Severing any relationship is painful and country western music is filled with ballads describing the emotion. Paul Simon captured the diversity of romantic separation with his hit song “Fifty ways to leave your lover”. Johnny Paycheck pounded out employer / employee dissolution more directly with “Take this job and shove it.” However, making me chuckle is John Denver’s not-quite-a-hit song, which humorously and poetically closes with the lyrics, “Get your tongue out of my mouth ‘cause I’m kissing you goodbye.” (Mr. Denver’s words are on You Tube and it’s funny.) On January 12th, the political left in Montana’s 62nd legislature figuratively kissed the political right good bye. The warm and fuzzy legislative hug-fest collapsed once again—just as it is designed. Here’s why.

The first day of every legislative session, politicians lovingly speak of bipartisanship as if the wondrous goal of our stay in Helena is a 90 day snuggle-fest. It’s all part of the show. Truthfully, we are engaged in a political battle determining the fate of our republic. Marxist philosophy, “from each according to his deeds; to each according to his needs”, is the founding principle behind the political left. Their forces contain two types of warriors; those who understand this, and those who don’t.

On the political right (my camp), we attack from the position it is the freedom endowed by our Creator, which has yielded this great American republic, and through liberty we will restore her to greatness. Our forces also contain warriors who know this, and those who don’t. It is the “who don’ts” from both sides which take up space in the political middle. Very simply, each side ferociously fights to defeat the other and here is my report from the trenches on the January 12th “Battle of the Feed Bill”.

Every legislative session begins with the customary passing of House Bill 1, the “feed bill”. This funds the entire legislative branch for two years, plus start-up costs for the next session. In 2009, HB1 spent $9,143,775 and passed the House unanimously. For 2011, we will spend $8,774,520, yielding a total reduction of $369,255 or 4 percent. It passed the House 68-32 with all Democrats voting “no” for the simple reason—politics. Consider this.

Legislators receive a salary of $82.64 per session day; a figure constant for ’07, ’09 and ’11. (Article V, Section 5 of the Montana Constitution prohibits each legislature from changing its own compensation. We can neither raise nor cut our own pay.) Additionally, we receive $105.31 per day to offset living costs during our four month stay in Helena. This is adjusted every biennium by a specific formula which yielded an increase of $1.62 per day for 2011 over 2009. Do you follow?

On the benefit side, since legislators are state employees, Montana taxpayers fund our health insurance during our two-year terms and here the Democrats attacked our flank. At $733 per month, our health insurance costs raised $80.83 over the monthly cost of $652 for the previous biennium (arguably caused by Obamacare). This increase of $194,000 is the raise the Democrats referenced when politically beating us about the head and shoulders. “House Republicans vote themselves a pay raise,” tweeted the electronic headlines and I began receiving e-mails condemning me for voting myself more money. The truth remains obscurred and the House Democrats have scored the first big political victory of the session. They are formidable opponents and now lead by one.

Politics truly is a blood sport and not for the faint hearted. The tenacity with which I engage the battle does not mean I harbor any ill will or malice to advocates of the opposing ideology. They are wrong, but I don’t hate them for it. There is not a single Democrat legislator whom I would not relish joining my family at our Christmas dinner table because in the end we are all in this together. May God help us restore our great American republic.