Author: Redactor

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

Letting Citizens Vote

Congressman Randy Kuhl has the right idea. Or half of it.

His notion is to let constituents help him choose the bill he will introduce in the Congress this fall. It’s part of what he calls the “Fix Washington” Project. Most people think Washington is broken. So Congressman Kuhl wants constituents to tell him how it might be fixed.

Voters in his district were invited to submit their suggestions for legislation that might put DC back together again. He received four hundred suggestions. Of these, he picked five for everybody to vote on. Some of the proposals make me think that my idea of fixing Washington isn’t always the same as other people’s idea of fixing Washington. But I like number five: term limit the Congress.

The proposed term limits are kind of weak, capping the tenure of both senators and House members at twelve years. And I doubt such a bill would get past square one with this Congress. But sure, let’s go for it. At this moment, the winning proposal hasn’t been announced. But I’m rooting for term limits.

I’m also rooting for a way to give all voters a chance to propose and even pass laws statewide, locally, nationally. Twenty-​four states have the right of citizen initiative, which enables voters to end-​run the stonewalling of their sometime representatives. Let’s make that possible everywhere.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets government transparency national politics & policies too much government

A Question Worth Asking?

The presidential candidates talk about leadership and change. What’s the one question that combines both, but is not asked? Simple: What happens if it all comes crashing down?

After the worst stock market drop since 9/​11, the question doesn’t seem so out of place. Our federal government’s debt is rising fast. Even if we balanced the budget tomorrow, the government would have a deep, multi-​trillion dollar debt. Trillions and trillions, you might say.

So, Mr. Obama; so, Mr. McCain — what do you do when the Treasury can’t find anyone to invest in all the debt we have created, and must maintain? What do we do when the compounding of interest and increased deficits make monthly maintenance impossible?

Neither of you have even suggested a balanced budget early in your first term. So what do you do when our credit goes crunch?

Add to this the federal government’s obligations to the citizenry, in the form of Social Security retirements and Medicare and pensions and such, and what can you do?

How do you stave off — or, if not, survive — a worldwide depression?

The scenario is not fantastic. Just look at current figures and crunch the numbers.

So, what would Senators Obama and McCain say? I’d be curious what Bob Barr and Ralph Nader would say, too. Have they thought of the possibility?

This is one question that sure would make the upcoming debates interesting.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
ballot access initiative, referendum, and recall insider corruption

A Rose Blooms in Michigan

Rose Bogeart reminds me of my mother. Both are from Michigan. Rose is the president of the Wayne County Taxpayers Association. Mom hails from Jackson. Both love their Detroit Tigers, hate tax increases.

Rose led this year’s charge to recall Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon. I’ve talked before about the tax hike state legislators imposed against the clear wishes of Michigan citizens. I’ve also exposed the establishment’s incredible intimidation campaign to block Rose’s recall drive.

This harassment included bad actions by state employees working for Dillon and even some police groups. Despite this, Rose and company collected nearly twice the number of voter signatures needed.

In June, Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land ruled that the petition lacked the requisite signatures, after she had opted to enforce restrictions already ruled unconstitutional in very clear U.S. Supreme Court decisions, throwing out a huge batch of signatures. Then, the Michigan courts refused to give Rose and Redford Township recall advocates any relief.

So, Rose went to federal court, where a judge quickly granted an injunction requiring Secretary of State Land to count the disputed signatures.

Now, against every sling and arrow imaginable, Speaker Dillon’s recall will be on the November ballot.

For the first time ever, a state’s House speaker may be removed by popular vote.

Rose, I thank you; history thanks you; my mother thanks you.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
porkbarrel politics

One Very Fine Pig

The political season is upon us, and people get hung up on the goofiest things. Like jokes.

Sarah Palin jested about hockey moms and pit bulls, the biggest difference between them being, she says, “lipstick.”

Then Barack Obama fought back, attacking the McCain-​Palin ticket and Republican policy in general with another such comparison: “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.”

And, it turns out that them’s fightin’ words, because, well, Mrs. Palin is thought to “own” the word “lipstick,” and, some said, Obama had just called her a pig.

No he didn’t. If one has to deconstruct the whole fracas into symbols, Palin would be the lipstick, McCain the pig.

Of course, Obama was really talking about policies. But which policies of John McCain was Obama complaining about, which were … porcine?

How about McCain’s best issue, pork itself? Unfortunately for him, Sarah Palin has been too pork-​receptive in her days as an Alaskan politician. McCain has resisted pork. He’s not made requesting earmarks part of his job. Obama, on the other hand, though demanding that all pork requests be put up transparently, with full disclosure, is known to ask for quite a lot. In fact, nearly a million dollars for every day he’s been in office.

It’s a pity that in all this talk of lipstick-​wearing pigs, the real pork issue gets lost. No joke.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
government transparency insider corruption local leaders

Learning from Sal Grosso

Sal Grosso, a retired man in his 80s, moved to Cape Coral, Florida, after a successful career as a troubleshooter for New York State’s phone network. Since then he has served as troubleshooter for the government of Cape Coral, writing a column, kicking up a fuss.

And boy, does Cape Coral need a troubleshooter! Sal has uncovered a whole network of incompetence and corruption in the water, sewer, and charter school bureaucracies.

After years of trying, he got the state to do an operational audit of the town — which is now under federal investigation.

While preparing a column about him for Townhall​.com, I learned about Sal’s methods. He solves problems through a common-​sense process he calls “sectionalization.” Start with a problem area, divide it in half. Determine which half holds the problem, focus on it and repeat.

“You keep whittling the problem down until you’ve isolated it,” he says, “to a very manageable size, which enables you to decide on where to look, and what to look for.”

He’s done this with the local water system, the city budget, sewer — you name it.

If you have a knack for problem solving — say, you like puzzles — then why not follow Sal’s example and give your local governments a look? Governments often present huge puzzles. Unravelling the messes that politicians and bureaucrats have made can be very rewarding.

Well, perhaps not so much. But it IS critical in keeping government accountable.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
general freedom too much government

Ideas Semi-​Move the World

Ideas move the world. Want a better world, spread good ideas as widely as possible.

If you can expose enough people to the right ideas, everything will work out for the best, with an ever-​wider vista of freedom and achievement as the inevitable consequence. Right?

Well … not quite. Ideas and values don’t have any kind of independent existence. Individuals must accept and apply them. Hillary Clinton once admitted to being inspired by Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s mammoth novel celebrating freedom and entrepreneurship and attacking socialism. Yet Hillary still ended up trying to ram socialist health care down our throats. And she ain’t done yet.

Or take Vladimir Putin, the repressive semi-​post-​Communist Russian leader whose government just invaded the former satellite country of Georgia. The autocratic Putin is no Stalin, but he’s no Jefferson either … even if he did attend a Cato seminar on the values of a free society.

It’s true! I recently stumbled across a 2004 issue of Cato Policy Report, published by the libertarian Cato Institute. Ed Crane, Cato’s president, reported that during a long meeting with Putin, Crane and others discussed the benefits of a free press and concerns that the Russian government was repressing the media. Putin seemed open to a more across-​the-​board freedom. He even said he wanted to “make Moscow the center of liberal debate in Europe.”

Really? Try a little harder, Vlad.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.