To prove their relevance to us, career politicians try to address whatever problems are on the minds of voters. But in doing so, the Washington politicians only show how irrelevant they really are.
Parents care about education; it’s a top issue. So before Congress adjourned for the year, they passed legislation to fund 100,000 new teachers. Boy, how nice of them! What good guys!
But wait a second, the federal government doesn’t run a single school. They don’t directly hire a single classroom teacher. So why on earth should we parents and taxpayers send our money all the way to Washington? The federal government only returns a small part of it to our local communities.
Why not simply cut federal taxes and let us set our own educational priorities locally? Simple.
Once our tax money flows to Washington, the professional politicians want to keep it. Our tax dollars are the source of their power. Career congressmen aren’t about to give back any of their power. Only term-limited representatives, who have shunned longtime careers as powerbrokers, have the courage to champion the taxpayers over the political elite. Heaven knows there are a lot more direct ways to squander our tax dollars, but Congress wants the power that comes from control.
To really solve our problems, we need to get the career politicians in Congress out of the way and make decisions back home where we live.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.