Last Call

Bonus points for intellectual consistency for the man who would be Alaska's next Senator, Joe Miller.  He really is crazy enough to to go to Washington as Alaska's Senator in order to cut the state off at the knees financially.

"I don't think anybody can [claim] - sitting at $13.3 trillion in absolute debt, by some estimates $130 trillion in future unfunded obligations - that we are in any way in a good financial state," Miller said.

"The answer to this is to basically transfer the responsibilities and power of government back to the states and the people. That is really the only answer, I think, out of this crisis," Miller said.


"As we continue to tighten our belts because fiscally that's critical for the economic solvency of this nation, we also transfer it to the states more power. That means more ownership of lands. It's not a situation where you just yank the financial plug, but at the same time you're transferring over discretion over the use of the resource base," Miller said.

"In this state, two-thirds of it is owned by the federal government. There really isn't a good constitutional basis for that," Miller said. "It's our position that as the money is restricted, the lands are transferred." 

Alaska gets $1.84 for every dollar that they pay in federal taxes.  Joe Miller figures the state has the resources to go it alone.  That especially means Alaska's infirm and elderly.

Schieffer noted that Miller has also taken controversial and even extreme positions. "First you say you want to phase out Medicare. You want to privatize Social Security. I have to say there are a lot of people in Alaska who are on Medicare and are getting Social Security. Isn't that position going to be a problem for you in the [general] election?"

"I would suggest to you that if one thinks that the Constitution is extreme, then you would also think that the founders are extreme," Miller said. "We just simply want to get back to basics, restore essentially the constitutional foundation of our country. 

See, there's nothing about Social Security or Medicare in the Constitution.  If you really love America and the Constitution, you'll understand we have to go back before they existed, you know.  We need "other solutions" for dealing with the sick and elderly.  They're not pulling their weight, you know.

I may complain about Obama's Catfood Commission, but Joe Miller and the Republicans make what the Democrats are considering look like spring rain in the desert by comparison.

150 years ago a bunch of folks thought it would be really great to give power to the states.  Didn't work out so well, if I recall.  Things kind of got nasty.