Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, (TANF) was created so that needy persons could get temporary welfare checks to support their families in times of turmoil. The “fairness-issue,” raised by the state workers is that illegal immigrants are fairing better than U.S. citizens these days in the growing welfare lines. Citizens are only eligible for a total of 60 months of lifetime benefits, while illegal Nevada residents, or more accurately their children, can receive up to 18 years of benefits. TANF’s caseload has grown by 96% since the recession hit two years ago.

Life begetting life is part of the problem. Since 2000, Nevada’s native population has grown by around 24%, while the foreign-born population has ballooned by 61%. A recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), found that illegal immigrants cost Nevada around $630 million annually, which is about 70% of the state’s current shortfall. Some analysts wonder how much longer we can bear such an immigrant baby boom. Americans are not only worried; they are increasingly becoming resentful. A November 2009 Rasmussen Poll found that “85% of likely voters say that individuals should be able to prove that they are in the country legally before they receive any federal, state or local government services.”

Given the outlook for a slow economic recovery coupled with the rapid growth of non-citizen families; Nevada could be looking at a socially explosive issue causing further implosion of the state’s safety net. The ticking population time bomb is also brushing up against the “tip of an economic iceberg.” Or so said, Sen. Bill Raggio, who told the Reno Town Hall meeting that Nevada might be facing an almost three billion dollar shortfall when the 2011 Session convenes.

Is Nevada in dire enough straights to consider drastic measures like what Arizona did, and enact employer-sanctions against hiring undocumented workers? Even contemplating such policies would bring cries from progressives alleging class warfare. But if the state must balance its budget on the backs of those Nevada workers and businesses it deems can pay for it—shouldn’t they have a say--when most of them believe enough illegal immigration, is already enough.

Tea Party types routinely get lambasted by pundits for being the intellectual equivalents of Neanderthals. Many liberals view those they consider political dullards as clinging to an archaic 18th century notion of a limited and low-taxing government that no longer meets the needs of present day America’s diverse and dependent society.

Supposedly enlightened progressives envision building a new superhighway to the future with European-style social democracy as its ideological GPS. Conservatives of course, prefer re-tracing the political steps that delivered America to what most of the world still considers the Promised Land.

If less government and lower taxes are the preferred mode of a “rear-view past”, we only have to look to the European model to see the yellow brick road future many dream of. According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation (OCED), a typical citizen from the U.S. pays on the average of 30% on every dollar in either taxes or social benefits like health insurance. The French on the other hand, pay 48% of each Euro and the Germans over 50%. What Mad Max out there wants to lead us down that primrose lane?

New figures from the Department of Employment report shrinking wages for every private sector job category in Nevada, with only the government sector showing slight increases. Employers across the state are cutting hours and reducing workers pay. In the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, how can raising taxes be the correct answer to the state’s public and private woes?

Even longtime liberal activist and gaming lobbyist, Billy Vassilliadis, baulked at Democrat proposals for casinos to further pony up, because it would mean more layoffs to an industry that already has 37,000 Nevadans crowded in unemployment lines.

Which road should we take? Next year’s elections will go a long way in deciding whether Nevada continues on the path of “Californicating” its state government, or accepts living within its means when times get tough. If there is a sensible third way to re-structure the way we operate—we’d better find it soon.

Robert Frost preferred the lonelier road. For now, Nevadans should too. Especially if we don’t want to see our future foreclosed on because we couldn’t pay the mortgage.

The illogic of the former Terminator’s rationale is something Nevadans should learn from. If he can propose building prisons outside his state, why not take it a step further and have Mexico, or even Nevada, build schools and hospitals as well if it is more cost-effective for California taxpayers? Nevada already has a nice jail site standing empty out in Jean. And why not consider that big hole in the ground at Yucca Mountain? Put some bars over the opening and you’ve got a great maximum-security facility in waiting.

Pipe dreams and wishful thinking aside, Nevada is facing its own fiscal nightmare. Governor Gibbons is planning to call state lawmakers into a Special Session next month to deal with the state’s nearly one billion dollar shortfall. Taxes won’t be raised in such a shortened get together, and likely there won’t be much of an appetite to do so when the Legislature reconvenes in 2011. Funding will have to be cut. Make no mistake--the incisions and ensuing fights, will be politically bloody. Parts of Nevada’s schools, government services and state workers paychecks will end on the operating floor. Union representatives will howl and scream on behalf of their constituencies. But in the end, lawmakers will be forced to assume the role of battlefield surgeons and slice further through what fat and meat may be left on Nevada’s fiscal bones.

In the meantime, Nevada’s next governor and state lawmakers need to smell the sagebrush and look for cuts within our own borders and beyond their particular self-interests.

If there’s any solace to be felt by those in state government who will face the cuts, it should be in the realization that those in the private sector have also been experiencing the same “furloughs, cut-backs and pay reductions” in their businesses.

The Governor has begun sitting down with many of those lawmakers he doesn’t like and those who don’t like him. The prospect of their “solutions” being something either side will easily accept is as unlikely as the end of the afternoon winds barreling down Kings Canyon.

Those working for the state and those working in business--are all facing financial hardships. No need to get kooky like Arnold. Let’s get real as Nevadans. Working through the sad reality of 140,000 unemployed Nevadans will mean having a number of drastic measures and bitter pills to swallow before any real recovery takes place. Making it through without the usual blame game, will make us better than California.