What Scares Liberals Most About Shutdowns Is That People Might Learn How Little They Need The Governemtn
In Minnesota, due to a stalemate on the state budget, the government has been shut down. That means only essential staff like cops, prison guards and, uh, Governor Mark Dayton’s personal chef are still on the job.
Naturally, the media has been full of sad, sad stories about all the harm being done by the government shutdown. On the radio show we’ve been getting calls from Minnesota listeners about liberal protesters all over the state. But I wonder if the real lesson of the government shutdown is just how little our day-to-day lives are impacted when the government is trimmed back.
Sure there are some headaches. People can’t get fishing licenses right now. New businesses are stuck waiting for regulatory approval. And no doubt there’s a lot of effort being put in to make this shutdown difficult for citizens just to prove how useful and necessary government is. But it’s not like the sky has fallen. It’s not like life as Minnesotans know it has ground to a halt.
How many Minnesotans are beginning to realize just how much of the billions upon billions of dollars in government they’re paying for is completely arbitrary, redundant and unnecessary?
The state legislature ought to convene a study and find out just which aspects of the state government went unnoticed when they were shut down and then eliminate those budget line items and pass the savings on to the taxpayers.