On the TASC err, TABOR front
Inside Liberty Watch Today - Dec. 19, 2005

Last week's TASC initiative filing, soon to be followed by at least one amended filing, has at least one conservative worried about the initiative process's effect on democracy. Of course this is a concern of all democracy lovers on both the left and right. They think democracy is so great they are just groovy with the notion of the US government spending billions of tax dollars per day, exporting it to places like Iraq. After all, just look were it has got us? Yes. Let's look: ever expanding government. 

On the federal level here is how big. Bill Bonner reports; "According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government spent nearly $2.5 trillion during the 2005 fiscal year. This means that, on average, the federal government spent nearly $6.8 billion each day, or $78,418 per second. The Census Bureau estimates that in 2004 the latest year for which data are available), median household income in the U.S. was $44,389. "In short, the federal government spends almost twice as much money in only one second as a typical American household earns in an entire year."

Chuck Muth took a couple minutes away from obsessing about some history teacher in Carson City, to muss about TASC in his Nevada News & Views email report last week. TASC is like TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights), without the name recognition. 
In Muth's view TASC "is an artificial mechanism for avoiding responsibility." If TASC is approved by the voters, the state government's budget can only be increased by the combined percentage increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and population growth. Local government budgets are also constricted by the initiative. So, with TASC in place government budgets are placed in the hands of voters rather than elected officials. 

This is bad in Muth's view because it allows both legislators and voters to avoid responsibility. Legislators can say the voters took away their ability to legislate and voters don't have to do any due diligence on candidates prior to making a decision in the voting booth. "TASC perpetuates the trend toward uninformed decision-making in the voting booth," frets Muth. 

Like voters have ever made informed decisions. "The great masses of men," wrote H.L. Mencken, "even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge." 

Legislators are worse yet. A famous chapter entitled, "Why The Worst Get On Top" in F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom explained that the qualities that make a person thrive in politics are dishonesty, deceitfulness, and a lack of principles The exact opposite of what most people consider admirable qualities. 

Hayek points out that, politicians must appeal to the lowest common denominator because that "unites the largest number of people." Politicians, to "obtain the support of all the docile and gullible,"Hayek wrote, must "be completely unprincipled and literally capable of everything." 

So these are the voters and elected officials that Muth wishes to place his trust in. His naivet* is shocking. In fact, he should read his own columns. After "TAKING TASC TO TASK" in his December 12th "In The News" email, his next item was "GRAB YOUR WALLETS!" In his column, Muth rightly sees the hand writing on the kindergarten classroom wall that full-day kindergarten will eventually cost Nevada taxpayers a bundle. But, where were those heroic Republicans, elected by those savvy voters when the full-day kindergarten vote was taken in the 2005 session? They were pushing the YES button to this new $22 million program, that's where. Bob Beers—Yes. Sharon Engle--Yes. Sandra Tiffany—Yes. Barbara Cegaske—Yes. Garn Mabey—Yes. Francis Allen—Yes. You get the idea. 

Muth wonders how TASC would fix this problem. It won't completely. And, he's right Republicans should be shrinking government, not guaranteeing that it will grow by the combined percentage rates of inflation and population growth. No government is the ideal we should be working toward. Some pundits complain that a legislature won't be needed if TASC is approved. Great! If only it were true.

But to address Muth's question, TASC might make lawmakers think twice before they willy-nilly sign on to ramping up an all-day kindergarten program that will cost millions in taxpayer money and grow exponentially when expanded to include all school districts after the teachers' union cooks up some statistics that proves that kids getting an extra half day of finger painting and whatnot will make better taxpaying citizens. They might think twice, because with TASC, the taxpayer cookie jar will only have so many cookies to dole out. They'll have to make choices on who gets the taxpayer baked goodies. 

Right now the only choice legislators make is--not if they will take more from taxpayers, but how much, whether they are Republicans or Democrats.

Doug French, Liberty Watch Columnist