Today is the holiday officially known as Independence Day. Not the Fourth of July. Independence Day. As in the day we Americans declared our independence from an over-bearing, hugely expensive government headed by a guy named "George."
Ah, the more things change ...
Nevadans in particular should reflect today on what happened here in our own state exactly one week ago, and lament just how addicted we have become to government 232 years after we told King George III to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Last week's special session of the Legislature should be remembered for what it didn't do, not what it did. What it didn't do was shrink government. The most under-reported aspect of the current budget "crisis" is how we have purportedly "cut" over a billion dollars in spending without laying off a single employee or eliminating a single government department or program. Not even the "Culture of Pizza" course at UNLV.
Yet last December, when Gov. Jim Gibbons announced the first minor spending "cuts" of just 4 percent across the board, all manner of government leeches screamed like banshees. Poor people would be homeless. Children would be dying in the streets. Old people would be eating dog food. It'll be the end of the world as we know it.
Talk about the liberals who cried wolf. If you believed their apocalyptic claims " but why would you? " the "cuts" Gov. Gibbons and the Legislature have made so far were supposed to "devastate" the state. And yet The Little Government That Could continues to chug along ("I think I can, I think I can") without anyone noticing much of any difference whatsoever. Apparently there WAS still plenty of fat on the gummint bone, despite hysterical assertions to the contrary.
The great untold story in this budget crunch is that if Nevada's legislators weren't addicted to all things government, there were, and still are, plenty of ways to reduce the expense of government " as well as shrink its size " simply by getting rid of non-essential government programs and departments that don't provide a legitimate, critical "service" to citizens (sorry, UNR marching band), or provide such services badly or inefficiently, or that provide services that should be left to the private sector.
For example, the Legislature could have gotten rid of the Consumer Affairs Division " which one state legislator described to me last week along these lines: Never have so many done so little for so few for so much. Why not get rid of this useless government white elephant?
Or how about getting rid of the Equal Rights Commission? Isn't it about time we stopped using tax dollars to promote racial divisiveness? After all, the Democrat presidential nominee and the new Nevada Senate Minority Leader are both black. Can't we all just get along ... without an Equal Rights Commission?
And what about the Nevada Arts Council? The Legislature could have/should have zeroed out this operation long ago. It never should have been funded with tax dollars in the first place. This is not an essential government service. It should be funded, if at all, by voluntary contributions from private citizens and wealthy, liberal artists.
Here's the thing. Politicians won't shrink government unless they're forced to. And despite a billion dollar funding gap, legislators last week still found ways to reduce spending without actually reducing government. Imagine what the SAGE (Spending and Government Efficiency) Commission could dig up if only it would look under some rocks and get its fingers dirty.
The time for kicking the government spending can down the road is coming to an end quickly. If the economy remains stagnant for the next several months, the governor and legislators will have no further spending choices but to make some real spending choices. Textbooks ... or the Department of Cultural Affairs? I'm looking forward to forcing legislators into that debate. A leaner, healthier more affordable government would be the result.
And one year from today, Nevadans could have something serious to celebrate on Independence Day.
- Chuck Muth, of Carson City, is president and CEO of Citizen Outreach and a political blogger. Read his views Fridays on the Appeal Opinion page or visit www.muthstruths.com. You can e-mail him at chuck@chuckmuth.com