As we pointed out last week, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to reevaluate his position on excessive government spending.

Might we suggest Representative DeLay check out these studies at the Cato Institute, Citizens Against Government Waste, and Heritage Foundation for some ideas on how he and the rest of the spendthrift government might consider truly cutting the fat:

In particular, we found this Heritage study particularly intriguing:

A Few of the Lone Star State’s Potential Contributions to the Gulf Coast Relief Effort

Design and construction streetscape improvements to enhance pedestrian access, pedestrian access, pedestrian access to bus services and facilities.
$800,000
Regional bicycle routes on existing highways in Austin, TX.
$800,000
Construct Mission Trails Project Packages 4 & 5 in San Antonio, TX.
$3,820,000
Construct and rehabilitate pedestrian walkways along the Main Street Corridor to improve transit-related accessibility.
$800,000
Development of one-story 300-vehicle parking facility
$1,200,000
Construct a pedestrian/bicycle trail in the Sunnyside area of Houston, TX.
$750,000
Construction of ferryboat for city of Port Arkansas, TX.
$320,000
Build bike trail at Chacon Creek in Laredo, TX.
$3,300,000
Hike and bike trail will tie into the Gellhorn Dr. project providing an improved multi-modal transportation facility.
$800,000
Construct bicycle and pedestrian trails in Houston’s historic Third Ward.
$600,000
Bicycle and Pedestrian Trial Network in East Austin, TX.
$7,680,000
Design and construct the Cottonwood Trial pedestrian-bicycle connection.
$800,000
Design and construct streetscape improvements to Old Spanish Trial - SH 288 to Griggs, Griggs to Mykawa.
$800,000
Construct landscaping and other pedestrian amenities in segments of the Old Spanish Trail and Griggs Road rights-of-ways.
$1,600,000
Downtown streetscape improvements in Beaumont, TX.
$512,000
Austin to Manor Rail Trail.
$1,600,000
Construct pedestrian walkway on Houston Texas’ Main Street Corridor.
$1,000,000
Construction of a parking facility at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX.
$2,000,000
Research and construction, Southwest Center for Transportation Research and Testing, Pecos, TX.
$1,000,000
Improvements in Cottonwood Trial.
$1,000,000
Galveston, TX – Intermodal center and parking facility, The Strand.
$3,762,000
Carrollton, Texas Downtown Regional Multimodal Transit Hub.
$1,000,000
TOTAL
$35,944,000

In an editorial on Sunday, the Oshkosh Northwestern points out that

“Raising taxes is an absolute last resort after all other options have been handled. A strong and solid defeat of this tax will send a message from supervisors that they understand their priorities.”

This is as true for small town USA as for state and federal government.  Unfortunately, like in Oshkosh, legislators often view raising taxes as the default first option during a budget crunch.

The editorial goes on to say, strangely enough, that if the local government continues to insist on raising taxes,

“Winnebago County will become a poster child for a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights that will impose permanent spending freezes through the state constitution.”

And that would be bad because…?

A Taxpyer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) is exactly what is needed.  Clearly politicians need boundaries; TABOR allows citizens to play a more active role in government and make sure that their taxes are going towards needed programs that benefit everyone.

For more on how TABOR would benefit Wisconsin read Dr. Barry Poulson’s  “The Truth About TABOR in Wisconsin… and Colorado”

Today in the Kansas City Star…

SHRINKING GOVERNMENT

Robin Hood revolt comes to Kansas

Greetings from Sherwood Forest.

I’ll be camping out here to assure myself of a front-row seat when the action begins. It would be great to see Kevin Costner gallop by in tights, but I’ll probably have to settle for Kansas politicians — not in tights, hopefully.

The action I’m anticipating is a taxpayers’ revolt. Kansas legislator Brenda Landwehr says her state needs one, and she seems pretty determined to make it happen.

“The classic struggle of the people against the political class is found throughout history and folklore,” Landwehr, of Wichita, notes on her Web site.

While we enjoy the Kevin Costner shout-out and politicians-in-tights imagery, further reading makes us wince (and not because our tights are too small):

…But when small government is the overarching value, you deny citizens — through their elected officials — the opportunity to assert any other values.

A state can’t mount a campaign for a healthier population, for instance, if its revenues are steadily constricting. The people can’t collectively decide to make schools and universities a source of excellence without clearing the high bar of a statewide vote to increase taxes. Elected leaders can’t be visionaries; they can only manage scarce resources.

Another thing: Small government is expensive. Families must pay more out of pocket for college tuition. Vehicles driven on bad roads need extra repairs. Missed childhood immunizations result in expensive medical bills later.

So small government infringes on liberty? That would mean Big Government enhances freedom…like in North Korea.  Yeah, the people there do seem particularly free, allowed to assert their values and live an autonomous life.

Let’s get serious: In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set out certain "self-evident truths," the foundations of freedom: "that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

What that means, quite simply, is that we're all born free to pursue happiness as we wish, by our own initiative, provided we respect the equal rights of others to do the same. In short, America's basic moral principle is "Live, and let live." This American Leviathan has evolved to incorporate limited laws that allow for freedom in an organized society. 

But excessive tax and regulation undermine this liberty and restrict personal and societal growth.  What is needed: simplicity.

Tax policy need not be rocket science: When you tax something, you get less of it. When you tax the formation of capital and revenue, you get less capital and revenue. When you decrease taxes, you get more wealth and revenue. Simple is as simple does.

So this business about small government being “more expensive” is sheer lunacy.  Everyone knows the government is not the most reliable agent of efficiency and that individuals know how to spend their money better than the bureaucrat in the back room.

Given these age-old axioms, a Taxpayers Bill of Rights is just what Robin Hood himself would have endorsed (had he taken a second to stop frilling around in the treetops).

For instance, in Kansas, Johnson County’s spending increased an incredible 13.2 % this year and approximately 81 % since 1997 -- far exceeding the inflation rate and population growth to which a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights would limit spending increases.

If a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights had been in effect in 1997, Johnson County government would have spent $344 million fewer taxpayer dollars over the past years. That's a lot of money that the taxpayers could be putting to much better use creating jobs and providing for their families. The hard-working taxpayers of Johnson County and the rest of Kansas (not to the mention the rest of the nation) deserve a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Let us conclude with this:

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censored, checked, valued, enrolled, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so."

—Pierre-Joseph Proudhon  

A good article in the Chicago Sun Times by Robert Novak points out how Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has become the point man for defending the taxpayers pocketbook during the post-Katrina time period. 

Coburn contends any government worker could find room to cut back spending in his own department before the federal leviathan demands more funds from any individual taxpayers. Ultimately, it is up to the government to sacrifice. As Coburn asserts, ''It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find any offsets.''

 Hooray for Coburn let's just hope that the White House and Senate leadership listen to him: help the victims, cut the pork.