I had the privilege to speak to the West Virginian Council of Churches at their yearly forum to compare their agenda with the Republican platform. Even though they have a history of supporting liberal causes, they were very gracious and hospitable.

As I told the WVCC, the Republicans share their goals of equal opportunities for all West Virginians and the elimination of poverty. We just differ on how to reach it. The most notable difference is that WVCC believes in government programs while Republicans trust the private sector.

Democratic Leader Nick Casey spoke as well to espouse the Democratic side. He told the WVCC that if they voted for Republicans they were essentially wasting their vote. The Democrats, Casey said, were “the winning team.” Governor Manchin, on the other hand, said during his press conference after the September Special Session that West Virginia was ranked 50th.

I wanted to ask Casey if we are last place, how could the party who has been in power for over 70 straight years be winning, but I took a note from the WVCC and was gracious as well.

As Don Blankenship says, “I’m not asking West Virginia be first in everything, but wouldn’t 25th be nice sometimes?”

Senate raises without accountability

Employees in the Senate recently received notifications of raises. Mine was $1000. While I appreciate any increase to a salary that is 30% of my Democratic counterpart, my raise is a vivid example of what is wrong with big government.

There was no review of my work and no analysis of how much value I bring to the state of West Virginia. My only accomplishment was staying employed for eleven months.

The private sector on the other hand scrutinizes their employees – as they should – to insure they bring enough value for a pay increase.

DHHR’s failure

The Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) recently took an autistic child from his father only to return the child several days later. The DHHR initially thought the father was abusive, but as they gave the child back a social worker admitted to the father, “man, we messed up.”

But taking the child was not their only mishap. Instead of taking the child’s prescriptions, the DHHR purchased similar, but not exactly identical prescriptions for the child and the little boy almost died. Doctors now tell the father that the boy will never recover to the level of wellness he experience before the DHHR raided his home.

Now the father is planning to sue the DHHR.

Government’s tendency

History proves government is more prone to mistakes and mismanagement than private industry. The overabundance of money and under-abundance of accountability makes most government programs ripe for failure.

Business has stockholders and the success of their enterprise to keep them accountable. Sadly, a government program’s stockholders (voters) do not have enough details to know if a program is failing and we all know even the least proficient programs rarely get cut. Instead of cutting the program and putting it’s funding to good use, politicians just shovel in more taxpayer money.

Capitol talk is usually in the millions, while there are private, non-profit institutions all across West Virginia who would kill to have a mere thousand.

One thing is certain: one more year of failing government programs will not make anything better. As Albert Einstein said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”