Editorial: Debating right role for U.S. government

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000 | 9:10 a.m.

The candidate said the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are being eroded because of federal government actions. "I will tell you flat-out today that most of what the United States government does is unconstitutional," the receptive audience was told. No, those weren't the words of Alan Keyes, conservative firebrand and presidential longshot. They were spoken by former Rep. John Ensign, who is seeking the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Nevada.

Ensign's remarks, first published by the Elko Daily Free Press, came during a Lincoln Day Dinner held last weekend in Elko, the center of a controversy between local officials and the U.S. Forest Service. So "most" of what the federal government does is unconstitutional? We wonder if Ensign was referring to Social Security, which provides a retirement safety net? What about Medicare, Head Start, federal highway funds, or even college student loans? He certainly couldn't have been talking about the federal subsidies that ranchers in Elko County receive for grazing.

The former congressman went on to say that he wants "to tell all Easterners that something enshrined in the 10th Amendment called states' rights, whether it comes to nuclear waste or public lands issues like up in Jarbidge, applies to Nevada as well." Certainly Ensign has valid points to make about the federal government's need to respect state sovereignty, but it is disingenuous to suggest that the Forest Service's refusal to rebuild a washed-out road on federal land in any way equates with the federal government's strong-arm efforts to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.

Politicians from around the state and West have made pilgrimages to Elko, leaving behind shovels in a symbolic protest. At last count, more than 10,000 shovels have been mailed or delivered. Maybe the shovels could be put to good use, cleaning up some of the nonsense spread by Ensign and other politicians.