Budget Watch Nevada

Most of the bills considered by the legislature are, at best, misguided and feckless, and, more often, blatantly discriminatory.

Take this one for example, where the bill’s sponsors discriminate against those of us who are under 60 years of age. According to the Review-Journal story, “AB87 expands an existing law requiring reporting elder abuse to include employees of financial institutions that deal directly with someone 60 or older or that review their financial transactions.”

Is the correct response to say that the rest of us need protection too?

No, the appropriate response is to say that is a stupid piece of proposed legislation because it arbitrarily decides when someone is more of a victim than someone else simply because of his age.

Further, proving abuse is very, very difficult and any accusation would be subjective.

There are plenty of laws out there already that address taking advantage of someone, regardless of the victim’s age. We also have a civil court system in place for the worst offenses.

Our beloved legislators love to grandstand about how they are defending our rights by legislating against discrimination, but typically they are guilty of the problem they propose to fix.