HOME TO ROOST IN AUGUSTA
A critical look at the assumptions made by
"law-makers", who ought to be dismantling, rather than
expanding, intrusive expensive ineffective
government.
What has come home to roost in Augusta – disguised as a
billion-dollar deficit – is a flock of assumptions which,
taken together, comprise the misconception that every
problem must be solved by government.
The first, usually erroneous, assumption of a governor and
a legislature is that there is even a problem in the first
place. In every culture there is a population that is never
satisfied and always indignant. These are the people who
are the most skilled at badgering the legislature and the
ones who most deserve to be ignored.
The second assumption is that every problem raised by the
perpetually indignant must be resolved, and the third is
that it can be resolved. Then comes the assumption that it
cannot be resolved without government intervention.
Nevertheless, real problems do exist but are not properly
the government’s business. Not all problems have solutions.
In rare instances, though, all of the first four
assumptions are correct. Sadly, those real problems which
can be solved and are deserving of government attention are
trampled in the stampede to assuage the shrill and
self-righteous.
The fifth assumption is that the appropriate intervention
is a law, and better still if it is law that creates a new
program or bureau, new and complicated regulations, a new
entitlement and, with it, a new generation of people
dependent on the government for their financial survival.
(That would be lawyers. Silly you, you thought I meant the
poor.)
Even if the first four assumptions are correct, the fifth
should be viewed with the greatest suspicion. Our
legislators should first be assuring that requirements and
constraints written into current laws are being met
(enforcement). If a new law is still needed, a simple
directive or prohibition should be the preferred response.
Seldom are these initial assumptions questioned at all by
our lawmakers. (Can’t we call them something else? Calling
them lawmakers implies that their purpose is to make more
laws. Aren’t they also responsible to dismantle laws that
should never have been passed in the first place?)
The sixth assumption in the flock is that a decisive law is
politically too risky, wouldn’t pass, and so it must be
substituted with a watered-down compromise. Therefore, even
if there is a problem deserving of government intervention,
our legislature avoids being forthright in addressing it.
Politics necessitates compromise to assure that nothing so
extreme as to be effective becomes law.
The next assumption is that the legislators are excused
from writing any law themselves but must pass “enabling”
legislation, handing that task of actual lawmaking to the
fourth branch of government, the un-elected, unregulated
regulators. The eighth assumption in the succession says
that the regulators, (acting on the will of those whom
we’ve elected, who are acting with the passive assent of
the soon-to-be-regulated), will achieve through rules what
the legislation might have achieved in simple language.
If any of these assumptions were challenged honestly, the
legislature would be enabling far fewer snarls of
incomprehensible regulation and would have much more time
to govern effectively. Naturally, the federal government
has provided the bad example that most states follow, (and
by following, flattering Congress that it deserves to be
emulated).
Instead of leading the nation in solving more contrived
problems than anyone else – (Following a trend is not
leading…) – Maine could show some real leadership by
setting a schedule for dismantling the unnecessary,
ineffective, and extraordinarily expensive mistakes of past
governors and legislatures.
The state could return control over their lives and
responsibility for their actions to the citizens of Maine.
By getting out of the way, the state could provide
opportunity for people to pull themselves up by their own
bootstraps, could prevent real human suffering by providing
public assistance for people who never had their own
bootstraps in the first place, and should resist assisting
everyone else who cut theirs off and then whines that the
don’t have any. Maine could lead by making remaining laws
comprehensible. (Sorry again, lawyers.) Maine could make
crime pay. Money for prisons could come from tax revenues
that are now being misspent on programs that only foster
dependency and the entitlement syndrome.
To show its resolve, the legislature, led by the new
governor, could start by drawing up a one-page tax code
that would treat a weary populace and burdened businesses
to real tax relief. (Accountants: Don’t worry. The federal
tax code will continue to assure your employment.)
It is my wager that the Augusta legislators who are
convening in early 2003 will ignore the flock roosting in
the bare trees outside the Capitol and will make the
deficit go away by traditional accounting magic (often
touted as a way to leverage more federal dollars),
not-so-hidden tax increases (increased fees and fees where
there never were any), consumption penalties (gas tax
increases), and cuts in funding without reductions in
mandates.
I also expect the governor to recommend more debt by
referendum. Almost every borrow-and-spend referendum should
be shot down by the voters. These are nearly always things
that the legislature should be funding now with current tax
dollars, if they deserve to be funded at all. When we the
voters approve spending referenda, we’re relieving the
current governor and legislators of the responsibility for
the mess their predecessors made and they’re too cowardly
to fix.
The real solution is radical and politically distasteful.
It has been easy to predict that every legislature and
governor for a generation past and for the near future as
well will concern themselves with concocting the most
elaborate schemes to push the problem off for eight more
years, then another eight. They all see the shadows on the
State House lawn, but most still fail to recognize the
assumptions roosting nearby that are creating the gloom.
Some of the politicians in Augusta will eventually provide
the carcasses that will feed the assumptions. That will be
one problem partly solved: The process that they won’t fix
will consume at least some of those who were sent to
Augusta to repair it.
Maine has been progressive. Maine has led. When Maine goes
bankrupt (or whatever a state government is required to do
when its obligations exceed its citizens’ gross annual
income), we will lead by serving as an example to others
who haven’t been as “progressive.” (Reckless would be a
better word.) It’s going to be messy.
[See related rants, Make Lawyers
Irrelevant and Two Maines to Part
Ways!]
2003
©DamnYankee.com
