One of the many rights that America recognizes and protects for its citizens is the right to elect those who govern us.
As we speak, Americans have chosen a government in Washington, D.C., that believes in the great importance of government and government programs in our daily lives; in using the power of government to make life fairer; and in growing the power of the federal government and the number of programs it administers to achieve these ends.
Compare that picture to the one that has emerged in our Florida state government. With this year’s session of Florida’s legislature adjourned, Plant City’s state Rep. Dan Raulerson has returned from Tallahassee and reported on the session at the Downtown Luncheon Club meeting last week.
In comparison with the expansion of government in Washington, our Florida Legislature is making good efforts to significantly downsize our state government. Our Legislature has limited the number of new bills a single legislator can propose. Not so many years ago, state legislators would propose up to 5,000 new bills in a single session and pass 500 of those. In this year’s session, 1,600 bills were proposed, and 284 passed. Using a targeted approach, Raulerson proposed 16 new bills, of which seven were enacted into law.
One of the most important principles of our American system is limited government. Americans fought and won the American Revolution, because we saw the English government sitting in London, many thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, passing laws and taking actions with no input from this side. These decisions taken by the English government intruded more and more on the private lives of Americans. After the Revolution, we enshrined in our system of government the concept that government should not try to be all things to all people by passing more and more and more laws.
Perhaps the biggest reason to limit the size of government is our capacity to pay for it. The budget passed by the Florida Legislature for next fiscal year, $74.5 billion, is a lot of money. Taxpayers should expect state government to be able to do its job within that limit.
Another way our Florida Legislature has worked to downsize government is by placing no limit on individual legislators who wish to file bills that repeal obsolete and out-of-date laws. Florida became a state in 1845, and since then, many laws have been enacted. Some of these are still good and should remain. However, many are no longer appropriate or effective, because of the great changes in our society over the past 168 years. In my lifetime, Florida has grown from a population of two million to nearly 19 million. Repealing laws that are no longer current is another good way to reduce the size of government.
The difference in perspective on government and its size between the governments Americans have elected in Washington and Floridians have elected in Tallahassee is obvious. These differences were indeed built into our multi-level system by the Founding Fathers, who rightly placed the ultimate power to choose those who govern us in the hands of the people.
Americans and Floridians are watching how those they have elected are using their power, and in 2014 and 2016, Americans and Floridians will make decisions at the polls based on their evaluation of the actions of their elected officials in Washington and Tallahassee.
Felix Haynes is the founding publisher and co-owner of the Plant City Observer.http://myxpresscam.com/dengi-do-zarplati-na-kartu.php