Author: Redactor

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

A Different Drum

Kent Drum and I step to the beat of different drummers. 

At Mother Jones, Mr. Drum decried California’s upcoming May 19th special election, writing, “I loathe the ballot initiative.” 

Me? I love the ballot initiative. 

Drum is complaining about California’s upcoming vote on Propositions 1A through 1F. For the record, these measures were placed on the ballot by legislators, not initiated by citizens. 

Drum is particularly upset that he has to vote on Props 1D and 1E. These two propositions must go to a popular vote because the programs were passed by voters through the initiative process. Legislators want 70 percent of the money voters passed for early childhood development programs and 25 percent of funding for mental health programs to fill their big budget gap. But they can’t snatch those dollars until voters say so. 

Says Drum, “I have no idea if [Prop 1E] is a good idea or not, and for a trivial sum like this I’m not about to spend hours poring over ballot arguments.” 

The trivial sum to Mr. Drum is $200 million. Who’d get out of bed for a mere $200 million clams, eh?

I would. Of course, I like voting on the actions governments take in our names. I like the idea of citizens being in charge. 

I think I’d vote No on every one of these California measures. But I’d like that power: the power to say no. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. 

Categories
Accountability free trade & free markets too much government

Barney’s Bubble Babbling

To hear Congressman Barney Frank tell it, he was a lone voices of fiscal reason when the surge of ill-​considered mortgage debt fueled the now-​popped housing bubble.

Unfortunately for Frank, this is the age of the Internet. Bloggers have proved more than willing to collate inconvenient evidence.

Thanks to Ed Morrissey on HotAir​.com, then, we have two testimonies of Frank-​ish speechifying. Here’s Frank in 2009:

People haven’t fully understood. One of the causes of the terrible crisis we had over the last few years … it came from people being pushed into buying houses, taking out loans that they couldn’t afford. Part of that was a conservative view that rental housing was a bad thing.… People were pushing home ownership [for] people who shouldn’t have been there.

“People in power” pushed this, eh? Which people? The irresponsible conservatives. But here’s this same sir, Barney Frank, in a clip from 2005:

We have, I think, an excessive degree of concern right now about home ownership and its role in the economy.… This is not the dot-​com situation.… [Y]ou’re not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble. And so, those of us on our committee in particular, will continue to push for home ownership.

Oh dear. Barney, just be honest already and admit you helped destroy the economy, okay?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
term limits

Unexpected Analogy

Senator Arlen Specter has been around a long time. When he changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat last week, he referenced his early public service on the Warren Commission. Mobbed by enthusiasts, he said, “I don’t think Lee Harvey Oswald had this big a crowd trailing him.”

That wasn’t a parting shot — Specter aims to stay in office. He only switched after polls showed that challenger Pat Toomey — about whose candidacy I reported the week before — would best him in the Republican primary.

Yup. Arlen Specter wants to stay in office so badly that he’s willing to carry on even after he has been effectively repudiated by his party of over 40 years.

Most of the commentary has been about how small a tent the GOP has become. Most pundits say this is bad for Republicans.

I’m not so sure. If the Democrats fail to usher in Nirvana in the next two years — if things, say, get even worse — a narrowed oppositional GOP could turn the electoral climate around pretty fast.

What most interests me, now, is that Specter’s affiliation-​change shows how difficult it is to change currents in government. The old guard can flip, stay in power, and the power brokers switch chairs from friend to foe and vice versa.

If senators served under term limits, this whole issue — and the problem it reveals — would not even come up.

With term limits, a metaphorical Jack Ruby isn’t even necessary.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall term limits

The Untold Story of the Oklahoma Three

Receiving an award is a lot nicer than ten years in prison.

As regular listeners know, Rick Carpenter, Susan Johnson, and I were indicted by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson on trumped-​up, politically-​motivated charges stemming from a petition drive to cap state government spending.

For almost two years this indictment hung over our heads. In all that time, the AG never even completed our preliminary hearing. Finally, all charges were dropped.

That vindication came in January. The next month, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, I received the Charlton Heston “Courage Under Fire” Award. And just weeks ago, I was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sam Adams Alliance for my Oklahoma fight as well as decades of work for term limits and citizen initiative rights.

The recognition is nice … for my whole family, who suffered alongside me these past two years. But let’s also remember my co-​defendants, Rick and Susan.

At one point Edmondson offered Susan Johnson a deal. If she would only plead guilty — saving face for the Attorney General — she would be charged with a misdemeanor, and her record would quickly be expunged.

With her legal bills mounting and her business hammered by the prosecution, she didn’t blink. Instead, she told the AG: “No way.”

Her commitment to doing the right thing led to an important legal victory. She gets my Award for Quiet Courage.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets national politics & policies

Schumer Should Shut It

Government subsidies give government officials a license to order the recipients around: 

  • Spend on this. 
  • Merge with that. 
  • Get rid of this CEO. 

You take our money, you take our orders. Strings definitely attached.

But there are other kinds of bullying, often more subtle than formally enacted laws and regulations applied to otherwise independent firms.

Some government goons toss their weight around in the private sector entirely outside any legislative or regulatory process. How? By “conversing” with private firms about how they conduct business. 

Recently we witnessed Senator Chuck Schumer chatting with Time Warner Cable about its test of broadband metering in Rochester, New York. The cable company’s notion was to price different levels of service. Customers using huge amounts of bandwidth were charged extra for that extra usage.

In normal markets, buyers constantly communicate happiness or unhappiness with what sellers are selling, both verbally and through buying patterns. No politician had to chat with Coca Cola to convince it to bring back “Coca Cola Classic.”

But politicians like scoring political points. And companies subject to such persuasive efforts know that more than persuasion is involved. There’s also the threat of force if the company doesn’t knuckle under to the politician. So Time Warner dropped its price-​tier trial.

And we’re all just a little less free today than we were yesterday. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
too much government

The Black Liquor Tax Credit

Senator John Kerry is incensed. He used the word “cheat.”

Senator Jeff Bingham insists Congress was not trying to make a tax loophole.

The fracas is over a four-​year-​old tax credit given to companies that mix biofuels with diesel. Congress wanted to encourage “greener” burning.

Well, it seems that paper companies have been burning a bioproduct in their plants for years, something called “black liquor.” It doesn’t sound green, but it is made from wood product. In response to Congress’s program, paper companies have taken to mixing it with diesel to qualify for the tax credit.

It wasn’t what Congress intended. But Congressfolk should hardly be surprised. A law has to apply across the board. You can’t make a general rule and then say, “Uh, no: We meant it to apply only to those businesses over there, not these ones over here.”

The New York Times notes that the scandal surfacing, now, might prove especially inconvenient for Congress, as the public roils over business and banking bailouts. 

The congressional brain trust meant to give incompetent bankers billions. They didn’t mean to give International Paper $71 million, or Verso Paper $29.7 million. 

Despite this, Congress has to live up to its own words. Not its intentions. In this case, Congress wants to blame corporations, not themselves. We’ll see if the august body of social engineers can pull that trick off.

Obviously, like Kermit the Frog, Congress is finding that it’s not easy being green. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.