Rhode Islanders, like everyone, are complaining about their taxes, federal, state and local. But how many of them know what they are talking about? How many know how much of a free ride they are getting from others? How much others are getting a free ride off of them?
Do you know what the budget for running the state of RI is?
Have you ever thought of looking at it, analyzing what is there?
Do you know who is paying for what?
Or, Are you relying on the special interests to explain to you why they should get more and pay less?
Have you ever cornered your representative or senator and demanded to know what and why he or she is voting for a certain expenditure or tax?
Citizenship requires constant vigilance. If you are just complaining and whining but not taking any action to correct the problem, then the problem is you and not the government's.
The role of government is to respond to the needs and desires of its citizens. In a democracy that means responding to those who are exercising their first amendment right to the petition the government to help them with their grievances.
Reading the Providence Journal, and the comments often made to stories appearing there, I am amazed at the stupidity and lack of civility that many "thoughtful" citizens express. They rejoice in their 1st amendment right of free speech and the opportunity use a free press to spill their vial prejudices and ignorant opinions. But how many are following through with their responsibilities?
Are they using their right of free assembly to get together with others air their common concern to work out realistic solutions for the problems they see?
How many take the time and the effort to put those realistic solutions down on paper and bring them to their representation?
How many petition their representative for a hearing? And then, how many actually back their proposal and to push for their adoption.
I don't always agree with the Governor or the legislature. But I do understand the situation they find themselves in as public servants. If everyone hates you, then what is to be gained from trying help those who hate you, especially when your friends will happily reward you for your favors by reelecting you?
Sometimes weakness is strength. President Obama has been hamstrung by the Democratic majority in Congress. So has the Republican minority. With the election in Massachusetts of Senator Brown, Obama and liberal Republicans are freer to move to the center. Neither is totally accountable to their party any longer, their vote is no longer the determining factor to achieve party tactical advantage.
Each republican is now accountable to the voters in their state. And the President is now accountable to the American voters, all of those who help put him in office.
The real power in this country is among the independent, non- affiliated voters, a group of ranging from the politically alienated to the political centrists. It is here where the horse trading should take place, not with their radical cores of ideological party hacks.
Don't let these hacks and their media blowhards pigeonhole you into their simplistic categories of liberal or conservative.
The former don't know when to stop run and the latter doesn't know when to get off first base. If you are like me you want to get around the bases and score and not get thrown out or left on base.
But unless these independents stop whining, start rallying around their issues, and take responsibility for proposing realistic, actionable solutions to those issues, their voices will not be heard.
Right now we are seeing the birth of movement -- the Tea Party movement. Conservatives are trying to capture the energy they see there for their own agenda. Liberals are frightened by it. And entrepreneurial husksters, such as Sarah Palin and Steve Laffee, are making small fortunes exploiting them. Hopefully, as the dust settles, the emotional high runs its course and the opportunists go on to other victims, some real thought and leadership will emerge from the Tea party movement. Leadership and thought which will foster innovation designed to address real problems rather than current sloganeering. We will see!
In Rhode Island, we have a General Assembly bought and paid for by the donors to the Democrat party and a Republican party on oxygen. This is just the type of situation where a third party effort is needed at the grassroots. The only way to break the party stranglehold on individual legislators is to create an opportunity for local representatives and senators to vote their conscience. To do this means to free them from the monopoly power of party bosses. Here again the independents, united on the basis of their local concerns and interests, actively exercising their 1st amendment rights to the fullest, can provide the political cover these local representatives need.
If you think that public debt is too high, fine. How would you change it and where would you change it and have you really tested whether your solution can work?
The fiscal problems we face as a nation and as a state are too big and too important for you to sit in the stands. It is time to get off the bench and get out there and help solve the problems. It is time to put up or shut up. If you chose to shut up, just remember then that you are the problem. And, I know you won’t like the solution.
So here is the 2011 Rhode Island state budget proposal. Read it in detail. What don't you want in it, what do you want in it? How are you going to pay for it? And remember, the whole thing has to balance.
For more information about the Rhode Island budget for 2011 click here.
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