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GOP Leader who was duped by Borat has a good idea…

12:39 PM EDT on June 18, 2015

borat gary jones okahoma city

Holy crap, there's an Oklahoma GOP politician with an idea we can actually get behind!

Earlier this week, State Auditor Gary Jones announced his plan to save our state money, and eliminate massive redundancies in idiocy, by converting our state to a unicameral legislature.

Via KOKH.com:

State auditor unveils plan for unicameral legislature

The state auditor has a controversial plan to save millions of dollars by combining the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma Senate.

State Auditor Gary Jones says it may be time for a change.

"Just because we've done it that way doesn't mean that's the best way of doing it. If we believe in smaller, more efficient government, I think that government itself is what we need to look at," Jones said.

Jones says each year, between offices, salaries and staff, the Oklahoma Senate alone costs the state between 15 and 20 million dollars.

Oklahoma's House of Representatives has 101 members while the Senate has 48, Jones' plan to combine the two would get rid of one of them and move them into a single chamber.

"What we could end up with is a more transparent process where things aren't hidden in conference committees," Jones said.

Jones says this would save money that could be used for other things like education and transportation.

I've asked Ogle Moles in the past why we have a bicameral legislature, and none of them really have a good answer. Even though it's a dysfunctional mess, I can see why you'd want to have a Senate and House of Representatives for a Federal Government comprised of 50 states, but why does a state need one? It's not like each county gets two state senators to balance out the population advantage of cities. Senate districts are determined by the same imaginary gerrymandered lines as the House of Representatives. It's redundant. Right? Or am I totally wrong? I would ask Keith Gaddie this question, but he's currently drunk in Scotland.

Anyway, I'm such a big fan of this proposal that I'm now sure there has to be a catch. How does it benefit the GOP? Plus, I'm not too sure about this Gary Jones guy. He seems kind of nice, but he was also duped by Borat in 2006 when the Kazakhstani news man stopped by Oklahoma City to make a speech:

Very Nice.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens with all of this. Obviously, our hypocritical small government state lawmakers want nothing to do with it, and I doubt the political parties want a unicameral legislature either, so this will need to be championed and passed by the people. Since the proposal has nothing to do with discriminating against gays or letting people bring guns to music festivals, I doubt anything will happen.

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