Lucy Baxley: Mother of prosperity?

Ronald Reagan used to say that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

Well, it appears that Lucy Baxley could learn a thing or two from the Gipper. While she was visiting Huntsville last Saturday, she managed to give voters a valuable clue into her philosophy of government. Speaking to supporters here in town, she said, "How are we going to make Alabama prosperous? That's why I'm here."

That's a pretty bold statement; in it, Mrs. Baxley seems to claim that government is suited not only to the limited role of securing our prosperity, but also to the expansive role of providing for it. One only needs to read through Mrs. Baxley's campaign platform to see how neatly this statement summarizes her views about the proper size and scope of government power.

Her proposals include raising the state's minimum wage; making it easier for citizens to purchase computers, printers, desktop software, and internet access through government subsidies and/or coercive incentives on business; "using every resource available to investigate [non-existent] consumer price gouging by big oil"; and creating incentives (i.e. subsidies or privileged tax treatment) for the local production of renewable fuels. All of those ideas represent big-government solutions to problems that the private sector is better positioned to solve, and is solving, on its own.

I'm glad that Mrs. Baxley wants to make Alabamians more prosperous, but the real route to prosperity requires limiting the size and scope of government power and freeing the private sector to flourish in the always-fertile ground of economic liberty. It also requires that political leaders possess a certain humility about their role in contributing to economic progress. A would-be leader who says, "How are we going to make Alabama prosperous? That's why I'm here," does not possess that kind of humility.