Did you see Governor Asa Hutchinson on the Tucker Carlson Show on Fox News? The subject of the interview was Asa’s veto of HB1570, the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. The legislation bans the practice of subjecting children to gender-reassignment surgeries and puberty blocking procedures. The legislature easily overrode Asa’s veto.
We are including a link to the video of the interview. When you watch the video notice how many times Asa tries to justify his veto on the conservative principle of “limited government.”
If you have followed Asa Hutchinson during his almost six and a half years as Governor the last thing you expect from him is an argument based on limited government.
Asa says he is the head of the Republican Party in Arkansas. Well, it was under his watch that the principle of “limited government” and several other important conservative principles were stripped out of the state Republican platform. It was Conduit that alerted conservatives to the disturbing change in the platform, and the next time the platform was adopted Republicans insisted the principles be put back in the platform.
Limited government wasn’t his guide when he championed the huge and expensive Obamacare Medicaid Expansion in Arkansas. Just remember no matter how many times he changes the program’s name, the entitlement program primarily serves able bodied working age adults who don’t work. While Asa has been championing the big government entitlement, some other states still refuse to adopt it.
Limited government wasn’t his guide during the Covid-19 virus as he claimed broad powers to shutdown businesses and regulate your actions while cutting out the legislature from decision making.
Limited government wasn’t his guide when he recently justified extending his Covid-19 emergency declaration until the end of May saying if Arkansas ends the emergency too soon the state will lose out on federal Covid relief money (federal money for which you will end up paying).
Limited government wasn’t his guide when he was trying to give away your money to communist Chinese companies coming to Arkansas.
Limited government wasn’t his guide in 2019 when Asa raised your taxes by approving more tax increases than tax cuts.
But now with about a year and a half left in his term of office he suddenly latches on to the words limited government and uses it as a justification for vetoing HB1570 which bans the practice of subjecting children to gender-reassignment surgeries and puberty blocking procedures.
Asa is NOT a limited government politician. But he is term limited and Arkansas will be electing a new governor in 2022.
