Editorials

The numbers behind Washington’s spending are so daunting that they verge on the imaginary. Congress just struck a deal on a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that locks in hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit spending. The national debt recently topped $17 trillion. And because lawmakers refuse to address the long-term costs of entitlement programs, tens of trillions of dollars must be borrowed in the decades ahead to pay for promised benefits.

Southern Nevada has had more than its share of bad news on the health care front in recent months: Dipak Desai’s life sentence for spreading hepatitis C at his endoscopy clinic; improper patient discharges and transports from the state’s Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital; and the new hardships Obamacare has imposed on residents, doctors, hospitals and insurers.

Never underestimate the government’s desire to keep taxpayers in the dark about public business.

Nevada’s new driver authorization cards are a reminder to the state’s elected officials that, sometimes, they should be careful what they wish for. The unqualified initial success of the cards validates one set of policy positions while completely disproving another.

Greg Maddux pitched his final major league game in 2008. From there, all that was left to do was wait the requisite five years for his career-capping honor. Only a downed phone line would have kept the Las Vegan from learning Wednesday morning that, in his first year of eligibility, he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

To have any chance of keeping their power and their jobs beyond 2014, Washington’s Democrats have to distract the voting public from the party’s Obamacare debacle. Part one of that plan: going all-in for an increase in the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 per hour to $10.10.

North Las Vegas is the Lindsay Lohan of local government. It’s a hot mess in need of rehab, detox and life coaching.

In tracking the train wreck of Obamacare, some anecdotes sound too far-fetched to be true. Take Richard Pollock’s eye-opening article for the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Mr. Pollock got health policy experts and independent insurance agents affiliated with the National Association of Health Underwriters to compare Wal-Mart’s health insurance plans with those offered via Obamacare exchanges.

The Clark County School District is managing crowded schools about as well as it can without asking for more tax money. That will change next month.