“Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem!”

Millions of people in Mississippi could be working without a minimum wage or minimum number of sick days. (StuSeeger, Creative Commons)

Since these words were first uttered by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the word “government” has become synonymous with intrusion, delinquency and wrongdoing. Whether brought up in an editorial, a press conference or a speech, mentioned by Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell, it seems that “big government” is always the problem, a concept that has been perhaps the key talking point for today’s Republican Party.

Like any hot-button issue, there is certainly some validity to this mindset, and it is not unreasonable to preach a message of freedom from the government; the overbearing British monarchy, after all, was a primary reason that the United States was created in the first place.

According to this argument, big government is a constant problem. Local rights have been cited in debates about immigration, same-sex marriage and gun control. Yet it seems that many politicians have no problem supporting big government when it favors their ideological opinion. And therein lies the problem.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed an increase in the federal minimum wage. Many elected officials have claimed that a federal minimum wage law is too encompassing and should be left up to individual localities, and many major cities have established their own minimum wages.

Recently, however, a group of Republican lawmakers in Mississippi has been pushing legislation that would make it so “no county, board of supervisors of a county, municipality or governing authority of a municipality is authorized to establish a mandatory, minimum living wage rate, minimum number of vacation or sick days, whether paid or unpaid, that would regulate how a private employer pays its employees.”

The proposed legislation has already passed the Mississippi state House and now could potentially be voted on by the state Senate. But with the state itself also not having a minimum wage, this legislature means that millions of people in Mississippi could potentially be working in the future without a minimum wage or a minimum number of sick days.

Yes, this is proposed legislation in 21st-century America.

Workers’ rights have become a major political issue, notably in 2011 in Wisconsin, when Governor Scott Walker put forward a bill to significantly minimize workers’ power of collective bargaining. The proposal in Mississippi is different from Wisconsin's, but the premise behind it—infringing upon the established rights of workers—remains the same. If the bill continues to gain traction, a similar uproar could begin—and for good reason.

A 2012 survey from Lake Research Partners found that 73 percent of Americans polled supported raising the minimum wage. What would the expected support be for keeping sick days for workers in place? 85 percent? 95 percent? What reasonable boss would oppose a minimum number of unpaid sick days?

There are a number of reasons to oppose this legislation, but the biggest problem might be the legislation's introduction itself.

According to Think Progress, “the 2012 national Republican platform made clear that the party believes in local-decision making. Endorsing the notion of 'solving local and State problems through local and State innovations,' the GOP pledged to 'restore the proper balance between the federal government and the governments closed to, and most reflective of, the American people.'"

The introduced legislation offers perhaps the exact opposite of this. And unfortunately, this is only the latest example of hypocrisy in the “big government” argument.

There is nothing wrong with believing in a limited government, and there is nothing wrong with promoting an agenda to accomplish just that. But it is ridiculous to promote that agenda when it fits with your beliefs and to ignore it completely when it doesn’t. Republican lawmakers in Mississippi must figure out whether they truly want small government in place; and upon answering that question, they should act accordingly.

Until that point, I—and presumably a large population in the state of Mississippi—can only hope that the hypocrisy of Republican lawmakers in Mississippi ceases to exist and that this legislation goes no further than it already has.

Reach Contributor Matthew Goldstein here.