The right wing will be identified with the monied class, even when the left often has more money. And the left wing will be identified as the whiners, even though the right at times whines as much or more. You might say that both sides are monied, high human capital whiners, on the whole.
On January 20, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
A funny thing happened on the way to reform.
The freshly minted Republican-dominated Arksansas State Assumbly put up three constitutional amendments for next November’s ballot. Secretly, they are likely proudest of one of them, “The Arkansas Elected Officials Ethics, Transparency, and Financial Reform Act.” For, snuck into the amendment, is a gutting of term limits.
The voters long ago enacted six-year House limits, not the 16 years proposed now by legislators. The voters limit state senators to two four-year terms, while legislators are trying to double their ride on the gravy train.
A number of legislators now claim even they didn’t know the term limits provision was in the legislation. Others explain that their “aye” vote was cast mistakenly on their behalf after they had left the building.
But all that’s nothing compared to this wrinkle, which I wrote about on Townhall this weekend. Hidden in a separate piece of legislation passed last year was a strange provision dealing with setting ballot language for measures referred by the legislature. Legislators took the power to write a ballot measure’s “Popular Name” — the so-called short title — away from the Attorney General, who previously enjoyed that statutory role, and gave it to themselves.
However, after legally stripping any other elected official of that same power, the plotters neglected to do one teensy-weensy thing: provide that language for their new term extension.
The upshot? The sneaky, dishonest anti-term limits amendment may not appear on the ballot.
Hoisted on their own petard, the whole elaborate scheme threatens to blow up in their own dear faces.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration by ocularinvasion used under a Creative Commons license.
All science is static in the sense that it describes the unchanging aspects of things.
This weekend at Townhall.com? Arkansas’s GOP-unified legislature has initiated a constitutional assault on Arkansas citizens.
Expect them to be called out. Click on over, then back here, for more reading.
On January 19, 1808, Lysander Spooner was born. Spooner’s achievements in American life, law, and political philosophy, are among the most colorful of the 19th century. He sued to practice law, and won the suit. He set up a postal service that directly competed with the United States Postal Service, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost. He wrote “The Unconstitutionality of Slavery,” and convinced noted Garrisonian abolitionist Frederick Douglass of his argument. (The book became the centerpiece of intellectual ammunition for the Free Soil Party.) Later in life Spooner turned against constiutionalism itself, and penned some of the most radical political works of his day, including “Vices Are Not Crimes” and “The Constitution of No Authority.” Spooner also clearly articulated a “jury nullification” position in his classic treatise “Trial by Jury.”
You probably saw the original video on Upworthy, a slick presentation of the pop inequality meme. But you probably wondered: isn’t there some slippery income/wealth evasions going on here? Well, it turns out it’s far, far worse than you (or at least I) guessed:
This response video is from nearly a year ago. But the ideas and stats are worth looking at anyway.
On January 18, 1689, Montesquieu, French satirist and philosopher, was born. His treatise “The Spirit of the Laws” was a major influence of America’s founding generation.
One hundred billion dollars isn’t chump change.
That’s the official amount of overpayments not recovered made by the federal government. According to the Financial Times, as reported on MoneyNews.com, “The OMB figures showed that in 2012 alone, 13 programs of the federal government made a combined $101.3 billion in improper payments – nearly $16 billion more than the highly charged budget sequester ended up cutting from government spending last year.”
Medicare overpayments make up the biggest slice of this mis-proportioned pie — a whopping $55.9 billion — but “the Internal Revenue Service had the highest error rate, a figure of 22.7 percent for the Earned Income Tax Credit program, amounting to $12.6 billion in improper payments in 2012.” Other agencies nudged up the numbers into the big time category: $6.2 billion for inappropriate unemployment insurance payments last year, $2.5 billion in mistaken “food stamp” outlays.
And just when you think the government has to be good at something. Like “writing checks” to some people at the expense of others.
Well, I guess the government is still “writing checks” and “making deposits.”
Just not doing it well.
The reason? Well, who would lose his or her job because his or her department disbursed funds to the wrong recipients? No one.
The federal workers administering these programs aren’t stupid. Aren’t dolts, or fools — that is, “chumps.” They’re simply behaving according to incentives.
Still, the more-than-chump-change errors make the city itself rather doltish. Call it Dolt City, shorten it to D.C.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On January 17, 1937, Chicago School economist George Stigler was born. Stigler won a Nobel Memorial Prize for his work. His delightful autobiography is entitled “Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist.”