Spoiled unemployed aren’t incentivized by Angle rhetoric

Nevadans are in for some tough love from Sharron Angle. Very tough, indeed.

I reached that conclusion after finally getting a chance to hear Angle's views on a range of topics during a recent Review-Journal editorial board meeting. After making herself scarce since winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, Angle spent more than an hour Friday afternoon answering questions and elaborating on some of her more controversial statements. She was as true to her conservative beliefs as ever.

Calling the unemployed part of a "spoiled" culture of entitlement and labeling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's attempt to help the massive CityCenter resort project a "bailout" have been used to characterize her as too extreme for Nevada. She moderated her views only slightly Friday, but what emerged was the clear indication Angle believes what ails America most is a lack of tough love.

You know, drawing a hard line in the economic sands, cutting government, lowering taxes, decreasing "entitlement" programs. In short, forcing the pudgy populace to pull itself up by its bootstraps.

No one should be too big to fail, Angle said. Not Wall Street. Not American automakers. Not big banks. Certainly not Harry Reid.

While that philosophy is what made Angle a Tea Party darling and a favorite of a certain libertarian newspaper editorial board, it fails to take into account that large sections of America today might starve if forced onto such an austere crash diet.

Although she made much of Reid's responsibility for facilitating Nevada's bruising 14.2 percent jobless rate, Angle said she would have voted against extending unemployment benefits because "they're not paid for. We have a maxed out credit card. ... I think we need to be very, very careful that we're not incentivizing instead of providing a safety net for folks."

In other words, she believes extending benefits that amount to a few hundred bucks a week is encouraging the jobless to avoid seeking work. Frankly, "incentivizing" is no better than a hair-split from "spoiled."

Although a conservative economist might applaud her, I'll bet many of Nevada's nearly 200,000 jobless are insulted. Surely most would love to find work that pays the bills.

Angle admitted her conservative and constitutionally focused views aren't popular with everyone in the GOP, but she spoke with certainty about what she believes ails the nation. She's confident she can deliver the castor oil to Washington.

When the subject turned to how she might have reacted to the financial foundering of CityCenter, Angle remained adamant. She wouldn't have picked up the phone to help a huge constituent who employs thousands of workers.

She insisted on inaccurately calling Reid's use of his Washington clout to save CityCenter a "bailout" that didn't grow the economy: What helped one Strip giant hurt others.

The trouble with that sort of economic theorizing is that construction and resort workers don't eat political theory. All the libertarian philosophizing and voodoo economic theory is great down at the Laffer Curve Coffee Shop, but on a daily micro level life doesn't work that way.

In reality, people grab the best job they can and hold on. They must feed, house and clothe their families every day -- not in some far-off future when the "free market" has saved us from ourselves. Millions of Americans would starve waiting for Angle's conservative revolution.

If the answer to every question in the U.S. Senate race is "anyone but Harry Reid," Angle is an easy choice. If your worldview is slightly more nuanced, Angle has some work to do to convince Nevadans she cares about them in fact and not just in theory.

As it stands, tough love from Angle would mean tough luck for thousands of Nevadans who don't have the luxury of theorizing about their survival in the real world.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.