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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > June > 01
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Editorial: Lawmakers push buttons, get rewarded
Last week saw a flurry of bills coming up for action in Columbus because legislators wanted to adjourn for summer. A check on Friday to see what had happened on Thursday proved interesting. Specifically, it provided an insight into how certain issues become full-employment opportunities for politicians playing to interest groups.
On one day the Republican-controlled Senate acted on gun control, abortion and immigration. Old reliables, even if the politicians have to stretch a bit to find something to do with them, something that pleases contributors and activists.
In the category of issues that never go away, there was also campaign finance. But that one made some sense.
The U.S. Supreme Court has dramatically changed the rules about corporate contributions in political campaigns, allowing more leeway. That moved some legislators to enact rules in Ohio about what form of disclosure the corporations must do. Fine.
But look at the other efforts:
Gun control: Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro led an effort to grant a new right to people who have permits to carry concealed weapons: she wants them to be allowed to carry them into bars and restaurants.
Perhaps it had not come to your attention that the people of Ohio were up in arms, so to speak, about the prevailing denial of the inalienable basic right to be armed while eating.
As for drinking, they still wouldn’t be allowed, not if they’re carrying a gun. Nor could they enter a restaurant that has one of those no-gun signs.
Given that the people who carry concealed weapons legally are a small minority, the number who are demanding this particular amendment must be tiny, indeed. But, hey, a constituency is a constituency. And there’s no law against micro-legislating.
(An intriguing response came from Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer. He favors the change but said, “I think it puts pressure on bar owners to raise their awareness to make sure people aren’t drinking alcohol,” meaning, presumably, the people who are packing. But the whole idea is that the weapon would be concealed. How would the bar owner know about it?)
Abortion: Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, won Senate approval without debate for a measure about abortions done without parental consent. As things stand, a minor can go to court to ask for a waiver of the law requiring parental consent.
Sen. Grendell says some judges grant the waiver 90 percent of the time. Too high for him. His bill would require that the court inquire into how much the pregnant girl knows about the impact of abortion.
Immigration: Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, moved to prevent illegals from getting workers’ compensation benefits. There’s not much evidence illegal aliens are getting workers’ comp. The state doesn’t check on immigration status.
Of course, a case can be made for denying state aid to aliens, as they are denied Medicaid and unemployment benefits. But the measure ran into the complaint that there’s something a little sleazy about letting employers use illegal aliens until they get injured, then dump them, without responsibility.
Whatever one thinks about these pieces of micro-legislation, what’s striking is how determined the politicians are to make sure that a useful issue never goes away. If they lose, they can keep trying, which is fair enough. And if they win, they just keep asking for more.
At some stage, they get an award at a banquet, which follows awards in the form of campaign contributions, and promotes more.
The sad part is that, meanwhile, their salaries are being paid by everybody.
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