When common sense fails

At Issue: The penchance of policy makers to bankrupt the local government, including the CNMI Retirement Program.

Our View: The obvious need for a constitutional provision to prevent any further dalliance with unfunded liability.

In the middle of a severe and continuing financial crisis, it’s appalling how many measures have been pushed by senators so designed to bankrupt not only the local government, but the fragile solvency of the CNMI Retirement Program.

There’s the push to pay government employees their new salary raise to the tune of not less than $10 million. Ironically, the messenger (Senator Edward Maratita) chairs the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee. He’s long on threats of a class action lawsuit, but awfully short on the identification of resources to clear such statutory mandate.

What’s comically interesting is the cargo cult mentality that money would rain down from the blue skies of paradise when a bamboo jet cruises above these isles. We would have money falling out of our ears to meet all our needs. It’s that childish fairyland land notion that we will live “happily ever after”.

Senator Maratita and his colleagues need not be reminded that the ultimate victims in their quest to force the issue is the private sector who must, once again, fork out more of their hard-earned income (during these economic bad times) to grant more perks for undeserving and unproductive government employees. Reality check, anybody?

This obvious insensitivity simply neglects the persistent decline in revenue generation which goes to illustrate the “picnic mentality” that is at best, a reflection of the obvious lack of common sense among senators. Not only is the upper chamber awfully SLOW on substantive legislation, but it massages and fuels its overblown ego with that arcane and bankrupting influence of the cargo cult mentality. It has seen fit to partake in sinking the livelihood of private employers and employees, thus the increase in local unemployment as a result of the lack of business expansion or the closure of more businesses.

The combined shallow and hollow approaches of substantive economic measures is a bit too bitter a pill for the productive private sector to swallow. The constancy of measures that imperil the solvency of the local government must come to an end. Perhaps, it is just as appropriate a time for all citizens to begin an initiative that would impose a constitutional mandate on policy makers to cease and desist from any further dalliance with the proliferation of unfunded liabilities.

Such undertaking will put to an end the apparent enslavement of private sector employees who must fork out more of their income to pay for additional perks for unproductive public sector employees. The use of common sense is definitely in order. Si Yuus Maase`!