Self-help tip for the day: hand it off. Learn to delegate.
Critics of term limits often complain about how term limits kick experience out the door. And how tough it is for newcomers to learn the ropes.
What I keep hearing, though, is that new legislators bring experience to the table that is highly relevant. Experience as farmers, accountants, businessmen, taxpayers.
And what about all that complicated legislative stuff? Well, turns out the actual legislative procedure is not all that complicated. And even the arcane niceties of legal language don’t have to be a stumbling block. U.S. Congressman have their staffers to hack out bills for them. But state legislators get help too.
For example, I see at the Arkansas legislature’s web site that the actual drafting of the legal language of bills is handed off to the Bureau of Legislative Research. After that, according to the web site, “A bill is given to the Chief Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate and assigned a number. The sponsor(s) of a bill signs the original copy.” Then I guess at some point everybody gets to vote on it. Sounds like rocket science, doesn’t it?
No, submitting a bill isn’t the hard part. There’s a manual for that. The hard part is representing citizens fairly and governing fairly. And there’s no reason why a person can’t be experienced in balancing the books, the problems of particular industries or, for that matter, the basics of a just political philosophy long before entering public office.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.