Bob Barr

Legislators, Fight Urge to Go Overboard

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

February 1, 2006

In January 1995, I and more than 50 other freshman Republicans were sworn in as part of the first GOP majority in the House of Representatives in four decades.

It was a heady time. Plans were already under way to dramatically cut the size of government and its power over businesses and individuals. For a few years, it worked; not smoothly, but at least there was progress. We balanced the federal budget for the first time since the 1960s, significantly reformed welfare and cut taxes.

Unfortunately, like an old car patched together with duct tape and electrical wire, it started to sputter, slow down and eventually died. Now the federal budget and its accompanying debt are at all-time highs. Domestic discretionary spending has skyrocketed.

In many areas, government power over the citizenry is more prevalent and pervasive than under Democrat administrations. The Republican leadership is mired in defending itself against charges of corruption.

What happened to the Republican Party nationally—falling victim to overreaching, complacency and the seduction of power—should be a clear lesson to its counterpart here in Georgia.

The fundamental challenge facing Georgia state legislators—who belong to a party that was kept from the trough of power for far longer than their colleagues at the national level—is to resist the urge to force individuals, business, communities and local governments to do what the legislators want. This, of course, is what the Democrats did for decades. Forcing your vision of what's good for others on others is not really a conservative way to govern.

While Georgia now can "boast" it has one of the strongest statewide smoking bans in the country, it can hardly do so under the banner of having exercised traditional notions of limited government and personal freedom that used to be the core of the GOP's philosophy.

Some state legislators, not content with Georgia's existing mandatory seat belt law, are pushing to have it extended to cover pickup trucks. While few could dispute the notion it makes sense to wear a seat belt in a car or a truck, it strikes many conservatives as odd Republicans are pressing for this expansion of state power.

The media now regularly trumpet headlines and in-depth stories that Americans are becoming fatter; and they're probably right. Recognizing there's a problem with obesity in America, however, does not—at least if you are a true conservative—lead to the conclusion that the government must solve the problem by spending taxpayer dollars, creating bureaucracy and forcing citizens to shape up. Yet that is exactly what some Republicans are trying to do.

Republican-sponsored legislation pending in the Georgia Senate would create a state "health czar" and force public schools across the state to require minimum hours of physical education. A good idea to have P.E. in schools? Yes. A good idea to have a new state bureaucracy monitor the fat index of Georgia's kids and to tell local schools how much P.E. each student must have? No.

Republican state legislators are also falling prey to "KJS"—"Knee-Jerk Syndrome." A symptom of KJS is that every problem (or perceived problem), is quickly met with a knee-jerk legislative solution.

For example, as a result of a recent tragedy in which a young wife was killed in the course of an ATM robbery, some Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation that would force owners of all ATMs in Georgia to install software with a code that would enable users being coerced into withdrawing money to secretly alert authorities to their plight.

The Republican delegation in the Georgia Legislature is not yet totally lost to Big Government Republicans. There are still a number of solid, true conservatives under the Gold Dome. In the House, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Cartersville) led the fight to remove the fingerprint requirement for Georgia driver's license applicants. State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) is trying to ensure that use of broadband communication remains in private hands, not shackled by state control via the Public Service Commission.

Gov. Sonny Perdue and many of his GOP colleagues are pressing for tough legislation to protect Georgia property owners from the sort of eminent domain abuse condoned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

However, if Georgia's GOP legislators are ultimately to avoid the fate of their national counterparts who have been largely swallowed by BGRs, we need to see a lot more of Ronald Reagan in their actions and a lot less George W. Bush and Richard Nixon.

Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.