Mackinac Center makes strong case for part-time Michigan Legislature

Michigan's Legislature has 148-members who fight and claw and anything else they need to do to stay in office for every possible day they can have under term limits.  They are full-time and many work hard to justify themselves in the eyes of voters.

To keep their almost $100,000 a year job, many of them have convinced themselves and voters that where there's legislative smoke there's fire.

Mackinac Center president Larry Reed, in an online column, outlines how the legislature tries to give citizens the impression that each need and problem can be solved with a bill.  Thousands are introduced every two-year session and several hundred are passed into law.

Think about it:  Can government solve the problems that make you stumble?  Can you point situations where government involvement has made a difference?  What about all the bills to have a state dog and a state whatever?  Is it worth it?

It's time to seriously talk about making Michigan's legislature part-time. 

We need to save the money that a full-time legislature costs and we need to move away from the idea that government can protect us from every ill wind that we encounter.