Loretta Doesn't Understand What Ails Our Government
| February 8, 2010 Loretta Weinberg is proposing a new "sunshine" law to "open" New Jersey government to the scrutinizing oversight of the general public.
"It may sound trite and cliché at this point, but it's been proven true time and time again - the best disinfectant for government impropriety is the cleansing light of public scrutiny," Weinberg said in Trenton. "When members of the public have full, unfettered access to their elected leaders and to public documents and records, there's fewer opportunities for the few unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of the public trust. These bills...
We'll set aside the obvious hypocrisy of Loretta's involvement for the moment. I want to attack the substance of her bill. Disclosure certainly isn't a bad thing, Save Jerseyans. That being said, Senator Weinberg's assertion that more legislation is the "best disinfectant for government impropriety" simply isn't true! The premise of her proposed legislation is fundamentally flawed.
The ONLY effective way to clean up government is to SHRINK government.
Right now, billions of dollars flow through Trenton every year into a myriad of different departments, agencies, boards and commissions. The most technologically-advanced web database known to man -- manned by the most diligent researchers and watch dog groups in the world -- couldn't keep tabs on every cent expended. Moreover, the size and scope of government actually encourages special interests to corrupt the process.
Currently, Governor Christie is grappling with a perverse financial incentive for special interests to spend money to steer government dollars and benefits in their direction or, in the case of lobbyists, their clients' direction. Manure attracts flies, folks. If you want the bad guys to go away, then you have to clean up the source of attraction; in this case, we need to eliminate waste, end pork, and get the excessive piles of tax dollars out from under big government's control. You can't just "regulate" the flies away. You need to starve them out!
I hope it's clear to you that all of the well-intentioned campaign finance laws, sunshine regulations and whatever else the Weinberg's of the world can cook up can't solve the core problems corrupting our elected officials. Ironically, Weinberg's votes to expand government's size and scope serve to negate any potential effect of this proposed ethics legislation!
If we're serious about ending corruption and waste, then we need to get serious about the real root causes at issue in the ethics sphere. Chris Christie gets it, and he's trying to attack institutional corruption by shrinking state government.
Will you consider joining him, Senator?
Matt, change your headline...its "ails"...not "ailes"...
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Thanks for catching that, Rick. I made a classic mistake -- trusting spell check!
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No prob...personally, I like "ales"...dark ales, light ales, 10.2% alcohol content ales, etc.
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Nothing beats a good Smithwicks.
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