Wyoming Doomsday Bill
Though it might be a popular trend in sci-fi movies, doomsday is a very real foreboding topic amongst 2012 doomsayers. With the Mayan calendar ending, economic turmoil around the globe and a multitude of environmental flares, some believe that all signs point to the end of days. Reuters

Though it might be a popular trend in sci-fi movies, doomsday is a very real and foreboding topic among 2012 doomsayers. With a long epoch in the Mayan calendar ending Dec. 21, economic turmoil around the globe, and a multitude of environmental challenges and catastrophes, some believe that all signs point to the end of days.

Wyoming, however, will be prepared if the apocalypse comes. Republiblican state Rep. David Miller has drafted what is being dubbed the Wyoming Doomsday Bill in response to economic instability in the U.S. and abroad.

If enacted, the Wyoming Doomsday Bill would establish a task force to study governmental continuity in case of a disruption in federal government operations; providing for a report; providing appropriations; and providing for an effective date, according to the bill's text. The bill also includes a clause about providing an alternative currency if the U.S. dollar fails.

Some measures were removed from the bill to ensure its approval, such as a clause about a poison-pill amendment that aimed at authorizing landlocked Wyoming to implement a draft, raise a standing army, marine corps, navy and air force and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

In other words, it would study how a significant catastrophe, like an economic meltdown, a shortage of food or energy, or a constitutional crises, would affect the state, according to The Daily Caller via Yahoo! News.

The conservative Web site reports that the task force listed in the Wyoming Doomsday Bill includes state lawmakers, the director of the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, the state attorney general, the state adjutant general, the director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture and the director of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

This isn't about doomsday, Miller told The Daily Caller. It is just planning. I don't want people thinking that the federal government is going to be there every step of the way to solve all of their problems.

Things can happen fast. And if something serious were to happen to Wyoming, I'm not expecting a bunch of Federales to show up and save us.

Miller pointed to disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Louisiana calamity that left thousands of American citizens stranded without food or shelter for days.

Miller said that although critics on the left have exaggerated the contents of the legislation, the Wyoming Doomsday Bill is intended simply establish a study and set forth a list of recommendations. It would not result in any government action.

I don't think there's anyone in this room today what would come up here and say that this country is in good shape, that the world is stable and in good shape--because that is clearly not the case, Republican state Rep. Lorraine Quarberg told the Casper Star Tribune on Friday.

To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad's going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens of the state of Wyoming to at least have the discussion, is not healthy.

This bill comes at a time when many ordinary citizens and economists alike believe that economic distress spells disaster.

In September, Economic Cycle Research Institute co-founder Lakshman Achuthan declared that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The vicious cycle is starting where lower sales, lower production, lower employment and lower income [leads] back to lower sales, he told The Daily Ticker. He said, at the time, that the economic recovery had been subpar by nearly all measures.

Just because it looks and feels a certain way doesn't mean it's a recession, he said. You haven't seen anything yet. It's going to get a lot worse.

Despite the fact the unemployment rate might have lowered somewhat, the Wyoming Doomsday Bill further proves that American citizens remain apprehensive.

I do think states should prepare for a financial collapse or natural disaster, Jackson, Wyo., resident Ben Tucker told The Daily Caller. Individuals should prepare for it, counties should prepare for it and states should prepare for it.