Small Local Story. Large Lesson On Big Government.

Things like this story out of Virginia get little attention these days.

Officials from two Southwestern Virginia counties say a project vital to the area’s economic development has been held up for years because of a dispute with federal regulators over what is an airport and what is a coal mine.

Local leaders say the three-year battle with the U.S. Office of Surface Mining over plans to extend the runway at Grundy Municipal Airport has cost taxpayers in this poverty-stricken corner of Appalachia millions of dollars in lost opportunities, and a list of regulatory hurdles remains before construction can even begin.

And the fact that stories like this get no attention is a very large part of the problem we face in this country. It has become commonplace. It is just the way things work now. This is Big Government run amok, and no one seems to care about it anymore.

I mean, really. An airport that already exists wants to extend its runway so that it can accept larger airplanes which will bring more business into the area. It used to be a no-brainer in America: Extend the runway. Problem solved. Economic expansion here we come! But no. In today’s America, the federal government is blocking a common sense project because people in DC have decided coal is bad.

Now you’re probably asking how on earth coal is even part of this equation, right? Well, in that part of Virginia coal is everywhere. Literally. The airport is built on a large deposit of the stuff. Extending the runway would require digging into this coal and since people in DC say coal is bad the project has been delayed for three years. The people looking to extend the airport were going to take the coal they were clearing out and sell it to help pay for the extension. You’re probably thinking, “Hey! That’s friggin’ genius!” but you’re not the federal government.

When conservatives talk about regulations stifling the economy, this is exactly what we’re talking about. Stupidity and bureaucratic nonsense is what we’re talking about. When we say “get the government off our backs!” this situation in Virginia is what we’re talking about. It isn’t just rhetoric. The federal government is literally crushing the entrepreneurial spirit with crap like this airport / coal mining ordeal.

The kicker is Obama wants more of it. This is his worldview.

We have to reverse the course we’re on. We need to get back to basics. Common sense solutions to real world issues. We must roll back Big Government.

The first step is removing from office the people who believe in it. It starts at the top.