/16/2009
In one day's news we see examples of the ever-expanding size of the federal government.
read more... |
11/12/2009
Nothing is free, it just sometimes looks that way.
read more... |
11/11/2009
Thoughts on Veteran's Day.
read more... |
11/10/2009
If you like out of control costs and rationing, while hating civil rights, this health care bill is for you.
read more... |
11/9/2009
How does Illinois stack up with other states when it comes to respecting parents and children through school choice?
read more... |
11/6/2009
One community realizes that government doesn't have to provide our desires. People can, and will.
read more... |
11/5/2009
Health care reform is on the way - and we're just sick about it.
read more... |
11/5/2009
The Bambenek Putback Amendment is a citizen-initiated amendment to the Constitution of the State of Illinois. Bambenek says it is designed to put the people back in charge in Springfield.
read more... |
11/4/2009
Where do your federal dollars go? Some of them go for a little train ride, and get lost in the process.
read more... |
11/3/2009
A debate at DePaul over teacher tenure brings up whether tenure's time has come and gone.
read more... |
10/29/2009
All politics are local. But some are a lot more local than others, and you have a chance to make a difference.
read more... |
10/29/2009
Tuition at Illinois’s state universities is becoming less affordable for Illinois families. From 2002 to 2007, in-state tuition and fees jumped by an average of 56 percent.
read more... |
10/27/2009
When failure to comply with taxes, legally or illegally, becomes rampant, government never seems to ask themselves whether it may be in part due to the taxes being too high.
read more... |
10/23/2009
Does government policy - which is always declared to be of help to the poor - really benefit ordinary, low-income people?
read more... |
10/21/2009
Is each of us willing to make choices and sacrifices to better society, or do we want government to give us everything?
read more... |
10/16/2009
Government is supposed to be here to protect us, but not from ourselves.
read more... |
10/15/2009
Former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt spoke at an IPI luncheon in Springfield to explain Missouri's transparency program.
read more... |
10/13/2009
Instead of concentrating on government, let's concentrate on what matters; patients.
read more... |
10/9/2009
President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Hope! Promise! Self regard. Let's bask in that warm glow by appointing a similarly qualified person in Illinois.
read more... |
10/9/2009
Some people just can't get over it when other people do things for themselves.
read more... |
10/8/2009
Here is a little primer for those who think capitalism and profit are dirty words.
read more... |
10/7/2009
Yet another government entity decides to treat adults like children and to supposedly make the job of the police easier by attacking the rights of the law-abiding.
read more... |
10/6/2009
It is easy to assume that Michigan's economic woes are due to he troubles in the domestic auto industry. Is it that simple?
read more... |
10/5/2009
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels spoke to a capacity crowd at an IPI lunch event in Chicago last week, and then sat down with me to talk about controlling spending, health care, and incentives to businesses moving between states.
read more... |
10/1/2009
I think it is too bad that with the success we have had lately with our governors we could not just steal one from another state.
read more... |
9/30/2009
A guy who apparently merely wants to drive drunks safely home is having a tough time getting Quincy, Illinois to let him do it.
read more... |
9/29/2009
Educators say that they can't reject the
read more... |
9/27/2009
Finally, we have some evidence to back the claim that adults make decisions about their lifestyle regardless of what activists and politicians try to force them to do. And of course, revenue projections by the do-gooders and elected officials were wrong.
read more... |
9/25/2009
Never more than today does the phrase
read more... |
9/24/2009
If a leading scientist's opinion changes in Geneva, would the media hear it?
read more... |
9/23/2009
The main argument many people seem to have for government control of health care, banks, auto companies, etc. is that they feel corporations are greedy and government is benevolent.
read more... |
9/22/2009
When the only idea a politician has is to raise taxes on higher income earners, that politicians is a danger to the future of the state.
read more... |
9/18/2009
Schools in the Chicago area are among those accepting free presentations from a group offering to teach kids about global warming. Do they teach science, or do they some other agenda?
read more... |
9/17/2009
Two convictions on liquor license violations offer insight into how much the government thinks they need to protect us from ourselves.
read more... |
9/17/2009
Durbin and Burris still support ACORN, claiming a few bad apples were the only problem.
read more... |
9/16/2009
Gasoline for $2.19 a gallon in Missouri got me thinking.
read more... |
9/16/2009
I am tired of being called anti-government, anti-poor people, anti-immigration. I'll show you anti-government.
read more... |
9/15/2009
The main argument against government control of anything is that elected officials and their appointed representatives often believe that they alone posses sufficient knowledge to run everything.
read more... |
9/15/2009
Is there any reason for governments to build and maintain sports facilities? Should publicly owned facilities control ticket costs?
read more... |
9/11/2009
A once-every-four-years contest and celebration of the finest sports has to offer. A politically corrupt city. These two things do not belong together.
read more... |
9/10/2009
Can we believe what President Obama told us last night in his most recent health care speech?
read more... |
9/8/2009
Parents are being forced to make an economic choice in their child's education - and it is one they should not have to make.
read more... |
9/4/2009
Labor day isn't for most of us, even if we do enjoy the day. It is for unions, which are less and less a part of the solution in America.
read more... |
9/3/2009
The national ACT test shows that home-schooled students scored, on average, above others this year.
read more... |
9/3/2009
What would Old Ben say if he were alive today? John Armor thinks he knows.
read more... |
9/1/2009
Why not? How much more silly could the kid be?
read more... |
9/1/2009
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal came to Chicago to speak at the Illinois Policy Institute about how Chicago influenced Obama and how he has taken that to Washington.
read more... |
8/31/2009
George Leef points out that it is not the various aspects of Obama's health plans that are important.
read more... |
8/28/2009
If something that goes beyond basic services, loses money, should government finince it?
read more... |
8/27/2009
Every day, looking through the news sites, it is so easy to see where our government is off track.
read more... |
8/26/2009
I return today to a favorite saying of mine: A trained monkey can come up with raising taxes as a solution. Is it too much to ask that people who claim to be leaders rise to a level just a bit above the monkey?
read more... |
8/26/2009
Garrison Keillor and today's Must Reads offer a great lesson on America's political divide.
read more... |
8/25/2009
While Gov. Quinn tells us that we have cut the budget tax payers continue to be first in line to pay and last in line to catch a break.
read more... |
8/20/2009
Vice President Biden came to Chicago to stump for health care reform. He - and those on his round table - talked mostly about electronic record keeping, but the event was not without political arrogance, fuzzy thinking and slamming of ordinary Americans.
read more... |
8/19/2009
Do we need an income tax increase in Illinois, or more oversight of the money we already send the legislature?
read more... |
8/18/2009
Is it reasonable to fear that the government will ration health care?
read more... |
8/14/2009
I asked whether there is constitutional authority for the health bill, car vouchers and the takeover of banks and auto manufacturers. Readers responded with a big NO.
read more... |
8/14/2009
Jon Sanders talked to me about who and what he saw at the rallies he attended, opposing health legislation. He says that participants are being smeared by politicians and the media.
read more... |
8/14/2009
The Illinois Policy Institute was a sponsor of the Chicago edition of the Heartland Institutes health care round table discussions.
read more... |
8/12/2009
Does the government, local, state or federal, need to do all the things it does for us?
read more... |
8/12/2009
President Obama charges that family care doctors are colluding with surgeons to let us get sick enough to need amputations.
read more... |
8/11/2009
What is the constitutional authority for the massive power the federal government has given itself?
read more... |
8/10/2009
What if we got our groceries the same way we get our education; from a monopoly government operation?
read more... |
8/7/2009
Mayor Daley and Midwest governors announced plan to fast-track high-speed rail and they made some extravagant claims in the process.
read more... |
8/7/2009
Dan Hynes, Illinois Comptroller, say he is running because
read more... |
8/5/2009
Having health insurance does not guarantee health care, as nations with socialized systems already know.
read more... |
8/5/2009
Is pre-school early education such as Head Start effective or is it just babysitting paid by taxpayers in Illinois?
read more... |
