A bit ironic, isn’t it?
This year Oklahoma legislators have filed 2,378 bills and 77 joint resolutions — 2,455 in all. That was up by about 200 compared with last year.
According to the 2012 Session in Review and 2003 Session Highlights reports produced by state House fiscal staff, the number of bills and joint resolutions filed this year was the most since 2009. More notably, this year’s total is the second-highest in the past 20 years.
Filing legislation isn’t the same thing as passing laws; only about 400 measures are typically signed by the governor each year. Still, it is ironic that a Legislature with Republican supermajorities has shown such a strong desire to pass new laws.
One has to hope many of these bills are repealers, not new law. If not, given that big Democratic majorities in 1993 got by with just 1,475 measures, shouldn’t small-government Republicans be able to do the same?
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One frustrating thing about the modern conservative movement has been the nebulous definition of “small-government”. Is it money taxed and spent? Is it the number of laws passed? Some combination thereof? And moreover, how does one quantify such things? If you constantly talk about the need to cut taxes all in the name of keeping to “small-government” principles, it seems that at some point, your principles are just to pay lower taxes.
Also, are all laws passed the same? If a state 100 laws and another passes 150, is the first always going to be more “small-government” than the other, regardless of what’s in those laws? And if so, then such broad measurements seems to be sort of lame.