In the midst of tension negotiations among California's legislators and the recently elected (re-elected?) Governor, Jerry Brown is pleading with law-makers and constituents throughout the state of California to advance the temporary tax hikes which will lapse July 1 of this year.
Without the extension of that revenue, Brown contends, the state of California will endured even deeper cuts than the previous years of the ever-growing fiscal insanity plaguing the Golden State.
He implores all interested parties on behalf of the common good that government is supposed to provide.
Therein lies the crux of the matter. Government, whether local, state, of federal, is not supposed to supply the public any good. The common good, in effect, does not exist, to the extent of defining and providing a series of policies that will please everyone.
Good government does not exists in its absence, but its reticence. Protecting individual rights to life, liberty, and happiness, that is the one role which belongs within the sphere of government. Thomas Jefferson expounded on this principle in the Declaration of Independence. Instead of welfare checks, subsidies, and generous pensions to state employees to prison guards, police officers, and even DMV clerks, the state of California would have defended individual rights, promoted commerce with minimal intervention, and secured the borders.
If lawmakers in Sacramento had heeded Thomas Jefferson's simple directive, then the Golden State would have retained its luster and lucre. But now, every interest group and politician has plundered the Golden Goose with entitlements, handouts, and unmitigated borrowing. Not only is there no money left, there is nothing left to borrow against.
Rather than promoting the common good, an activist government has widened the fiscal tragedy of bankruptcy to everyone. Good government is limited government, pure and simple.
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