Do-As-We-Say-Not-As-We-Do Department

We don't need more and more government programs to try and run people's lives. --Republican State Sen. Ted Kanavas.

He was talking about health care, which clearly doesn't need any government help or intervention because the system is working so well.

But Kanavas and his Republican colleagues think we need government to tell us how to conduct our personal lives, conception to the grave. Almost every day they propose another way to restrict personal decision-making and the right to privacy.

And, since they can't trust individuals or even local governments to do the right thing, they want state government to run people's lives.

Over the last month, an AP story points out, Republicans have introduced bills to force municipalities to sell public land to utilities, wipe out 21 local anti-smoking ordinances, limit government spending and forbid municipalities from setting their own minimum wages. That's not the whole list, just recent items.

“That's what the Legislature is for. We're the people's body," a spokesman for Speaker Jon Gard said. Right. And they're going to do what they think is best for the people whether the people want it or not.

“The myth of the GOP being the party of local control has been exploded. They're not there to govern. They're there to rule," said Madison Alderman Austin King. That's right. Majority rule. If only we didn't have any checks and balances and that pesky governor.

“The Republicans have a statewide agenda that can only be done through state control," said Joe Heim, a UW-LaCrosse political science prof.

Maybe Kanavas should say: "We're from the Republican Party, and we're here to run your life."