Buckeye RINO

Want my vote for Congress next year?  Want my vote for state elections in 2010?  Then let “DO LESS!” be your campaign slogan.

One caveat would be that our nation needs to retain its leadership role internationally, but on the domestic front, the people of our nation are highly literate and highly technologically advanced compared with earlier eras in our nation’s history.  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can be maintained more readily through decentralized government in this era than through any prior era in our history.  Paradoxically, the centralization of government, the consolidation of power, continues to flow away from the people, away from the communities, and toward the state capitals, and especially toward DC.  We, the People, are better equipped than ever before to take responsibility for ourselves.  Stop trying to baby us.

Even if you politicians lack confidence in We, the People, you need to rein in government spending, anyway.  The economy can’t sustain the government’s growth.  We, taxpayers, can’t sustain your growth.  By fiscal necessity, you must shrink, whether you think it’s prudent or not.

Don’t try to do more with less.  DO LESS with less.

I want my government to do less.  I want bureaucracies merged or eradicated.  Non-profit organizations that depend on big government to award them funding as if our national and state treasuries are Santa Claus?  Sorry, but non-profits, like the for-profit sector, will have to downsize in this economy, too.

Pay raises in government?  Don’t even think about it.  What’s the justification you always try to hoodwink us with?  Doesn’t it go something like this?  “We need the best people, and the private sector could lure them away if we don’t offer competitive compensation.”  Well, I tell you, in this economic environment, such justification is PHONEY!  Let them go to where the compensation is more to their liking.  We need the most selfless people, not the most selfish people, in our government.  Don’t kid yourselves that you had the best people to begin with, anyway.  Can’t you see that those “best” people have created a mess?

The government’s social safety net?  Make it a smaller net.  The most important net should be private-sector employment.  If employment opportunities are curtailed because of the safety net, guess what?  Employment gets higher priority.  Apparently, you aren’t listening, because unemployment is on the rise.

Politicos in Columbus, stop issuing bonds.  They have to be repaid with interest.  If the objectives that we financed with bonds are important enough, then we can budget them out of current expenditures.  If they aren’t important enough that we’d budget for them out of current expenditures, then they aren’t important enough to issue bonds for, since we must pay interest on on them.

Stop fretting that eliminating programs will hurt the most vulnerable members of society.  Under the current regime that you’ve concocted, we’re all being hurt, we’re all vulnerable, and the members of society most capable of sustaining the rest of society are being penalized the most.  If private sector employment rises, it not only benefits the most fit, it also increases opportunities for those who are less so.

There are too many government agendas.  They must be streamlined and prioritized.

Case in point:  Merge the ORSC, the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission, with ODJFS.  Right now, the ORSC has separate offices from ODJFS, but I have no idea why.  Merge the Department of Aging with ODJFS, as well.  Merge all the social service delivery systems into one to eradicate duplication.

Eliminate the Department of Development.  You already have a Department of Commerce.  In fact the Department of Commerce could absorb the Department of Transportation, the Department of Insurance, the Department of Travel and Tourism, among others.

The Ohio Department of Public Safety could absorb the Department of Corrections, the Ohio EPA, and the Department of Youth Services, among others.  Why do we need these additional line items in our budget?

We don’t need a Department of Education as it is currently structured.  We don’t need a state superintendent.  School districts can handle this at the local level.  For collecting data from the school districts across the state, all you need are clerical workers.  You don’t need a think tank staffed with expensive consultants.  If local school districts need some help along that vein, they can consult with the education faculties at our state universities.

When you incumbent politicians campaign, don’t brag to me about what funding you secured for whatever lofty noble goal or whatever down-on-their-luck constituency.  I don’t think your worth to us taxpayers is measured by the $$$$ you spent.  I think the $$$$ you saved us is more worth our while.

The more you politicians do, and the more you spend to do it, the more burdened We, the People are.  Not only are you costing us money, you are costing us liberty.

Want my vote?

DO LESS!