SOUNDING OFF:Too many laws, too few restrictions

Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown directed this state’s outstanding growth and transformed it into the most desirable place in the nation. I believe, as he, that it was a matter of having part-time legislators. They were focused on the truly compelling issues facing the state.

Today, we have full-time writers of law. They feel obligated to justify their huge salaries, benefits and staff personnel by the number of laws they impose on us. Repeatedly, we see Orwellian oversight and dictates that impose their loony ideas of how we must conduct our lives.

The latest is the dictum of how we are to raise our kids. California says never spank your child if he/she is under the age of 4. The assumption is that it knows better than parents when corporal punishment is to be used, imposing both fines and a year imprisonment for those who dare to pat their child. It presumes that you can always reason with one having a “terrible twos” tantrum. Laws already exist for child abuse, but the state’s legislators need to justify themselves by forcing more needless laws upon us all.

I would like to suggest that we restrict their lawmaking to one 24-hour period each year and that only 24 new or revised laws may be written, the first of which is the budget. Further, each politician is to be given $1 million if and only if the above is met. Naturally, no other compensation can be granted by the state. The savings to the state’s economy, its businesses and taxpayers would be in the billions. Finally, we would get priority items first.

How else would they earn their $1 million per year for a single day’s work?