I know it seems an absurd comparison, but it's one that Bill Christofferson has decided to make.  That's right... XOff didn't leave the blogosphere.  He simply moved.  And here is his latest post:

Van Hollen wants to soak taxpayers $40-million

You didn't read that headline anywhere but here.

It's what you might have expected on the Journal Sentinel story about Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's proposal to hire 31 new analysts to get rid of a crime lab backlog in DNA testing -- or at least what you might have expected if the newspaper handled it the same way it maligned Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal for the Stewardship Fund.
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If you read carefully you will conclude that the $1.6-billion isn't all new spending; the program, which preserves valuable open space, recreational land, and wildlife habitat before it is gobbled up by developers, already costs perhaps half that at its current rate of spending.
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No matter that he said then that he would outsource the testing. Now he's had a study done, has proclaimed himself an expert, and reversed field. His plan would "heap" $7.7-million in additional spending onto the backs of taxpayers in the next two years. Over 10 years, assuming some inflation, $40-million is probably a low estimate. But we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Legislative Republicans, who have reacted negatively to every Doyle spending proposal -- "we just don't know where he thinks the money is going to come from," they say -- reacted just the opposite to Republican Van Hollen's proposal. They're just tickled to throw some money at this problem -- the more the merrier, it seems.

Leave it to a tried and true blue liberal to equate all spending to be identical.  If we say no to buying up more land for the state, then we have to say no to hiring more crime lab technicians.  The difference, at least in the mind of this Libertarian, is that the government's primary purpose isn't to take land away from its citizens and off tax roles.  However, every Libertarian (and small government conservative) will agree that one of the few correct purposes for government is to prosecute crime, and take criminals off the street.  We might argue what should be a crime, but I don't think there is one among us who won't agree that rape, murder and theft all should be prosecuted.

You see Bill... it's what we call priorities.  When you have limited funds (as all government should have), you have to pick and choose the most important things to spend your money on.  Just like a family may have to decide on whether to buy brand new car, or get braces for their oldest child, government too should have to make choices. 

Now one could argue about whether the exact amount that JB Van Hollen has requested is reasonable (buying a BMW or a Hyundai), but don't start comparing the crime lab backlog to saving a few trees.  They simply don't compare.