Adele Ferguson - Ex-Speaker Clyde Ballard offers state of state views

I RAN ACROSS a copy in my files of a speech given on the opening day of the Legislature 14 years ago by the then Speaker of the House, and wished with all my heart that this was the kind of man we had in charge today in Olympia and Washington, D.C. The people have been sending their legislators a message for quite some time, he said.

“They want change in the way government operates. They want change in the way government spends their hard earned dollars. They want change in the way government treats them. All too often we get calls from constituents or are stopped by people on the street who tell us they believe government is their enemy. Sadly, when we follow up on these citizen complaints it frequently turns out the person was right — government was not on their side.”

The people of Washington, he said, “have been delivering a clear message that they believe government has grown out of control, overstepped its bounds and lost touch with the needs and concerns of the public.”

On crime, he said, “Government has allowed the justice system to become a joke to the criminals who threaten personal safety.” On health care, he said, “people do not believe that government should dictate what coverage is available, limit personal choice in health care decisions or impose mandates that threaten to drive up health care prices and cause the loss of jobs and wages.” On taxes, he said, “government has grown too much, money is wasted through inefficiency and poor management, the public is saddled with an excessive tax burden.”

HE SAID MORE but I’d read enough to persuade me to ask former Republican Speaker Clyde Ballard in East Wenatchee how he feels about what’s going on today in Olympia.

“I’m not sure that reality has really set in yet as to the scope of the problem they are facing,” he said. “From what I’m hearing, it’s `let’s do a little here and a little there and hope the feds send us a bunch of money and we will live happily ever after.’ What’s really fascinating is that all too often, people in government feel they are a special animal. A lot of businesses in this state are on the verge of or have already filed bankruptcy, and there will be a lot more with a government that says `we don’t have to play by the same rules even though the taxes we take are from people who are going bankrupt so we don’t have to adjust our spending or cut back.’”

WHAT WOULD you do?

“The first thing I’d do is go back and see what absolutely essential services are being funded. You can’t tell me all they had in spending in the last five years was absolutely necessary. They just threw it here and there. I’d go back and ask is this absolutely vital to safety and health? If not, we are going to take it.”

Should marijuana be made legal?

“If they’re going to spend time on something, help us get through the economic crisis, don’t spend time on stuff that doesn’t impact that.”

Who do the Rs have on tap to be their candidate for governor next time?

“I still would not rule out Dino Rossi.”

Why didn’t he win last time?

“We had that weird deal with Obama who was going to change the whole world, everything was going to be free. All the promises he made. A lot of people were unhappy with what the Republicans had been doing and they didn’t vote. Dino got caught in the tsunami.”

And Obarna?

“If anyone had told me one man would virtually put our country on the edge of economic chaos in 12 months I would not have believed it.”

A lot of people are asking today, in the wake of his broken promises, who is this Barack Obama, I said. They’re a couple of years too late.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69. Hansville, Wa., 98349.)