Common Sense with Paul Jacob

I could have saved him more than a million dollars . . . if only he’d asked me. Mayor Marc Morial of New Orleans wanted to stay on for a third term, seeing as how he had done such a marvelous job, except for the public schools, which were a disaster. So he also needed to stay on to fix that little problem.

Well, anyway, the good mayor wondered if voters wouldn’t mind too awfully much if just he personally could be exempted from the two-term limit under the city’s charter. Just him. Settling the mayor’s question actually required placing a referendum on the ballot and changing the charter.

So Morial set about raising some money from his friends to do this . . . to exempt a great leader like himself from the term limits law that had after all been intended for mere mortals. Well, voters gave the mayor an answer, all right, but not until Morial had spent $1.3 million dollars explaining just how much they couldn’t live without him. He outspent the “NO” side of the question by ten to one. He even tried the one about how after the terrorist attacks we ought not risk new leadership.

Voters weren’t buying it. By 61 to 39 percent, they decided to keep term limits just the way they are. Whether they like the mayor or not, most want to let someone else have a chance. The New Orleans Times-Picayune pointed out, “The margin of defeat was even more resounding than many political experts had predicted.” In New Orleans voters don’t accept the notion that elected officials are indispensable. They’re going on with the business of America.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

Sometimes you just can’t reel in the big one. One of my favorite citizen legislators is former Congressman Matt Salmon, now running for governor of Arizona. Matt is a former congressman not because he was defeated, but because he pledged to limit his time in Congress to three terms and kept that promise.  Salmon always stood up for what he believed in, even if it meant opposing his own party. He was one of a small group of legislators who fought the good fight to stop runaway pork-barrel spending. Always, he tried to do the right thing, not the expedient thing. He still does.

In 1998, Arizona voters passed the Clean Election Act, which provides for taxpayer funding of political campaigns. Candidates get the taxpayer funds if they agree to spending limits and to do without any private contributions. But, they don’t have to take public funding if they don’t want to.

And Congressman Salmon doesn’t want to.  He’s always worked to prevent government handouts of our tax dollars, especially to spread opinions folks may not agree with. He wants Arizona voters to support his campaign individually and voluntarily not through forced taxation. It’s a principled decision, but just the same, students at the University of Arizona felt it was necessary to stage a little protest about it. One of their signs said, SOMETHING SMELLS FISHY: DIRTY SALMON.

Well, I’ve been known to make a bad pun or two about the congressman’s moniker, so I can’t really complain about that angle of it. But while there IS something fishy going on here, it has nothing to do with Salmon.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

A friend of mine recently suffered an economic setback. He lost a major client. My friend is doing what all businessmen must do when something like this happens. First, he’s trying to drum up some new business. And second, he’s spending more money than ever before. Just as fast as he can. Buying lots of expensive new clothing. Taking lots of trips he doesn’t need to take. Giving his landlord extra rent money, etc. My friend says it’s deficit spending so he can boost the local economy. Is this guy an idiot? Yes. And I made it all up. Gotcha.

Actually, I don’t know anybody at all who would behave this way, not with his own money. What people really do in this kind of case is cut expenses, not increase expenses. They tighten their belts. Yet, when it comes to the whole economy, some people want the federal government to hand out more and more money to anybody who puts in an application. And they call these handouts “stimulus packages.” But the money for the handouts has to come from somewhere, namely, from other people. Which means that those other people now have less money than they had before. Less money to pay their rent or hire new people or what have you. And of course the bureaucratic middleman gets a big cut too.

So this “stimulus” to the economy is really a net drain on the economy. If we want to help the economy, let’s make it easier for people to help themselves to plan better over the long run. That means cut spending AND cut taxes. Not just as a temporary stimulus, but permanently.

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

Remember Deena Gilbey? She was the British woman at risk of being deported after her husband died in the recent attacks. Her residency status depended on her husband’s work visa. So within days of the 9/11 tragedy, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was telling Mrs. Gilbey that with the end of her husband came the end of her legal residency.  Well, there was such an uproar, the INS backed down and agreed to let her stay. They’ll be kinder and gentler about similar cases, they say. But INS is not the only three-letter acronym causing problems for victims of the tragedy.

The IRS fears that bereaved foreign spouses will pack up and head home, along with all family assets. So they force such widows and widowers to cough up the estate tax immediately. For Americans, the tax affects everything above the first $675,000 of assets. But for foreign nationals, everything above $60,000 is affected. Brutal.

So now one Lucy Thompson also from Britain has to worry about the IRS plunging its meat hooks into her husband’s life insurance and her home in New Jersey the home where the U.S. flag hangs next to the Union Jack. If she moves fast, she might be able to protect the insurance money with a restrictive trust fund.

But why should she have to suffer this assault at all? It’s ironic. The British have been more vocal than anybody in supporting the U.S. during this terrible time. But nobody from anywhere deserves this kind of sledgehammer after losing a loved one. If what’s going on now isn’t an argument to kill the death tax, I don’t know what is.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has done a wonderful job of rallying New Yorkers in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In fact, he’s inspired the entire country. His performance has led some pundits to disparage New York City’s term limits law that requires Rudy to step down at the end of the year.

First, they suggested the law should be overturned by the state legislature or the city council under some sort of emergency basis. The mayor considered supporting such a push, but soon rejected that idea. Now the pundits say that Mayor Giuliani is the best argument against term limits. I don’t think so.

Virtually everyone can support term limits if we’re talking about Gary Condit, Bob Packwood, Rostenkowski, or any number of others. But if term limits are a good idea, they are a good idea for even the best people. George Washington comes to mind: a great and noble leader who started the two-term presidential tradition. Term limits gave us a President Jefferson, and term limits may give us a Senator Giuliani too, or a Governor Giuliani or a President Giuliani. Certainly, after he leaves office, there is no stopping Rudy from playing a tremendous role in rebuilding New York.

Recent polls show the mayor has a good or excellent rating from over 90 percent of the city’s electorate. But those same polls asked those same New York City voters if they wanted to keep term limits. Well, they do and by the same margin they passed term limits eight years ago! Oh, ask the voters . . . why didn’t the media think of that?

This is Common Sense . I’m Paul Jacob.

Do you know who I am? Okay, I know you know me the guy on the radio who believes in term limits and putting citizens in charge. What I mean is, do you know what I look like? Have you got a holo-image of my face? My social security number? My thumbprint? Do you have access to the video-cam sweeps being conducted at my most current location?

Well, I don’t really want you to have that information about me. And I don’t want that information about you, either. Not unless you’re a criminal.

Our country has just been attacked big-time, and it’s an awful lot to deal with. Some things we can and must do right away, to protect ourselves. But some proposals that sound good at first, probably won’t sound so good after we’ve had a chance to think them through. A number of people have said that to get a little more security they’d be willing to give up a little, or a lot, of their liberty. But I think any such trade-off will hurt more than it helps.

Consider the notion of a national ID card, which a certain ex-President tried to foist on us back in 1993, along with a national government-run health care plan. We decided against the plan and the card back then, and I think we should say no to the card now, too. It would put too much private information about us in too many hands and be too easy to abuse. Not good for personal security. President Bush seems to agree with me. I don’t want your Social Security number, but I do want your opinion. Let me know.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s hard to miss: The dash for the telephones; the rush to fill a sudden vacuum; the mad scramble. Amazing, yet predictable. Electoral competition. Democracy. Not necessarily every time there’s an election, but at least every time there’s an open seat. Every time an entrenched incumbent finally decides to step down, then we get some action. As we are getting action now in Texas.

A few weeks back Texas Senator Phil Gramm announced that he would not run for reelection next year. After a moment of stunned silence, the scramble for his seat has begun … and also the scramble for other statewide seats, as folks revise their bets and their ambitions in response to a radically altered political landscape.

The Texas attorney general, John Cornyn, is among those who have announced plans to run for Senate. Two former senatorial candidates and the Dallas mayor are also thinking about throwing their hats in the ring. State land commissioner David Dewhurst had planned to run for lieutenant governor but then decided to run for senator, until John Cornyn entered the race. Now Dewhurst is running for lieutenant governor again. So former Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott, who had been thinking about running for lieutenant governor, is now planning to run for attorney general. Of course, the governor’s seat is wide open too, since the guy who used to be the popular governor, George Bush, recently became President.

Gosh, it’s so confusing. People are running for this, for that, for the other. It’s like you’ve got to read the paper now before you even enter the voting booth. Real democracy kind of cool when you think about it!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

I’m a loving guy. But some things just make me mad, I’m sorry.

Jefferson Middle School in Fort Wayne, Indiana has an image of a Minuteman on a wall near the main door. It is, or was, a depiction of the kind of man who fought for our freedom and helped to found our great republic. How did the patriots of the Revolutionary War accomplish this deed? With guns, folks. Muskets. And the soldier on that wall of Jefferson Middle School had a musket too. At least, he did until now.

Because now the principal at Jefferson Middle has decided to have that musket painted out of the picture. He says it’s his patriotic duty to do so in these trying times. He says guns have no place in school. I see. And what about the textbooks in the school? Are we going to paint over all the muskets in the pictures and the words there, too? Well, then we’re going to have an awful hard time explaining how we beat the Redcoats and won our independence, because it wasn’t with pitchforks.

We’ll have an even harder time explaining the first clash of the Revolution. After all, it was the attempt of the British General Thomas Gage to seize a munitions depot at Concord that drew the “shot heard ’round the world.”

A gun is a good thing if it’s used by soldiers or police or citizens to defend life and liberty. A gun is a bad thing if it is used to destroy life and liberty. There’s a difference. And that difference can be taught. But, apparently, not in school.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Credit where credit is due. I’ve complained about congressional pork-barrel spending in the past, and I’ll complain about congressional pork-barrel spending in the future. But when Congress exercises the fiscal discipline to do the right thing, I have to say thanks, and keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of the same in the very near future.

Just a week or two ago on this program, I complained about all the congressional foot-dragging when it came to closing military bases bases the military itself says are now obsolete. Indeed, there was a whole decade there in which Congress did virtually nothing to implement the military’s recommendations. They treated the bases more as work projects than as a means of defending our country. Closings have been accomplished just the same, but in a very haphazard way, with lots of fits and starts.

But now the U.S. Senate has authorized the Department of Defense to complete a fourth round of closures. John Berthoud, president of National Taxpayers Union, applauds the action and invites the U.S. House to echo the go-ahead. “During times of peace and prosperity,” says Berthoud, “it was easy for Members of Congress to get away with reducing defense spending while increasing pork-barrel spending. . . . Now Congress has the opportunity, and the obligation, to allow the military to do what every government agency should do operate as efficiently as possible, and take whatever cost-cutting measures are necessary to eliminate waste and make the best use of taxpayers’ money.”

Well, I agree, Mr. Berthoud. Time’s a-wastin’. Let’s roll.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.