Author: Redactor

If you think the high cost of gas is unfair, you’re right. But don’t blame the gas stations or the oil companies. Like you and me, they’re just trying to make a living. When the costs go up for every single seller in that market, you can bet that the prices you have to pay will go up too. But are all of those costs necessary?

One worthless cost is arbitrary regulation. Refiners are now being forced to reformulate their gasoline with ethanol. It supposedly has environmental benefits, but it’s more a farm subsidy than anything else. This and other burdens mean that building new refineries has become a very risky investment. So supply is lower and prices go up. Then there’s taxes, taxes, and more taxes.

Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute reports that over the past twenty years the gas tax is the fastest growing tax imposed on middle-​income Americans. In 1980 the feds charged 4 cents a gallon. Now it’s 18 cents. Add a few more dimes for state and local tax gouging, and it turns out that 40 or 50 cents of the cost of each gallon is imposed from above. Much like cigarettes and liquor, the stuff that gets us from here to there is being treated as a cash cow by the government.

The GOP Congress has mumbled about dropping a nickel from the gas tax, but hasn’t followed through. Who pays for the spinelessness of the career politicians? You and me.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

If I told you that anarchy reigned in L.A., you might suppose I was referring to corruption and criminal activity by Los Angeles police. Actually, this particular anarchy is taking place in Los Angeles County and it has to do with the desire of career politicians there to trash democracy to protect their careers.

Term limits activists turned in enough signatures on petitions to qualify a measure for the November ballot. At first, the county officials said the signatures weren’t enough. Then, after the deadline for placing the measure on the ballot had passed, county officials admitted: Oh yeah, looks like you do have enough John Hancocks on this thing. But oops! You missed the deadline.

The measure enacts a two-​term limit on County Supervisors and stops them from drawing their own political boundaries. As expected, all five sitting L.A. County Supervisors are opposing the initiative. Their offices have become lifetime positions. The districts are huge, containing nearly 2 million residents apiece. No incumbent supervisor has lost an election in 20 years. And of course, those county officials counting term limits signatures know who butters their bread.

Term limits activists are taking these power-​grabbers to court. So far the local courts have allowed this lawlessness to continue, accepting the lame excuse of County officials that changing the ballots now would be chaotic. And it’s true that justice can be inconvenient, especially for the people whose hands are caught in the cookie jar.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob

Don’t you hate it when politicians put their careers ahead of their duty as our representatives? It’s even worse when they do so using our tax dollars.

Monday, September 11, 2000

This year Education Secretary Richard Riley has been traveling so much he’s managed to attend campaign events for 10 vulnerable congressional incumbents. In fact, 80 percent of his visits have been with Democrats facing tough reelection campaigns. All the trips have been paid for by you guessed it you, the taxpayer.

Mr. Riley declined to speak to reporters, but his spokesperson said, “It’s all education-​related.” Well, that’s very nice. Education-related.

Yes, our well-​paid Education Secretary is campaigning for his cronies and sending taxpayers the bill, but not to worry, his tax-​funded PR flak says it’s “education-​related.” What’s the job description of the Secretary of Education? Does he actually administer and manage the Department? Or is he just a glorified messenger with a briefcase full of tax dollars? If politics is what motivates Mr. Riley then he should go to work for the Democratic National Committee, not the taxpayers.

One Republican suggested Riley has been in Washington long enough to learn how to abuse the system. Both parties do this and both parties are wrong. The longer folks stay in Washington, the more likely they are to forget that it’s not their money it’s yours.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Should the United Nations be carrying out the edicts of totalitarian governments? And should we as Americans be paying for it? A fellow named Bawa Jain organized a religious meeting at the United Nations, a summit of a thousand religious leaders from around the world. But guess who wasn’t allowed to attend? The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet. Nor were members of China’s Falun Dafa spiritual movement welcome. Why? Because China’s Communist government didn’t want them here.

China has repressed the Dalai Lama and banned Falun Dafa. China is no friend of religious freedom, or freedom period. Organizer Bawa Jain says he was “forced” to follow the preferences of the Chinese Communist government. And UN Secretary General Kafi Annan backs the decision. “I have tried to open this house as much as I can,” he says.

Politicians in this country, including our President, are so afraid of sounding anti-​United Nations that they are willing to allow huge amounts of our tax dollars to be spent stupidly, or even worse, immorally. American taxpayers have shelled out more $15 billion dollars to the UN over the past decade. If the United Nations doesn’t stand for bringing people together, what’s the point?

It’s bad enough that the U.S. government has insulted the Dalai Lama before at the bidding of the Chinese, but abandoning the American principle of freedom is even worse.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Remember the first Star Wars movie? Just when the Empire’s star-​cruisers were closing in on Hans Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, the good guys in their spaceship made the light-​speed jump to hyper-​space , escaping the Empire’s storm-​troopers. The politicians want to make a jump, too.

Their jump is to what we might call hyper-​incumbency. They don’t want to escape the Empire; they are the Empire. They want to escape us the voters.

George Nethercutt is the fellow who won office pledging to serve only three terms. Now he’s breaking his word. His betrayal of the people of Eastern Washington is a sad commentary on the corruptible nature of man. But the encouragement Nethercutt has gotten from the Republican leadership big dollars and other reelection help all to double-​cross the voters, well, that’s truly despicable.

Republicans won their congressional majority by anchoring the Contract With America with a promise to fight for term limits. Now, these same men renounce term limits, yank it from the platform and back George Nethercutt. These career politicians want an even bigger victory from the Nethercutt race: a victory over any notion that the voters can hold the professional politicians who run Congress accountable.

Wesley Pruden of The Washington Times called Nethercutt “the perfect emblem of the Republican campaign for the House.” And he suggested a slogan for the GOP jump to Hyper-​Incumbency: “Vote Republican, we’re not as bad as you think.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Too often that sums up the career politicians who run the federal government.

A couple examples: Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was considered a potential Al Gore pick for Vice President. But the Department of Energy’s problems at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab, with laughable, though frightening breaches in security, shunted Richardson out of the picture.

On a Sunday TV show, Richardson defended himself by saying he had actually increased the Los Alamos security budget. He threw money at the problem. Now Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is on the hot seat for federal policies that may have fueled the wild fires ravaging Montana. The Montana governor argued mistakes made by Glickman’s department have caused very serious problems for the people there.

Glickman’s response? That he had spent more money than his predecessors on fire protection programs. This is the Washington trap. It’s easy for politicians to throw money at problems because it’s not their money. And part of the problem is that they spend so much money they lose perspective. A million dollars becomes a very small sum.

Soon politicians get used to spending money and taking credit. Why follow-​up? Why see what works or doesn’t work? Career politicians have neither the humility nor the risk-​taking spirit to test and review their miracles. They spent money on it. Don’t bother them about the results.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.