Kirkeby's HB 1105: Patching Budget with Child Labor?

Keen readers of the South Dakota blogosphere will note that it was this Obama-lovin' left-wing Marxist secular humanist who first cried foul on HB 1105, while it took the Right reverend Mr. Powers all weekend to figure out that his own party was instituting the draft. (Dang—I guess it's up to President Obama and me to take the lead in defending personal responsibility and other Republican values... from Republicans.)

But reading PP's concerns about the Kirkeby draft as an unfunded mandate (it is) makes me wonder if HB 1105 might have a role in fixing our budget. After all, the bill would create a child labor force 37,000 strong. Those kids could do a lot of work for free that we have to pay good tax dollars for now. And that would fit with Governor Rounds's approach to balancing the budget on the backs of children.

Hmm... I hear the Highway 34 for the Future committee was busy last week slapping stickers on all of the "Madison Hosts the Legislature" attendees in Pierre, essentially dragooning citizens into their marketing campaign. Imagine what they could do with a few hundred high school students from Madison and Colman at their disposal. Hand 'em all shovels: "You want to graduate? Start digging." We could have four lanes to I-29 in no time!