Our last legislative session provided a wonderful opportunity to pass some urgently needed legislation. Instead, lobbyists and their interests prevailed. The result was no reduction on medical liability caps, which means no reduction in medical malpractice insurance, which means we still have a growing shortage of healthcare professionals. The trial lawyers win again. Legislation to address the critical issues at the Child, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) also went without meaningful resolution. Legislation did pass renaming Game and Fish to Wildlife Department and placing it in charge of endangered species of insects. With 1,313 items to be considered, little time was allowed for citizen input. Citizens must be heard or politicians will do their own thing.
Some are obsessed with Elon Musk and DOGE’s initiative to cut waste, fraud and abuse from government. Social Security is a favorite hotspot for the left. “Keep your hands off my Social Security,” they say. What the resistance will not admit is, if you cut waste, fraud and abuse, you save money for Social Security. DOGE found that tens of thousands of asylum-granted aliens had received Social Security cards instead of a temporary Tax ID number (TIN), which would correctly reflect their immigration status. Some states accept a Social Security card and utility bill as proof of citizenship to receive voter registration.
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voters. Democrats have filed suit opposing the order, saying it would prevent many mail-in votes from being counted. Our Constitution states that citizenship is required to vote in federal elections. Some states have allowed noncitizen residents to vote in local and state elections. That decision is up to the state legislatures for local elections. Though citizenship is constitutionally mandated, only 36 states require proof of identification to vote. Procedural requirements for proving citizenship must be passed by Congress for federal elections. While Congress argues over procedure, voting rights groups claim any process violates the civil rights of those who have no identification.
Representative government is the core of our system. Nationally, Democrats lost control in the last election, through the voice and vote of the people – representative government. The Resist movement is spending hundreds-of-millions to negate this last election to prevent President Trump from fulfilling his election promises, by means of filing injunctions against his initiatives to downsize government. In the first Trump term, 64 injunctions were filed, opposing his executive orders, with 92.2% being filed in courts with Democrat-appointed judges. During the Bush, Obama and Biden presidencies, a total of 32 injunctions were filed. Why is there so much Trump opposition? Because he is the first modern president effective in taking on the vast bureaucracy, which benefits the elected, more than the electors.
Representative democracy is at stake. Unelected federal judges are challenging the right of the elected chief executive to downsize the unelected administrative state and discontinue administratively imposed regulations made by unelected officials. Congress can prevent most of this by doing a better job at legislating. That is becoming more difficult due to party differences, often over money and who gets it. Congressional inaction moves decisions to the courts, where politics often prevails over legal precedent.
Both state and federal legislatures need to be more about the people’s business. Presidential executive orders are often issued because Congress refuses to legislate. DOGE and Elon Musk may find trillions in unnecessary spending but these findings can be negated by Congress, which controls the purse. DOGE’s findings will ultimately amount to only suggestions for spending cuts. There must be a congressional plan to cut spending. If hundreds of earmarks in unread, multi-hundred-page omnibus bills continue as usual, DOGE’s work will be unsuccessful. How did government grow so big? Because our elected officials allowed it.
In our next election, we will choose three congressional representatives, a senator and a governor. Politicians should be held accountable to represent our interests beyond partisan interests. We voters are the only group who have no lobbyist. We only have our vote and it should not be for sale. Political offices also should not be for sale, but money plays a large part in who gets elected.