Eugene Paslov: The new era of politics

I listened to President Obama's State of the Union address and the Republican responses from Congressman Paul Ryan and Congresswoman Bachman. I listened to Gov. Brian Sandoval's State of the State remarks and Speaker John Oceguera's response. It's safe to say most were trying to be more civil in the face of the Tucson tragedy; and by and large they all succeeded. It was a refreshing political moment. But it didn't take long for reality to sink in.

President Obama emphasized budget freezes/cuts, some consolidations and new investments to help our economy grow, provide new jobs and be competitive in the international market place.

Smart.

Chairman Ryan stuck to the fabricated Republican narrative, "the failed stimulus," and "health care reform" is going to cost too much and must be repealed and replaced (unspecified), and "more deregulation will help multi-national corporations." He also articulated the doomsday view that we are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Not so smart. Most reputable economists (on both sides of the aisle) do not believe the world's richest, most powerful nation is going belly-up anytime soon.

We had to borrow and spend money to recover from a dire economic recession (acknowledged by Ryan to be caused by the previous administration). Our economy is beginning to recover. We are again growing, and we will continue to repay our debt. President Obama told us we needed to focus on innovation and education - keys to the nation's economic future.

Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, speaking for the Tea Party, ranted about Obamacare and "failed stimulus" (the standard Republican inaccurate narrative). She had charts but didn't sound authoritative; she looked in the wrong camera direction and sounded/looked off center.

Gov. Sandoval started to give a good State of the State message. He talked about shared sacrifice and investment to bring new, high tech industries to the state. But as the speech progressed he appeared to seriously underestimate the magnitude of the state's economic problems. He also subscribed to the badly flawed economic theory of the neocons: Smaller government, anti-government sentiment, and no new taxes/fees. Cut only.

This places the burden of shared sacrifice on the backs of state and local government employees and renders government ineffective. Police, fire, teachers and many other public employees will become unemployed and government, impotent. It leaves Nevada's richest corporations off the hook. No sharing, no sacrifice.

The unintended consequence of policies like these is our public schools will further erode, our University will not be able to support necessary research, we will lose more population, and high-tech industry will not come to or stay in the State. That's not a sacrifice we want or want to share.

• Eugene Paslov is a board member of the Davidson Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno and the former Nevada state superintendent of schools.