Common Sense with Paul Jacob

In theory, there’s supposed to be a difference between politics and governance. But in actual practice, there’s rarely much difference at all.

Take Democratic House Majority Leader Rep. Bill DeWeese. Of the several scandals he found himself embroiled in throughout 2007, the biggest was “Bonusgate,” in which employees of the state of Pennsylvania got big bonus payments for their time working on political campaigns.

Eighty of the 100 Democratic House staffers who were awarded big state bonuses in 2006 either donated money to or worked on the campaigns of eternal candidate DeWeese or his right-hand man, former Rep. Mike Veon.

After the November 2006 election Veon found himself in the private sector. Lucky, in a way, since only after that did the $1.9 million tab for all these election-year bonuses see light.

Representative DeWeese is in a worse pickle, since he’s still in office, and nearly everyone else in his office is pretty clearly guilty. He says that he was “misled” by his staff, and fired seven aides including his chief of staff.

Emails between top Democratic aides and Pennsylvania state house staffers reveal an interesting rating system. Aides received grades as “OK,” “good,” and “rock stars” for their work. For their work on political campaigns, that is.

Prohibitions on politicking by government workers are age-old. But sometimes those in power who make the laws, don’t follow them too well.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Shouldn’t the law apply to everyone equally?

We can argue about what the law should be, or at what rate to tax, or whether a certain regulation is needed. But once public policy is made, it ought to apply to me if it applies to thee. And vice versa.

No special deals for the “politically well-connected.”

Unfortunately, this very American notion of fair play gets tossed in the trash can with alarming frequency.

It just happened recently in High Point, North Carolina. Two big companies, TransTech Pharma and PharmaCore, are staying in High Point and expanding from 125 employees to 330.

First, congratulations. That means more money in the local economy and more tax dollars. Sort of.

I say “sort of” because city government gave over $3 million dollars in so-called incentives to the companies. The state of North Carolina wrote the companies a grant check for $6.5 million  more.

In other words: special deals for the big wheels. At the expense of every other business. Every family.

Councilman Mike Pugh voted no to the incentives. “I know it’s vital to get new industries started and to have them in your city,” he told reporters, “but I don’t believe in extortion. When multimillion dollar companies come to us while small businesses are suffering and say, ‘Give us money or we’ll leave or we won’t come at all,’ well, I think sometimes you just have to call their bluff.”

My goodness, Mike, that’s good old-fashioned American common sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

After reading a New York Times article, I’ll stay off South Africa’s roads. Bizarrely tough driving exams are only one reason.

Test-takers give demerits for not looking in rear mirrors every seven seconds, or for coasting back one inch when stopped at a stop sign. And the drivers’ licensing bureau is so complicated that the words “Byzantine” and “Kafka” come to mind . . . to the horror of Byzantium and Franz.

In a follow-up piece, Ryan Hagen expands upon the lesson: “So South Africa must have the safest roads in the world, right? Well, no. The fatality rate per mile is five times higher than that of the United States, and rising fast.”

Why? Lots of people don’t bother getting a license at all. And the requirements, being about as undemocratic and illiberal as one could fear to find this side of totalitarianism, goad the people into near-open revolt; disrespect for the law being generally increased by its nonsensical rigor.

Lots of government programs similarly over-reach. If you demand too much of people, they will come to expect less of themselves. They’ll simply ignore the rules. Ignore the advice. Go outlaw.

The lesson applies to much of what government does, almost everything. We need minimal reasonable requirements in society, yes: Do no murder; don’t steal. Good ideas. Good rules.

But nitpick on every little element of imagined perfection?

Doomed to fail.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Happy New Year! As we begin this campaign year of 2008, the Federal Election Commission lacks a quorum. It can’t make decisions regarding violations of federal campaign laws. The FEC will also lack the ability to send out matching fund checks to those presidential candidates who still play the matching funds game.

That’s actually good, since most federal campaign laws are blatant abridgments of our freedom of speech in the first place.Also good may be the mess itself. It’s a sign of the bankruptcy of the whole system of federal regulation of politics.

How big is the mess? As big as the parties can make it. Democrats won’t confirm the latest Republican nominee for the FEC . . . and Republicans follow suit, refusing to confirm the Democrats’ nominees. Stalemate.

The underlying problem is the unduly partisan nature of the FEC. The commissioners are appointed by their party affiliation. This means an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, who can essentially block enforcement against their party.

But if you aren’t a Republican or a Democrat, say you’re an independent or a Libertarian or a Green, then the FEC certainly isn’t set up to equally protect your political rights. Its very make-up violates the 14th Amendment’s requirement of equal protection under the law.

Partisan politics ought not shut down the FEC. Our Constitution should.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It was the battle of 2006 and could be the battle of 2008.

In this corner, Senator Tom Coburn, inveterate foe of porkbarrel spending and other rampant congressional abuses. In the other, shameless porkbarreller par excellence Senator Ted Stevens.

In the American Spectator, Stephen Moore reports on an altercation between the two Republicans. Happened right after the election. It seems Stevens slithered over to Coburn and whined, “Well, Tom, I hope you’re satisfied for helping us lose the election.” In reply Coburn pointedly pointed out the obvious: “No, Ted, you lost us the election.”

Stevens, so stuck inside Beltway corruption that he can’t see his own faults for what they are, takes no blame for the GOP’s ‘06 electoral debacle. Rather, he holds criticism of his kind of bad behavior, by those who witnessed it — including insiders like Tom Coburn — as the problem.

For Stevens, engaging in logrolling and runaway trough-sloppery are okay. But complaining about it . . . that’s unforgivable! Members of the political club just don’t do that to each other, dontcha know.

Well, Coburn doesn’t know. He probably figures that unless staying in power is considered an end in itself, you obviously have to address the very problems you’re seeking to correct.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It was the battle of 2006 and could be the battle of 2008.

In this corner, Senator Tom Coburn, inveterate foe of porkbarrel spending and other rampant congressional abuses. In the other, shameless porkbarreller par excellence Senator Ted Stevens.

In the American Spectator, Stephen Moore reports on an altercation between the two Republicans. Happened right after the election. It seems Stevens slithered over to Coburn and whined, “Well, Tom, I hope you’re satisfied for helping us lose the election.” In reply Coburn pointedly pointed out the obvious: “No, Ted, you lost us the election.”

Stevens, so stuck inside Beltway corruption that he can’t see his own faults for what they are, takes no blame for the GOP’s ‘06 electoral debacle. Rather, he holds criticism of his kind of bad behavior, by those who witnessed it — including insiders like Tom Coburn — as the problem.

For Stevens, engaging in logrolling and runaway trough-sloppery are okay. But complaining about it . . . that’s unforgivable! Members of the political club just don’t do that to each other, dontcha know.

Well, Coburn doesn’t know. He probably figures that unless staying in power is considered an end in itself, you obviously have to address the very problems you’re seeking to correct.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

This isn’t just another story about zero-common-sense policies in the schools. It’s about how families can show zero tolerance for these policies by taking matters into their own hands.

Brandon and his girlfriend Andra attended the Caney Creek High School in Conroe, Texas. They are both asthmatic and they both use inhalers. The exact same inhaler. Well, one day Andra forgot to bring hers and she had an asthma attack. Now, Brandon could have told her, “I’m sorry, but as far as I know, the strange minutiae of zero-tolerance school policy may prevent me from letting you use my inhaler to alleviate your suffering.” Or he could have just let Andra use his inhaler. He let her use the inhaler, of course. “It made a big difference,” says Andra. “It did save my life.”

Next thing you know, bam, Brandon is arrested and kicked out of school for “delivering a dangerous drug.” It’s a three-day suspension pending the school’s decision on what to do next. And what they do next is decide to expel him. Sadly, these stories are a dime a dozen these days.

But I like the happy ending for this one. Brandon’s expulsion, or semi-expulsion, is not permanent. He can return to school next year. But that’s not the happy ending I’m talking about. Brandon says, “I’m expelled till after Christmas and I can come back after Christmas, but I won’t.” Instead he and Andra have decided to go the homeschooling route. They’ll do their learning at home. They’ve already learned one lesson here, that’s for sure.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

The FBI is supposed to protect us from terrorists. Or so I thought. They aren’t supposed to have terrorists on the payroll, are they? And they aren’t supposed to let those guys kill innocent people. They aren’t supposed to cover it up when they do kill innocent people, are they? Nor are they supposed to knowingly allow an innocent person to mistakenly take the rap for a murder, serving for decades in prison. But that is what our FBI did.

The Washington Post reports: “A House committee concluded yesterday that the FBI shielded from prosecution known killers and other criminals whom it used as informants to investigate organized crime in New England.” And no one is being held accountable. In a statement, the FBI recognized “misconduct by a few FBI employees,” but went on to “recognize the importance of human source information . . .” In other words: “Aw shucks, we’re real sorry and all that Americans were murdered, but what can you expect? We have to have our intelligence sources; to make an omelet you have to break some eggs.”

We’re talking about double-digit homicides by paid informants to the FBI. With an innocent man serving 30 years in prison for one of the crimes. And FBI officials not only knew about it, but tried to cover it up.

There is no substitute for citizen control of government. Without more meaningful checks on raw and often secret political power, that power may not only fail to protect us from terrorists, that power can become terrorism.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

Truth is the first casualty of war. In the war against initiative and referendum, we’ve heard an awful lot that, well, just ain’t so.

Leon Panetta tells us that California is, quote, “increasingly paralyzed by initiatives.” David Broder writes that politicians “have little room to maneuver.” Laura Tyson says California is “ungovernable” and claims initiatives dictate 70 percent of state spending. And The Economist babbles that while “Empowering the people sounds nice in theory; in practice, it makes it very hard for Sacramento politicians to balance the budget and take care of other state business.” Sounds terrifying except for those pesky facts.

Professor John Matsusaka of the University of Southern California did a study. Turns out that voter initiatives do not control 70 percent of California’s state budget. Actually, about 2 percent of California spending is dictated by voter initiatives. Granted, a 1988 initiative requires a minimum level of state education spending.

However, education spending is well in excess of this minimum level, so the voter mandate has not even kicked in. Professor Matsusaka notes that “The conclusion that voter initiatives have not caused the California budget crisis squares with other research on the effect of direct democracy nationwide. . . . [T]he initiative process is a scapegoat for the inability of elected officials to manage the competing demands for public funds in a period of declining revenue.” What a shocker, eh?

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

I guess when you’re a pundit you can expect to be bopped over the head once in a while. In a recent column for Townhall.com I talked about the TV licensing system in Britain and other European countries. It is an Orwellian set-up that involves harassing people about whether they have a TV if they’re not paying an annual licensing fee.

An Irish critic wrote to say, “Your article was ‘spot on’; it just did not go far enough in describing the problem.” I don’t mind this kind of criticism because I can always blame my friends at Townhall.com for not letting me write 10,000 words each week instead of the lousy 1,000 or so they let me scribble.

My correspondent says that the TV scheme is “an eloquent metaphor for the system of universal health care that is found over here.” He notes that supposedly “free” health care is of course paid for with high taxes, with the added bonus that sick people too frequently shuffle off this mortal coil before they have a chance to see a specialist. They can try to pay more out of their own pockets. But he says, “Even then . . . tests that would be performed within a day or two in the U.S. can takes months to organise. Diseases that have a high survivability rate in the U.S. are often terminal here for that very reason.”

In other words, when you take away the market incentives for quick and reliable service, you also take away the quick and the reliable. My Irish friend is right. Well, that’s my time.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.