Bob Beers. Now more than ever

Want to defeat the Tax and Spending Control (TASC) ballot initiative, the extremist right-wing anti-government scam that some are calling the most important single vote on the 2006 ballot?

Easy. First, send money to the gubernatorial campaign of TASC-master Bob Beers. Second, register Republican. Third, vote for Beers in the primary.

Just kidding. Sort of.

TASC (or TABOR, as its known elsewhere) says government spending can't grow faster than the rate of inflation plus population growth. It's underlying premise is based on the ideology, or religion, perhaps, wherein all government, except the warmongering part, is bad. This is a very fashionable and popular point of view, particularly among people who get most of their daily news from Entertainment Tonight or the Fox News Network or who otherwise don't pay attention. TASC also allows voters who are overwhelmingly clueless about what government does and why they should care, and who already enjoy one of the lightest tax burdens in the nation, to huff and puff and say, "well, I'll show that darned government a thing or two." Which is to say TASC (assuming its backers ever draft an acceptable ballot petition), is almost guaranteed to pass. It's too simple not to. (And before you start bellyaching about what a harsh view of the electorate that is, think about the twisted moronic messages that political candidates put in their campaign ads. When it comes to cynical dismissals of the electorate's intelligence, we're amateurs).

The races with faces, e.g., the governor's race, will get more popular attention and water cooler debate than TASC -- even though if TASC passes, it would so hamstring state government flexibility and options that the outcome of the governor's race may well be moot. Assuming the operation is a success and surgeons locate GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Jim Gibbons' spine, both he and the Democratic candidate for governor in the general election will oppose TASC. And because it is a subject on which they basically agree, they won't drop millions on TV ads attacking it, each instead spending their money explaining to voters that the other routinely has sex with illegal immigrant minors in a meth lab operated by Al Qaeda. Or words to that effect.

But let's imagine, just for fun, that Bob Beers, the one-man TASC force, were to win the Republican primary. Inasmuch as Beers has a point, TASC is it. It would be the centerpiece of his entire campaign. Between the gubernatorial race and the official campaigns for and against TASC, the general election very likely would be all TASC all the time.

Unlike Jim Gibbons, who hopes to win the governor's office by saying as little as possible except in the most scripted of situations lest he start speaking his mind and scaring children, Bob Beers will speak anywhere, anytime, terrified young'ns be damned. And while Beers, again unlike Gibbons, undeniably possesses natural political skills and even a breezy charm on occasion, he is, at bottom, a zealot. Moreover, he is a readily identifiable zealot. Given extended and extensive exposure to Bob the Believer, even the most casual of public information consumers, i.e., voters, would almost assuredly develop full-on Bob Fatigue, and many might be just a tad spooked in the bargain.

Beating TASC is going to be an uphill battle. But there may be one man who can single-handedly defeat TASC and send it to history's dust heap where it belongs. Especially if, by some wild confluence of unlikely and unforeseen events, he somehow becomes the Republican nominee for governor. Go Bob Go.

Comments

[Diogenes]

Senator Beers proposed Tax and Spending Control initiative (TaSC) bears some further analysis and commentary. TaSC will be modeled after the Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TaBOR). TaBOR legislation was passed some thirteen years ago. After those thirteen years of degrading state services, the voters of Colorado on November 1st voted to suspend TaBOR for the next five years. This was done to save the TaBOR induced financially troubled programs like the park system, collapse of the college and university systems, limited capacity of the prison system, cutbacks in emergency services and programs for the elderly and environment. These were just a few of the programmatic problems created by TaBOR. TaBOR creates and mandates a formula method of establishing government operating budgets, which is predicated on population growth and cost of living.

If what Senator Beers is proposing is similar or identical to TaBOR, I have a suggestion. If TaSC is qualified for the ballot and passed by the voters of Nevada, there will no longer be a need for the legislature and the governor's office. The reason for this is that any legislation requiring funding, cannot be funded due to the restrictions of TaSC and all existing funded programs could only be increased in accordance with the TaSC formula.

In light of this, I do not understand why Senator Beers would like to occupy the Office of Governor, when there will be nothing to do or approve. Even in Colorado, the legislature and the Governor said they were helpless in developing programs and responding to state problems because of TaBOR restrictions. Should TaSC pass, I suggest we do away with the legislature and the office of the governor, and replace them with a computer. Now I thought about a Super Computer to manage state government, but I don't think they need anything that powerful and I am willing to donate my retired abacus, that is if all the legislators would resign and all candidates for governor and the legislature withdraw their candidacy. Maybe then Nevada could save some real money!

Senator Beers is the only one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates to actually take a stand. Many stands, actually. And the thing is this: he knows what he's talking about.

When TASC passes, and it will, we'll still need a governor. Might as well have one who isn't out to shake us all down. Beers has my vote. Unlike the others, you always know where he stands. I'm looking forward to watching some of the debates. Hunt will prove herself to be way out of her league, and Gibbons will prove that he is the buffoon is truly is.