We generally associate temper tantrums as children’s ploys to thwart authority and get extra candy or stay up an hour later than usual. Now we can associate temper tantrums with political ploys too.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, disgruntled by what she sees as “unfunded federal mandates,” wants to join a contingency of more than a dozen states ready to sue the federal government for passing the national health care legislation.
She has received staunch backing from the Arizona Legislature — even from House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, who said that Arizona needs to step in to void federal mandates, but also conceded that there actually isn’t a mandate in the law President Barack Obama signed, according to The East Valley Tribune.
Confused? So are we.
To add another layer of confusion to the mix, Brewer’s desire to sue the federal government was opposed by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. Now Brewer has asked the Legislature to enact a law that would allow her to maneuver around Goddard and file a lawsuit without the attorney general’s approval.
First off, Arizona voters elected Goddard — and the choice to sue or not sue should really be at his discretion. Allowing the governor to go around him in this incidence sets up a dangerous precedent. If politicians could make laws superseding the authority of other politicians willy-nilly, the government would be wholly unstable. That’s not to say we should blindly follow our leaders without questioning their moves, but we should be wary of throwing rules to the wind.
This is only one of many times Goddard and Brewer are set to butt heads in the near future. Both are in the running for the governorship — elections will be held later this year. Could this push to confront Democratic legislation be a way for Brewer to garner more political support from conservatives? Maybe so. While Goddard is currently the only Democratic candidate, Brewer will face many challengers in the September primaries — some of whom will likely attack her on fiscal policies, like her push for a 1-percent sales tax increase.
Which brings us to our second point: In case the governor and Legislature haven’t realized, Arizona doesn’t even have the money to support school children; how is the state supposed to fund a pointless lawsuit, widely believed to have zero effect on the federal legislation? Why should we waste our time and already-non-existent money on supporting this? Doesn’t Arizona have much larger fish to fry, like preventing the disintegration of public safety departments?
And thirdly, more than a dozen states have already signed on to sue the government — what good would it do to have Arizona join in the fray? If health care is overturned, it will be overturned, with or without Arizona taxpayer money. The legal challenge to the health care resolution is already underway, it makes zero difference whether Arizona lawmakers sign on to it.
So why should we jump into the fight? We shouldn’t — this is a temper tantrum Arizona can’t afford to continue.
