My old friend Chuck Muth called me a hypocrite in his Internet blog today, getting a few things wrong (such as that the final budget is larger than the one Governor Gibbons first submitted) while contending it is hypocritical for me to both introduce a TASC amendment and vote for the budget during the 2007 legislative session.

Which lead my mom to email me with:

Muth really took you to tasc– can you surprise him and vote no?

So I wrote back:

A single senator has no ability to change the size of a state’s budget. Blaming one for the budget being too large is like blaming the left tackle for the football team’s loss. It is the nature of legislatures to spend all available money.

By not marginalizing myself with a token protest vote, I get a chair - a big seat, it turns out - at the table where I can make the spending we do more efficient and effective.

Chuck’s a great guy, but Chuck’s chosen to spend his energy trying to influence how individual citizens think. He has no impact on the course of government.

My lot is to try to influence government. That it continues to grow faster than our society, despite my membership in the Legislature, is the most powerful demonstration of a TASC amendment’s importance that I can imagine.

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