(Mark Noonan) – I note this from the Elko Daily Free Press:
“Nevada officials on Tuesday outlined drastic cuts to the state’s Medicaid program that include plans to ration adult diapers…
…’The Legislature didn’t cause this problem,’ Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said during Tuesday’s hearing before the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. ‘We were able last session to delay some of this impact on the lives of a lot of Nevadans who really need some services.’
He said it’s a severe problem when legislators are ‘talking about reducing the number of diapers that incontinents will be able to get.'”
Bill Raggio has been a loyal water carrier for the welfare state, but he’s fallen far, now: from water carrier to diaper drudge. Small wonder some of his constituents wanted a do-over on his 2008 re-election.
This is where we now get down and dirty on the budget battle. On one side will be our liberals and RINOs warning us that we’ll have fire, famine and a plague of locusts o’er the land if we dare cut government spending. On the other side will be, God help us, our Carson City Republican leadership trying to fend off accusations of letting granny down. Its not a pretty sight.
Quite honestly, it is time for the Republican Party to fight a delaying action. If we can merely prevent taxes from increasing, we’ll have done well enough. We daren’t get caught up in a fight over who is going to be nicest to the old folks because the Demo-Rinos will always be willing to spend more money than Republicans. Concentrate on defending what we can (no new taxes) and start building the case for true fiscal responsibility which will require a lot more new Republicans in Carson City. And then head for November.
Our fight must not be over this or that particular budget item. Doing so just plays the Big Government game and bogs us down. Raggio is whining that it wasn’t the Legislature which got us in to this mess as though the laws passed by same Legislature had nothing to do with the current state of affairs.
A pathetic whine, but in that whine is our best weapon – Raggio is part of the Machine. Reid is part of the Machine. All the careerist politicians and over-paid bureaucrats are part of the Machine. The Machine made the mess – and only by getting rid of the Machine can we, the people of Nevada, restore our great state.
Mud will be flung in this campaign of 2010 – and, it seems, dirty diapers, as well. We must rise above all that. The people are tired of all that. We must not play their game – we must be of, for and by the people.
(Mr. Noonan co-publishes Blogs for Victory)
