The Free State Project, Utah-style

A couple of Utah state legislators want to give self-governance a try:

We don’t believe that 535 members of Congress and the president can educate our children, provide health care, pave our roads and protect our environment as well as the nation’s 8,000 state legislators and tens of thousands of local officials.

So please, let us help. Let’s select a few programs — say, education, transportation and Medicaid — that are managed mostly by Utah’s government, but with significant federal dollars and a plethora of onerous federal interventions and regulations. Let Utah take over these programs entirely.

The plan: let Utah keep the portion of federal taxes its citizens pay to support education, transportation, and Medicaid, and then let them handle those programs. Completely. Wait ten years. See what happens.

I love this idea.

You all remember the Free State Project, right? The plan to get enough libertarian-minded people to move to New Hampshire that they could legally take over the government there and bring to Earth the Randian utopia?

At least, as much of it as the Feds would let them?

Well, add Utah to that mix now. But. Both of those plans are lacking…just a little something. What, you ask? A control sample.

Here’s my idea: we take all the liberals out of Wisconsin, and we move them to Minnesota. Likewise, all the conservatives in Minnesota move to Wisconsin.

We enact our stuff. They enact their stuff. Wait ten years. See what happens.

See, that’s a control sample. And because the Twin Cities are a much larger (and wealthier) metropolitan area than anything Wisconsin has, we’re actually spotting the liberals a decent head start.

And yet, I am confident.

Of course, the Feds will be in our way, just like they’ll be in New Hampshire’s way. So we’ll need a little of that Free State Utah mojo of our own. Give us that, and give us Minnesota’s conservatives (will one bus be enough to get them all here, or will we need two?). And two Pro-Bowl offensive linemen. We’ll see you in ten years. Thanks.

(More at The TrogloPundit)

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