Nan, a new blogger at the Freedom Works blog and I are sitting here, getting ready to blog-interview Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity.
Nan is adorable and young but I’ll try to be nice to her anyway.
ME: Phil, tell us about your priorities at AFP.
PHIL: At the federal level, our majority priority is to win this fight against the disgraceful earmarks we’ve been fighting for several years, and address institutional issues such as taxpayer-funded lobbying.
NAN: What do you mean by taxpayer-funded lobbying?
PHIL: Well, the forces of big government often use our own tax dollars to hire lobbyists to lobby for higher taxes and higher spending. We’ve seen an explosion in recent years of local governments hiring lobbyists to go to state capitols and Washington, DC, to lobby for higher taxes and spending. As taxpayers, we’re paying them to work against our interests and for higher government. Most taxpayers don’t even know that’s what’s going on.
ME: How does AFP plan to promote awareness of this issue?
PHIL: In March 2007, we did a public relations campaign around the time of the NCAA basketball tournament. We highlighted the fact that lobbyists for public universities could provide free tickets to the basketball tournament, free roundtrip airfare and other goodies to legislators. The University of Florida has a president’s box that provides deluxe seating and treatment to legislators. [The university] claims that because they don’t charge for these tickets, they actually have no value.
The great thing about AFP is that we already have hundreds of thousands of people that we have already trained to be activists, so when we work on an issue like this, and can get the facts and information to them, they are ready to engage with the issue at the state and federal level.
NAN: What has your role been in this event?
PHIL: I helped book speakers–Giuliani and McCain–and I’m moderating the 4:00 panel on policy issues.
ME: Well, then, Phil, are you actually having any fun and if so, please tell us about that.
PHIL: Oh, I’m having a ball. I love seeing the ordinary people from all over America, the energy in the room this morning, and the real excitement about bedrock issues of fiscal accountability that are often disregarded. I’m just really excited to see it.
