It is easier still to allow the emotional argument to compel lawmakers to make an imprudent and fiscally uninformed decision

The BC Liberal government, and the NDP on before it, have lost focus on the need to prioritize the expenditure of dollars to keep government efficient and limited, and instead have simply embraced a progressive ideology that suggests expanding, overreaching and overspending is the proper and fundamental responsibility of government.

This has led to a consistent, steep growth in government, to the detriment of a sustainable provincial budget and British Columbia’s private sector.

It is also too easy for our MLA's to become separated from the “bottom-line” of budget reality and instead become caught up in the dazzling attraction of single projects.  In my experience in the legislature, every project was presented as beneficial and necessary, with a compelling argument for funding.

This made it difficult to say no. 

And because projects presented outside the budget bill are disconnected from the overall fiscal reality, it is easier still to allow the emotional argument to compel lawmakers to make an imprudent and fiscally uninformed decision. These problems have added to the specter of less money in the pockets of British Columbia taxpayers thanks to a proposed gas tax increase in 2013

BC MLA's need to go back to basics and rediscover the benefits of prioritizing government functions and staying focused. 

They also need to reconnect with bottom line budget reality as each new enticing project is passed under their noses. 

And they need to reject the idea that more money has to be stripped from the taxpayers’ pockets to pay for roads. 

Clear common sense thinking will lead legislators down the right road; a road that rejects this muddled-thinking tax increase and transports them back to the prosperous reality of a limited, efficient government.

Government has a Spending Problem, not a Revenue Problem ... is an article which was written by Amy Edwards on November 21, 2012.

Amy Edwards is a soon-to-retire legislator -- she served six years in the Wyoming House of Representatives and on both the Revenue and Appropriations Committees,

What you read above is a plagiarized version of an article she (Amy Edwards) wrote -- all I really changed were a few words and all of a sudden this was about things as they currently stand with the BC Liberal government led by Premier Christy Clark. Legislators and lawmakers became MLA's ... Wyoming to British Columbia ... etc.

Sadly, governments all over the United States -- and Canada -- are increasingly losing control over spending, and simply going cap in hand to taxpayers for more money.

WE DON'T HAVE ANY MORE TO GIVE!  And as BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins has said, "Government doesn't need to spend more -- it needs to spend smarter".

Those words are worth repeating as many times as it takes until government gets the message.

Do we want "... the emotional argument to compel lawmakers to make an imprudent and fiscally uninformed decision(s) ..."?

Apathy towards government will not end because we say we want it ... it will only end when more and more people begin to make educated choices, and decisions, about who they elect to represent them.

AND ... only when we begin to insist they govern with integrity, and be accountable to us for the decisions they make.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops ... with the thoughts of one conservative.  The floors now open to you.