Tag: government

Categories
culture politics

What Do You Expect?

What started as a post about Equality Before the Law grew into a discussion about the role of government in helping our fellow men. That eventually spun of into a discussion about how we can or should mix religion and politics at The Life I am Choosing. Later I ran across Connor’s post about the truth concerning charity in a capitalist system. That related post had a comment that seemed to capture the difference in the expectations between the two sides of the debate.

These and similar accusations . . . stem from a mistrust of capitalism and a lack of faith in man’s innate desire to help others.

Man’s innate desire to help others is what drives most of those who argue both sides of this issue. There are those capitalists who are not thinking of how to benefit others, and yet what they do almost always does help others. There are those communalists who are not really interested in helping others and they are very happy to be useing the force of government to negate the property rights of others. Despite those two groups, the majority of people approach this discussion with an honest desire to help others. Some believing that  government can provide the best coverage in helping others while others believe that individuals can tackle the major problem areas as well as filling the cracks that would be missed by government.

Categories
National politics

One Subject at a Time

Today I would like to introduce DownsizeDC.org’s “One Subject at a Time Act”

Most Americans probably believe a bill has to have majority support in Congress before it can become the law of the land. Sadly, this common sense expectation is totally wrong. Congressional leaders routinely pass laws that a majority opposes. DownsizeDC.org believes every bill should have to stand or fall on its own merits. Toward this end we have crafted the “One Subject at a Time Act” (OSTA).

One thing that i like about the Downsize DC approach is that most of the legislation they promote is written as a regulation for Congress and not for the people of the United States at large. OSTA is no exception. This bill recognizes the smoke and mirrors effect perpetrated by congressional representatives when they are allowed to bundle or misrepresent pieces of legislation in order to pass them.

The premise of OSTA is that if a piece of legislation is not able to pass on its own merits then the bill does not deserve passage. There may be good bills that generate opposition, but more often there are bad bills that are slipping under the public radar by being passed under the shadow of a deceptive title or hiding behind bills that do deserve the support of congress.

Categories
politics State

Fallout from Statewide Four 10’s Schedule

As I was riding the bus home yesterday there were very few riders. I overheard some people discussing it and suggesting that it might be related to the new four 10’s schedule of most government offices. That explanation makes sense to me. It also got me thinking about how wide an impact that could possibly have. I wonder if some of the commuter bus lines (the ones that only run into downtown in the morning and out of downtown in the evening) might add an extra bus at the beginning and/or end of the day on Monday thru Thursday to accomodate the extended hours of government workers. If they did, this might encourage others who have any flexibility in their schedules to shift their days earlier or later to avoid the rush of the 9 to 5 crowd. It occurred to me that this might result in a substantial change in traffic patterns every day of the week and not just on Fridays as I had previously expected.

Categories
National politics

Eight of 440

For anyone who argued that the actions of Texas CPS were justified back in April, it is telling that two more months of investigations have authorities asking for 8 children to be returned to state custody. Out of 440 children taken originally that works out to 1 in 55 or less than 2%. By my calculation that works out to a 98% overreaction in the first place – no wonder our country was founded on principles of limited government and a system of checks and balances.

In all fairness, the state seems to have learned its lesson for now as they are allowing those 8 children to remain with their parents until a hearing is convened to decided if their wish will be granted.

Categories
culture life National politics

Established Patterns

After a week on vacation it is nice to have a bit of a fresh perspective on life. We are entering a moth where we have to close on our old house in Lehi and our new house in Bountiful so there will be plenty to do. Having taken some time off I am ready to dive deeper into my job and be more productive now that I have basically adjusted to the routine of going to work every day and the new dynamics of working for a large organization (Intermountain has 30,000 employees where the largest company I had worked for before had a little over 300).

My time off also re-focused my efforts here as I consider what I am trying to accomplish. (No, this whole site is not simply a personal brain-dump where I can ramble on about anything that I happen to think.) I am going to pick up with the federalist papers and other founding documents that have disappeared from my postings in the last couple of months and I am also going to be more consistent about sharing the vision and efforts of the Downsize D.C. organization.

The more I have read about Downsize D.C. the more I believe that it fits with my vision of what needs to be done to brighten the future prospects of our nation. Downsize D.C. is dedicated to shrinking the federal government – which I think is necessary – but even for those people who disagree with many of their campaigns (and they campaign for legislation – not for legislators) I would submit that their method of providing information and tools to encourage and support individuals in taking action and being involved and informed is precisely the course to creating a healthier political process and a more empowered electorate.

Maybe I am biased, but I honestly believe that an informed, involved, and empowered electorate will naturally lead us back to a system of limited government rather than the system of unlimited governing bureaucracies that we have created over the last century.

Categories
life Local politics

When Mandates Are Not Optional

I generally do not favor government action that places a mandate on citizens. I don’t believe that it is the place of government to decide whether citizens should recycle or not, but if the options are between mandatory recycling and no recycling option after the citizens have overwhelmingly favored optional recycling it makes sense for the city to choose mandatory recycling. This appears to be the case in Bountiful.

The motion to proceed from Council member Beth Holbrook rescinded the “opt-in” proposal passed May 27.

Reasons cited were a change by Allied Systems, the previously chosen provider. It wanted a guaranteed minimum participation level and a four-year contract, and would start charging the city to maintain the 200 West recycling bins, at an estimated cost of $30,000-$35,000 each year.

With a  price-tag of $3 per month I don’t think we’ll see too much protest over this. Of course my position might be affected by the fact that I have lived with mandatory recycling in Lehi for a few years and I liked it. We generally had more recyclable trash than we did regular garbage so I thought the service was very worthwhile.

Categories
National politics

Raising Fiscal Awareness

Considering the importance of importance of fiscal policy it seems to evade any serious media coverage in favor of more exciting topics. Ross Perot has launched perotcharts.com to make the information accessible to people. Former Comptroller General, David Walker, has been lecturing around the country about the cliff we are speeding towards and now Peter G. Peterson is pledging to spend $1 Billion in a media campaign to raise public awareness of the issue. (Remember how much a Billion is?)

Ready and waiting as people start to recognize the trainwreck ahead, Downsize D.C. has a campaign which helps people let their congressional leaders know that they are aware of this issue. I think many members of congress are aware of this, but they don’t want to address it because there are no easy answers or short soundbites.

Categories
politics

Government and Religion

I was reading Doctrine and Covenants section 134 today. I have read it before on various occasions, but my perspective on government has sharpened considerably since the last time I read it and it struck a chord with me as a wonderful description of the proper interaction between government and religious organizations.

We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life.

We believe that all governments necessarily require civil officers and magistrates to enforce the laws of the same; and that such as will administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people if a republic, or the will of the sovereign.

We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.

Doctrine and Covenants 34:2-4

That resonates with my thoughts that government is a divinely sanctioned necessity for maintaining secular order in an otherwise chaotic world and also that the purposes of government are limited to establishing that order while stopping short of interfering with the legitimate agency of its citizens.

I wonder if any government has ever managed to avoid overstepping those very limited bounds consistently.

Categories
National politics

Weak Representation

In a move that was anything but surprising, the Senate voted to gut the constitution rather than stand up against the politics of fear. Democrats control both houses of Congress and yet this bill passed by large margins in both chambers. Senator Obama thinks that the executive branch is using fear to extract more power and yet he halted his presidential campaigning to go vote in favor of this capitulation to the politics of fear. The New York Times explains the outcome of the vote this way:

. . . many Democrats were wary of going into their political convention in Denver next month with the issue hanging over them—handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.

In other words, the Democrats were so afraid of defending their votes that they capitulated to the minority party rather than cast their vote according to their beliefs. This indicates that they believe in re-election above all else. Maybe we should reword the oath of office to reflect reality – “I pledge to support and defend my re-election at the end of this term.” This is the same thing that had Republicans, when they were in the majority, voting to expand domestic discretionary spending at unprecedented rates in an effort to create a permanent Republican majority. The Republicans were rewarded with the loss of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections. I wonder how the Democrats will be rewarded (probably not with the loss of the majority at this time).

P.S. Naturally Hatch and Bennett voted in favor – they were probably squirming in anticipation as they waited to cast their votes.

Categories
life politics

Independence From What

In church today there were a number of things spoken related to Independence Day. One of the people who spokle wa a woman from the UK who noted that the celebration was of independence from Great Britain. Of course that is a natural perspective, but I think that we need to recognize that that what we are really celebrating is independence from oppresive government. In Eighteenth Century America the government of Great Britain was the embodiment of government oppression.

Today we should still be mindful of any government oppression and assert our continued independence by participating in the system and holding government accountable because freedom from government oppression can only be had by clinging to an authority higher and more lasting than the current administration. That is why each officer of government at all levels pledges to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States – now if they would all keep their pledge.