Do No Harm Agenda Needed
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
While reading an article which told of the continuing weakness in the Las Vegas economy (which happens to also be a extremely significant factor in the Nevada economy) I scanned down to the comment section of the article to read the exchanges of the various others who had read the article and felt compelled to sound off on their perspectives. Naturally, given the sorry state of affairs, there was the back and forth on whether our senior U.S. Senator has actually been bringing home the bacon like his television commercials tell us we should be appreciating. There was also the firing back that Senator Reid’s opponent in the race (Sharron Angle) wouldn’t and couldn’t do any better.
About mid-way down the section I read one of the more insightful observations of any of the lot – this writer took the perspective that it wasn’t a Reid vs Angle thing. In their point of view, rebuilding the economy was an “us” thing. Instead of standing around waiting for government to fix things or expecting one political candidate to do better than another, we are the ones who need to take the actions to lift things out of the ditch.
For the most part I would tend to agree with this assessment, but I do think the election process is still important to clearly show those in charge of the legislative process that they need to stay off the back of business, out of the wallets of those who are going to be turning things around and start practicing a “do no harm” style of government. This isn’t to say that proper regulations which maintain adequate protections and safeguard honest business transactions shouldn’t be continued. It is to say that their designs for expanding the tax based to dig deeper into profitable enterprises has to be discarded as a game plan for the coming legislative sessions.
The trouble is that those in charge of the legislative process are convinced that the public sector (teachers and other government interests) are simply more important than the private sector. That attitude was driven home by comments and actions in the 2009 Legislative session and again emphasized during the special legislative session in 2010. Perhaps because of being politically beholden and maybe just because those in charge of the Legislative process don’t understand what it takes to sustain a working economy – whatever the case the concept of keeping tax burdens from growing in a serious recession, simply doesn’t seem to register.
If you can’t expect these folks to get it, you have to do what’s necessary in the voting booth to keep them from having the votes they require to slam and jam their tax visions further into destroying what’s left of our economy. Government has to be brought to heel, reducing the size, scope and intrusion to very limited levels.
It’s going to take a very significant effort on the part of the private sector to regain the necessary confidence and resources of investors, entrepreneurs and existing business enterprises to get things moving forward again. A full-fledged “do no harm” platform, implemented in legislative terms by doing things (and not doing things) that demonstrates an understanding of the proper role of government and the private sector will be very useful and productive in getting us back on our feet.
While reading an article which told of the continuing weakness in the Las Vegas economy (which happens to also be a extremely significant factor in the Nevada economy) I scanned down to the comment section of the article to read the exchanges of the various others who had read the article and felt compelled to sound off on their perspectives. Naturally, given the sorry state of affairs, there was the back and forth on whether our senior U.S. Senator has actually been bringing home the bacon like his television commercials tell us we should be appreciating. There was also the firing back that Senator Reid’s opponent in the race (Sharron Angle) wouldn’t and couldn’t do any better.
About mid-way down the section I read one of the more insightful observations of any of the lot – this writer took the perspective that it wasn’t a Reid vs Angle thing. In their point of view, rebuilding the economy was an “us” thing. Instead of standing around waiting for government to fix things or expecting one political candidate to do better than another, we are the ones who need to take the actions to lift things out of the ditch.
For the most part I would tend to agree with this assessment, but I do think the election process is still important to clearly show those in charge of the legislative process that they need to stay off the back of business, out of the wallets of those who are going to be turning things around and start practicing a “do no harm” style of government. This isn’t to say that proper regulations which maintain adequate protections and safeguard honest business transactions shouldn’t be continued. It is to say that their designs for expanding the tax based to dig deeper into profitable enterprises has to be discarded as a game plan for the coming legislative sessions.
The trouble is that those in charge of the legislative process are convinced that the public sector (teachers and other government interests) are simply more important than the private sector. That attitude was driven home by comments and actions in the 2009 Legislative session and again emphasized during the special legislative session in 2010. Perhaps because of being politically beholden and maybe just because those in charge of the Legislative process don’t understand what it takes to sustain a working economy – whatever the case the concept of keeping tax burdens from growing in a serious recession, simply doesn’t seem to register.
If you can’t expect these folks to get it, you have to do what’s necessary in the voting booth to keep them from having the votes they require to slam and jam their tax visions further into destroying what’s left of our economy. Government has to be brought to heel, reducing the size, scope and intrusion to very limited levels.
It’s going to take a very significant effort on the part of the private sector to regain the necessary confidence and resources of investors, entrepreneurs and existing business enterprises to get things moving forward again. A full-fledged “do no harm” platform, implemented in legislative terms by doing things (and not doing things) that demonstrates an understanding of the proper role of government and the private sector will be very useful and productive in getting us back on our feet.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 8/2/2010 6:06 AM 
Categories: Economy
Tags: Unemployment Weak Economy Nevada 2010 Election Limited Government
Categories: Economy
Tags: Unemployment Weak Economy Nevada 2010 Election Limited Government
I agree with you Doug, that government can't do everything, but the reason were in this mess now is government did stay off the backs of business--particularly big business--and out of their wallets. Wall Street ran amok. Business execs now stuff their wallets at the expense of their investors, their employees and the government. Not only does government need to "get on their backs" but in their faces as well. Time for these priveleged princes and princesses of business to realize they live in a democracy not monarchy or oligarchy.
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