(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – We didn’t gerrymander the state so we could win 62% of the seats with only 45% of the vote in order to compromise? That appears to be the reaction of the Assembly majority to the offer of compromise presented by members of the Assembly minority.
Recently some members of the minority party released a list of items they were demanding in return for an offer to discuss some potential tax increases. If the minority members thought they’d buy some goodwill by offering to reveal what they were willing to give up before negotiations had begun, we guess they might have to think again.
There currently is only one budget proposal that has been offered – the governor’s budget. The opponents of that proposal have chosen not to offer any competing proposals or any other ideas. Instead, they have elected to convince the public of impending catastrophe if that budget is passed. As Assemblyman Pat Hickey said in an RGJ piece,
“They are just trying to shoot holes in the budget and mobilize public opinion in such a way to traumatize parents about the impacts of the cuts.”
This has been a show from the very beginning – a choreographed show for the cameras designed to elicit an emotional reaction rather than engage in a real discussion or debate. The show has been produced by big-government legislators, left-wing interest groups and government unions, many of whom have a vested interest in bigger government and all of whom have an ideological one.
The student demonstration today is merely another act. UNLV students are using fees that all students are forced to pay, regardless of political beliefs, to fund overt political activity.
They are using other people’s money to lobby for more of other people’s money. They, and the other groups participating in the show, are not interested in compromise or overtures or statements of goodwill from their opponents.
(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Editor of Nevada Business Coalition.)
