The Most Dangerous Place To Be Right Now: The Sidelines

The election season has — finally — ended, and soon the governing season will begin again in earnest. Although public policy will unfortunately continue to drift leftward at the national level, Missouri freedom lovers do not have the luxury of wallowing in their disappointment.

Starting next year, the Missouri Republican Party will have veto-proof majorities in both the state House and Senate. The re-elected Democrat governor had been able to stifle legislation from the legislative majority with vetoes and veto threats during his first term — a united Republican caucus would make that impossible in his second.

Indeed, the state legislature will have more power next year to exert its will in state governance. What will it do with that responsibility? What will it fight for?

I know what I will fight for.

I will fight to put an end to a decade’s worth of tax credit shenanigans that produce proposals such as 2011’s Aerotropolis and instead re-focus the state on enacting tax reforms that benefit all companies rather than the favored few. I will fight to have the corporate income tax eliminated and to have Missouri credibly respond to Kansas’ massive tax reforms of 2012.

I will fight for a health care policy that focuses on empowering the patient and the doctor, not the government. I will fight to have burdensome licensing laws reformed, particularly laws preventing some health care professionals from providing free care to Missouri’s neediest.

Especially today, supporters of liberty must ask themselves: “What will I fight for?” The state will be moving next year. The question is, in what direction?

The worst place you can be in the next few years is on the sidelines. Fight on.