Whoa, the media in our state seems to be working overtime defending the governor by deriding the Legislature.

Let us understand the context in which they defend him. Our state is one of the richest in assets in the nation, yet we are a “poor” state. Why do you think that it is? It has always been so because we allow leaders to scare the hell out of us that reforming government to make our state a pro-growth state, instead of a pro-poverty state, will cost us personally. Someone is making more than me, someone will take away my state goodies, someone is not paying enough tax and instead I am, business is greedy and we need to tax it more, I may have an accident and strike it rich, so let’s not mess with the laws, and on and on.

Does that sound familiar? It should, the use of fear and jealousy by politicians has kept this state in the tank for generations. And now we have a governor who, if our goal is prosperity for the people, has done everything wrong. Under his leadership we have seen taxes go up billions, as he grew government. We have seen only minor incremental change in tort laws as his trial lawyer friends double down on TV and billboard advertising. We have seen absolutely no moves to make our economy competitive with other states, instead he promotes using scarce state revenues to literally buy businesses to come here and create a handful of jobs that last as long as the subsidies last.

OK, I have said this before, but what makes the media so wrong is that for the first time in history the Legislature has said “enough”. The COVID epidemic is bad but compared to other public health issues not that bad. We have a great many people who die from obesity, smoking, and drinking, probably more than COVID. But we do not shut down the state, we do not arrest people for eating fast food, we do not tase people for buying cigarettes.

Now the Legislature has taken up the cause of somehow putting the hundreds of thousands of people unemployed due to the governor’s actions back to work. And the media, instead of trying to inquire into what it would take to save our economy, grovels at the feet of the governor by painting the call of a special session as an attempt to embarrass the governor.

Amazing, the media lives on advertising revenue, but when a state has an economy devastated by COVID and long before, by bad leadership and policies, their own revenues must be in decline. One would think that they would employ someone, anyone, who understands the dire straits we have been in and who can explain to them that their own salvation relies upon an economically successful state. Several media outlets have pleaded with people to buy their product, but they do not see that they themselves and the policies they embrace and defend are the root of their own demise. Did I say amazing?

The Legislature should be applauded for ignoring a feckless governor and making a strong effort to get our state back into gear. The danger legislators face is not just a foolish media, it is also falling into the trap of letting the governor co-opt the legislation that they consider by inserting his policies, policies of malaise, into it. It is far past time for the Legislature to stop being a compliant whipping boy for a governor that has yet to unveil the first idea on how to get our economy at least back to the perpetual near last place that we have been in before COVID.

In fact this special session would be an ideal time to aggressively move pro-growth policies that are the only way that we can emerge from last place and take our rightful place as a state in which prosperity is the rule, not the exception.

The media is having its say defending the governor, but the people will have their say when the Legislature starts this session.