Common Sense with Paul Jacob

I always like it when salmon make it safely home. Oh, I’m not talking about the fish. I mean former Congressman Matt Salmon, who seems to have made it downstream to Arizona just fine after 6 years in Congress as a citizen legislator. Matt is in Phoenix now, running his own public affairs firm.

Last year, Salmon kept his term-limit pledge. He kept his word to the voters. His only regret is that there weren’t more citizen legislators in the ranks of his own party to help change politics as usual. About his time in Washington, Salmon says, “I thought I had signed up for a tour of duty that was really going to mean something.” That agenda included cutting taxes and regulations and balancing the budget. But according to Salmon, “We became the Seinfeld [Congress]. We were about nothing. We spent our time naming bridges.”

Matt is a man after my own heart. I was delighted to learn that one of my own favorite films, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” also inspired Matt during his time in the capital. The movie is about an ordinary, decent person, played by Jimmy Stewart, who goes to Congress to serve and maintains his integrity despite lots and lots of pressure to play politics as usual. Matt Salmon was determined that Mr. Smith would be his role model. He didn’t want to “become a machine built for re-election.” He says: “This place was not my reason for being.” Good for you, Matt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In Virginia, one is enough. The governor can serve only one term. Of course, in 37 of 38 states which term-limit their governors, people get to try for two terms. I’m not complaining. Let people come into the office, do their best, and give another guy a chance.

The one-term limit is the topic of a recent op-ed in the Virginia Pilot newspaper. Writer Margaret Edds complains that the one-term limit means governors don’t have to live with the consequences of their actions. I guess this is true in the sense that they don’t run the risk of being defeated for a second term if they do something unpopular. But don’t governors have neighbors? What the one-term limit also means, of course, is that Virginia’s executives don’t have to cater to special interests, who might expect to be catered to in exchange for their PAC money and political support. And if former governors want to pursue office elsewhere after they leave, they can still be chastised or rewarded by the voters.

If the problem is a so-called imbalance of power between the executive branch and the legislature, I have a solution for that. Term-limit the legislature, too. I wouldn’t be too upset if the state of Virginia had a two-term limit, but one term works just fine. Edds herself admits that “Gilmore was elected on a ‘No Car Tax’ pledge, so that was from Day One his priority.” True enough. While the Legislature waffles on the car tax, the one-term governor has remained a straight arrow keeping his promise. Term limits concentrate the mind wonderfully. Good point.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

He’s a winner! He’s making a dent! He’s rattling the cage! He’s . . . he’s . . . He’s Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, who swept into office a couple years ago thanks in part to an emphatic term limits pledge. And he’s just won some major victories for congressional reform

A new rules package passed in the House of Representatives includes two Tancredo-backed changes to how that House is run. One of these “good government” rules prohibits naming federal buildings after sitting members of Congress. Given all the outsized egos there, putting an end to this arrogant indulgence probably was quite traumatic. Maybe that’s why the new rules passed by such a close margin: 215 to 206. Some perks of power are hard to let go of.

Another change Tom has been pushing has to do with all the unauthorized spending that gets slipped into bills. The new rules require greater reporting. And no longer can the public debt be increased automatically. Congressmen will have to vote openly for any new red ink they spill on us. You’ll note that Congressman Tancredo didn’t have to loll around for ten or twenty years slowly collecting seniority before he could achieve something. He’s doing what every leader does: choosing a few key things to get done and zeroing in on them like a laser. He’s not accepting the rules of politics as usual. He’s fighting for new rules. He’s acting like a citizen legislator. Tancredo’s fighting so hard because he won’t be in Washington forever; he’s limited himself to three terms.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Oh those poor rich people. Don’t they need a little more help from the government? Now, don’t get me wrong. If somebody has more money than me and they’ve earned their money fair and square, that’s fine with me. Let them buy all the Lexuses they want. It’s their money, let them keep it and enjoy it. And while you’re at it, let me keep my money, too.

But welfare for the well-to-do is a completely different thing. Almost everyone, except for career politicians, would agree that’s just not right. Still, the new edition of the Cato Institute’s Handbook for Congress has a long list of examples of corporate welfare in the federal budget. There’s the sugar price supports. You pay more at the grocery store so $1.4 billion in propped up profits can benefit the 33 largest sugar cane plantations. There’s a “wool and mohair” subsidy that’s supposed to benefit people with small herds of sheep, but last we looked ABC television journalist Sam Donaldson collects almost $100,000 in subsidies every year.

And how about this for corporate welfare: every year the Agriculture Department splurges $80 million to subsidize the overseas advertising of food exporters, little guys like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. There’s an amendment proposed every session of Congress to kill this beauty, but somehow it always survives. So why does this nonsense happen? Oh, politics as usual, brought to you by career politicians.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s official. Passage of Congressman Mike Castle’s “Franked Mail Savings Act of 2001” is one of the top priorities this year of the National Taxpayer’s Union. That means that congressmen who votes against it will lose points with NTU, which rates congressional performance every session.

The franking privilege is one of the most flagrant abuses of taxpayer dollars that Congress engages in. As former House Press Secretary John Solomon admits, “the purpose of these mailings has become little more than to remind citizens of who their elected officials are before they vote. It’s an unfair perk of incumbency.” Only about 10 percent of franked mail is sent out in response to the mail of a constituent. Most of the time, it is nothing more than political advertising, a prepaid political benefit that comes at the expense of both taxpayers and fair electoral competition.

In 1999, individual postage limits for congressmen were lifted, making it easier than ever to abuse the franking privilege. Mr. Castle’s bill would define a “mass mailing” as being 250 pieces or more of mail. And it would prohibit such mailings within 180 days of general elections and 90 days of primaries. Of course, many other advantages of incumbency would remain untouched. But passing this bill would be a step in the right direction. Let’s see if our representatives do the right thing. Even if they don’t care what the National Taxpayers Union thinks, they should probably give a darn what the nation’s taxpayers think.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

How do you a boil a frog? Very slowly. Because if you just toss a frog into boiling water it will jump right back out again. I don’t want to say Congressman Robert Ehrlich is the same as a frog. But the heat IS being turned up very slowly and he DOES seem to like the temperature just fine.

In 1994, when he arrived in the nation’s capital, Ehrlich had already served 8 years as a legislator in Maryland. So he felt right at home. So much at home, in fact, that he never quite got the hang of rebelling against the out-of-control ways of the Congress. You can imagine a self-limiter like Tom Coburn proposing 115 amendments to an appropriations bill to try to curb runaway spending. Not Mr. Ehrlich. “I’m a process kind of guy,” he says. Of course, citizen legislators know how to work with their colleagues. But since they don’t have to fret about a political career, they know when to get ornery, too.

By contrast, Ehrlich tells National Journal that he’s had “more realistic expectations, maybe lower expectations.” He’s wondering now whether to hold on to his House seat or run for governor. Of course, if you have “lowered expectations” about what you can do, you don’t push as hard. You just sort of settle down in that comfortable sauna, getting boiled. “It’s about as good as it gets in the House,” says Ehrlich. “Is it worth giving up this seat?” Ask the frog.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s going to be a long, tough battle to term-limit the Congress. Why is that? Well, not because term limits are controversial. My goodness, more than 70 percent of Americans, in every possible group, consistently favor limiting the number of terms a congressman can serve. Very few of us oppose term limits. But within that tiny minority lies the most intensely interested segment of the population. They’re fanatical about term limits . . . fanatically negative. They are called politicians.

They think we thunk up the idea just to be nasty and thwart their well-intentioned attempts to rule over us. That’s about half-right. Nah, term limits supporters aren’t angry at particular politicians or out to get them. Sure, there are a couple of really bad apples, but that’s not the problem. The problem is much more systematic and serious. Even the best legislators become, shall we say, significantly less good over time. Career politicians lose touch with the folks back home and buy into a corrupt system of special interests and special privilege. Plus, incumbents have so many reelection advantages that fewer and fewer regular citizens run for Congress. It’s a vicious cycle.

Term limits won’t come easily. The politicians will fight us every step of the way. But we can’t be denied our right to self-government forever. History shows that good ideas can triumph even over great odds. As the famous World War II song goes: “They’ll be blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover tomorrow, just you wait and see.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Good men are not that hard to find. But you do have to take the trouble to look for them.

In September of 1999, a few months after confirming that he would step down after his third term in the House, Congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona held a press conference to endorse fellow term limit supporter Jeff Flake as his successor. Salmon stepped down just as promised and Flake was elected in his stead. After making term limits the centerpiece of his campaign, Flake defeated four competitors to win the Republican nomination. In the general election, Flake’s opponent refused to take the term-limit pledge.

Jeff is into the Vision Thing. His interest in public policy has taken him everywhere from Washington, D.C., where he started a public affairs firm in 1987, to the southern African nation of Namibia, where he directed a foundation that monitoring political reform in the country. In 1992, Jeff returned to Arizona to run the Goldwater Institute, where he promoted his philosophy of less government, more freedom and individual responsibility.

Many observers credit the Goldwater Institute for its work on school choice and competition, ideas that have made Arizona a leader in education reform. The Goldwater Institute has sponsored a lot of path-breaking work on one of the most exciting school choice innovations of the 1990s, charter schools. Now Jeff Flake is back in Washington. Just for a little while. Accepting a temporary trust, cementing a tradition. An honorable tradition that will show the way for other citizen legislators to come.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Sometimes candidates for office say anything to get elected. Even things they don’t really mean. Hey, try to contain your astonishment. And yes, some of them even lie when they pledge to limit their terms in office.

A few years ago, one congressional candidate pledged to self-limit and then, just two or three days after being elected, said, “Oops, ha ha, forget what I promised during the campaign! I don’t regard myself as bound by that term-limit pledge after all!” It’s the kind of thing that gives cynical manipulation a bad name. Thank goodness, then, that there are folks like John Thune, a South Dakota congressman elected in 1996 who has repeatedly affirmed his term-limit pledge, following in the footsteps of honorable citizen legislators like Tom Coburn, Mark Sanford and Matt Salmon.

Congressman Thune is scheduled to leave Congress in 2002, and he’s not wavering. Thune explains it this way: “People in the country today are too cynical because of politicians who say one thing and do another,” he says. “I was sincere about [my term-limits pledge] when I said it, I mean it, and I will honor it.” On his web site, Thune lists as part of his credo that “public policy must encourage personal responsibility.” His personal integrity shows that those words have meaning for him. A political leader who says what he means and means what he says? It can happen. On important stuff, too. It just warms my heart.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Lobbyists can’t lobby Maryland Legislators from prison. Not anymore. I’m sorry, but legislators have put their feet down this time. No lobbying from prison, period. We can all sleep better now. Wait a second what?

Well, first you have to realize that there’s a “culture of corruption created and tolerated by legislators and lobbyists in the state of Maryland.” That’s what a judge said last year after yet another scandal and yet another Maryland lobbyist went to jail. So how to change the public’s view of the Legislature? Well, legislators could begin by reforming themselves, limiting their own power through term limits, for example. Or they could legislate some feel-good nonsense and declare all corruption healed by legislative decree. Of course, they choose the latter in triplicate.

Laws allow us to arrest folks for doing the wrong things; they can’t make corrupt people do the right thing. Arrests alone can’t bring accountability. The real problem is that Maryland’s incumbents face no serious competition for their seats. So they can abuse power at will. The bill’s prohibition against lobbying from prison comes by way of an earlier lobbyist turned convict who simply continued his lobbying practice using the jailhouse pay phone and, of course, his excellent contacts among all the Mr. Clean legislators. Maryland politicians mugging for the cameras with their latest phony Band-Aid that’s more evidence of the problem, not part of the solution.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.