I was impressed with the honesty of David Ralston when he said that the budget impasse, "allows Republicans to analyze programs we maybe have not had the opportunity or discipline to analyze before.” Though I disagree a bit with him.
While I think that State Legislators they haven't had the opportunity is utterly absurd--they meet in Atlanta every January...do we need to extend the number of days in the session??? I think there is a case to make that they lack the discipline to adhere to the ideological positions they claim to adhere to. I think there are political reasons for this--and I'm glad they they've lacked the ideological purity required to bring us back to a government set up for an agrarian based economy. But I still think this is a public relations problem for Government as a democracy that lacks the trust of its citizens will further erode the capacity of government to function property. This is a reason that I think the tea party movement is important.
Personally, I think the inability of Republican leadership to make the cuts they claim they can make--without sacrificing government quality-- speaks to how bare bones our state already is. I'm all about efficiency and reevaluation of programs--who isn't by the way? In fact thats why I believe we need to be looking at modern behavioral economics and cognitive science to possible restructure and implement current programs in a better fashion. I do think there are programs that can be changed, defunded, or ended if start implementing government programs and policies in ways that are in line with modern science rather than going against human nature in ineffective and inefficient ways.
But our problems right now are that we aren't bringing in enough revenues as a state to meet the demands of our citizens.
Its not big government politicians, be they Red or Blue, vs. small government politicians. It is about politicians--who want to keep their jobs more than they want to do the right thing--tyring to make up excuses until the "time and discipline" required to make tough decisions is forced on them.
When will we elect people who care more about passing good policy than getting re-elected? Until we get legislature with some guts to stand up for what is right and what they believe in we will never fix the impasse of broken government that we now face. That or they haven't had the time or disciple--which are two other reasons we should fire them and find people who will do the job we send them up to Atlanta to do.
There are good men and women on both sides of the aisle who have been trying to do their best--the rest need to be sent packing if we ever care to see his state getting moving in the right direction again.
No comments:
Post a Comment