On Mitch Fox’s most excellent “Nevada Week in Review” television show on Friday, our good buddy, Bob Beers look-alike and CityLife editor Steve Sebelius had the nerve to say that many of us conservatives were “secretly happy” that the revenue projections laid down by the Economic Forum on Friday were about a billion dollars less than the governor’s original budget proposal because we “hate government” and this will force the Legislature to shrink it.
I gotta tell you, that REALLY p*ssed me off. It’s the worst example of irresponsible liberal media bias I’ve seen all week. Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I was this steamed over something. I mean, how in the world could Steve say something that outrageous? After all….
There’s nothing “secret” about it.
Nevada’s government is STILL spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need. Period. And as long as taxpayers are funding the Nevada Arts Council, then that means there are things which could be cut without, as Democrat Speaker Barbara Buckley so melodramatically put it this week, people dying.
I mean, who’s going to die if taxpayers no longer pick up the tab for free newspapers being delivered to public libraries? Who’s going to die if a museum is only open five days a week instead of seven. Who’s going to die if we sell off the taxpayer-subsidized Las Vegas convention center to a private operator? Who’s going to die if the Culture of Pizza course at UNLV is eliminated? Barbara Buckley and her liberal cohorts are full of beans.
The absolute truth is, the ONLY way to force government to set spending priorities and shrink is to choke off the money going to it. Starve the beast, as they say. And the ONLY silver lining around the dark cloud of this economic recession is that the lack of revenue is going to FORCE legislators to make the kinds of necessary cuts to non-essential government services and programs they’d never make otherwise.
As Congressman Ron Paul says, “Once created, government programs are nearly impossible to eliminate.” Or as Ronald Reagan famously put it, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”
Now if there’s been some big “secret” that fiscal conservatives are happy about that then clearly Steve and I haven’t been going out for beers often enough….an intolerable situation demanding immediate action THIS WEEK! (Steve, you pick the place; first round is on me.)
Seriously though, I AM happy that the declining revenue projections *might* result in non-essential government being sliced. However, I’m afraid that instead of doing what’s hard and right, legislators will again take the easy way out and raise taxes.
Or they’ll cut truly essential services to save some of their pet liberal projects.
They’ll choose subsidized college sports over autism treatments. They’ll choose unnecessary, ineffective, hugely costly full-day kindergarten over health care for the poor. They’ll choose to keep the class-size reduction boondoggle which has grown out of control like The Blob instead of putting more cops on the street. (Scott, call me….we’ll do lunch)
As for “hating government,” hate is a bit harsh. But conservatives can absolutely relate to the view of government held by Founding Father George Washington who said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Or as Lyn Nofziger, Ronald Reagan’s former press secretary, famously put it, “I don’t like government; it’s just that simple.”
And it’s no secret.
