When asked by Forbes magazine which was more important, the idea or the execution, Oregon-born billionaire and business developer Tim Blixseth responded by saying, "Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless."

Helping new mothers and fathers spend more time with their newborns is a worthy, not to mention politically popular, idea. But the Democratic majority here in Olympia has completely failed to show the political courage needed to execute the idea in an efficient, effective and fair manner.

The family leave entitlement experiment was rushed through the Legislature last April. Senate Bill 5659, which created the program, left most of the implementation questions unanswered. There was no plan; the Democrats promised benefits to workers, but did not know how to pay for the program, how to administer the program, or how to run it efficiently.

Supporters should have addressed these and many other concerns, but they decided to punt the issue. Instead, they established a joint legislative task force to study how to finance the benefits and administrative costs, implement the program and figure out its impact on the unemployment compensation system -- all basic components the initial legislation failed to address.

Although we disagreed with passing such hasty, ill-conceived legislation, Republican members of the task force were eager for answers to the many questions surrounding the program. After listening to the testimony of various agencies, it became clear to us that this new program places an unfair burden on our small businesses and farms, increases needless government bureaucracy, and may simply be nonviable. The costs will far outweigh any benefit this program could provide for workers.

To make this program viable, advocates would have to make some serious choices -- choices that may not be as politically popular as the program itself.

In its first meeting, the issue of financing the benefits and administrative costs was put aside. As the task force adopted its schedule for future meetings, we called on members to reject attempts by the task force's co-chairs to delay the issue of financing. After all, the cost of the program is at the heart of what this task force was created to address.

In the meantime, we saw $18 million raided from the Supplemental Pension Account for initial administrative expenses. Granted, they say they will pay the $18 million back, but where will it come from?

How much would this new entitlement cost? How will we pay for this program in the long term? Even as members of the task force, we were met with resistance when asking for fiscal notes connected to this program. The high price tag, it would seem, was more than the program's supporters were eager to get out in the open.

The committee's original cost estimates ran more than $100 million and added more than 100 full-time state employees. We looked at ways the program could be financed, and after almost a year, there's still no plan in place.

One option was an employee tax, but would this be fair? How could the state ask one working mom or dad to pay extra taxes in order to allow another mom or dad to stay at home?

The second option was an employer tax; however, this is unfair to businesses that already provide paid leave benefits that are often more generous than the state's plan. We believe such businesses should be allowed to opt out, but this idea didn't make it into the task force's recommendations.

Neither option is politically popular, so Democrats simply punted on the issue.

Despite controlling the Legislature and the Governor's Mansion, Democrats pulled a Senate bill from the floor that would have implemented part of the family leave entitlement program.

They have now suggested that they'll handle the details of implementing the program in the upcoming state budget and by asking Gov. Chris Gregoire to issue an executive order putting the Employment Security Department in charge of family leave.

A 1991 Attorney General Opinion (AGO), however, indicates that such a move by Gregoire could amount to the governor unconstitutionally legislating through executive fiat.

After all this, it is clear this experiment is still not ready for prime time, and the Legislature should either suspend or simply repeal this hastily adopted program.

But why was such a program rushed through in the first place? During the last few years, Olympia has developed a habit of creating new entitlements for select constituencies without providing funding or accountability. The governor's signing of the paid family leave law last year continues that growing trend.

While it is easy to come up with well-intentioned programs, it takes political courage and leadership to really bring about the changes we need to support our families, communities and businesses. As Tim Blixseth said, great ideas without a realistic means of execution are worthless.

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Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, is the ranking Republican on the state Senate Labor, Commerce, Research and Development Committee. Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, is the ranking Republican on the state House Commerce and Labor Committee.