Recently, two of our clients, State Senator Al Melvin and State Representative Steve Montenegro, introduced Limiting Government Week, a novel idea based on concepts conservatives take largely for granted.
Conservatives believe in limited government — making it smaller, cheaper, more efficient. We believe that while a limited government can help us to secure our freedoms, when government gets bigger than that it can only do so by taking first from each of us another piece of our liberties and our resources.
Yet even in states where conservatives have a great deal of influence, state statutes, law books, and regulations all tend to get bigger each year. Is it enough of a victory to say that they grow slower in conservative states? No. Slowing the erosion of freedom is an improvement over allowing it to proceed at full speed, but the goal is to reverse it and restore our freedoms.
Limiting Government week says let’s spend one week each session focusing on bills that roll back government laws and regulations that are outdated, cumbersome, inefficient, or otherwise bad. Having a week like that on the calendar would give limited government groups something to focus on each year and something to focus their membership on. It would be the perfect time to attract attention to limited government causes and ideas. It would be excellent policy. NOTE: It doesn’t say that you can’t hear good bills any other time during the session, only that for one week the Arizona Legislature will focus exclusively on these types of bills.
It would also be great politics, both for conservatives and for the State of Arizona. The idea will attract national attention and companies/employers looking to start a business or move a business will notice that Arizona takes limited government so seriously that it actually spends time during its session dedicated to making government smaller and more efficient.
Limiting Government Week is great policy meeting great public relations. Conservatives should embrace it.
You can sign an online petition to support the idea here. And you can follow Limiting Government Arizona on Twitter here. Urge your legislator to endorse the idea!