Posted by (Mark Noonan) – There’s this, that and the other thing being said as I write this. Seems they’ve got a deal. This will be taxed, that won’t be taxed. A bit of spending trimmed here, a bit of financial hocus-pocus there. In the end, it doesn’t matter.
The legislature gathered because of the most important thing a career, machine politician cares about was at stake: the legal ability of the State of Nevada to keep cutting the checks. Goodness, can you imagine what would happen if even for a moment all the special interests built into the budget didn’t get paid? It’s too horrible to contemplate.
For career politicians, at any rate.
Whenever we get in to a jam like this, I’m always reminded of a quote from Shakespeare: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves”.
We can complain about the pinheads in Carson City all we want, but we put them there. We, the people of the great State of Nevada, got the government we deserve. And now we’re getting it good and hard.
Of our 21 State Senators, 16 have been in office – either in the Assembly or the Senate without a break – at least since the 1990’s; five since at least the 80’s, and one straight on through since Richard Nixon was President.
Only two have been there less than two years and can thus be considered not responsible for the mess we’re in. The rest of them are guilty, guilty, guilty of the gross mismanagement that brought us to this sorry state.
And they are the people to fix it?
Here is what we’ve got: the Legislature will adjourn with a supposed deal all set to take care of our budget shortfall. This is the same Legislature that “solved” the problem back in 2009.
Roll that around your mind for a moment and then ask yourself: is it at all likely they’ve really solved the problem? Or will they now rely upon us to buy their nonsense and re-elect them, only to have them be shocked – shocked! – that there’s a whole, new budget hole to be filled in January? And, hey, we don’t want to jack up tax rates, but we must do the people’s business…
You know it will be like that. You know they’ve done nothing but paper over the cracks.
The choice now lies with us. We can supinely accept the career, machine politicians and their bogus solutions designed to preserve their power. Or, we can throw the bums out and try again with politicians who aren’t trying to build a career, but serve the people.
term limits, thier obviously not capable of the carreer since they can’t balance the budget. What’s the problem, they know where the waste is, Take care of it!!!!!!!! This is business, handle it!
Tim,
I’m getting so ticked off at this that I’m ready to go to a Roman system – once you hold office, you can’t hold another one for five years…
[...] Down, down, down they go – and Texas, keep in mind, is actually one of our healthier States. Out here in Nevada, we’ve had double-digit declines in sales tax revenue for months on end. Thus we have a nearly $900 million dollar budget shortfall our pinheads in Carson City are currently trying to deal with (for what I think of their efforts, go here). [...]
Mark, I couldn’t agree with you more. Although, I have take note of your last sentence. You said “we can throw the bums out and try again with politicians who aren’t trying to build a career, but serve the people.” I would have changed “politicians” to “average people”. We have had “politicians” for years and the people of Nevada have been screwed.
Yes, this special session only papered over the cracks. I can’t wait to see the mess that’s going to need fixing in the 2011 session. Then again, with reapportionment being in the forefront of their minds, we’ll most likely only get more paper to fill in the crevasse.
We do need elected officials who honestly wish to serve the people. Alexander Hamilton explained the role of the State Legislature best when he said, “State legislatures will always be, not only the vigilant, but suspicious and jealous guardians of the rights of the citizens against encroachments from the federal government.” When is the last time anyone in the Nevada Legislature protected any Rights of the people in Nevada let alone protected us from federal encroachment?
Leonard,
Good point – I should have written that better. Heck, “first 21 names in the phone book” would be better than the Senate we have now.
And we do need a bit of ferocity from our State government as regards Federal intrusion – heck, 84% of our State is owned by Uncle Sam. We have to go, hat in hand, and beg pretty please to use our own!
Lots of things needs lots of changes.