Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Last summer gas got down to 59 cents a gallon. Today we’re paying a buck-fifty.

Now come the politicians to save the day. Low gasoline prices are nearly a constitutional right, they tell us, and they’ll fix everything. Uh oh. The idea of politicians swooping in to save us is scarier than high oil prices. Am I the only guy who remembers the long gas lines of the 1970s, caused by price controls of the politicians?

Of course, one thing the gang in Washington could do is get rid of the gas tax. There’s a direct 18.4‑cent federal tax on every gallon. The latest gas tax increase of 4.3 cents is called the “Gore Gas Tax” by the Republicans. You see, Vice President Al Gore broke a tie in the Senate to pass the increase.

So are Republicans rushing to repeal this tax they’ve long been complaining about? No sir. Long-​serving incumbent Republicans now argue that we can’t possibly repeal the tax. It would mean the end of the world as we know it, obstructed highways, roads that lead to nowhere, blah blah blah. At least, that’s what the pork-​barrel king and Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Schuster says.

Once again Republican incumbents attack Democrats on taxes, but it’s just lip service. They want to spend our tax money just as much as Mr. Gore does. Even with their big surpluses, we’re going to hear a whole lot of hot air from politicians about why they won’t give us back even one lousy cent of our own money.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It happened. It’s hard to believe, but it actually happened. An incumbent was defeated in his party’s primary by a challenger.

The last time it happened the incumbent was wearing a monitoring bracelet on his ankle so the feds could keep tabs on him. Yes, it is a bit tough to hit the campaign trail when you’re a convicted felon.

This time, the defeated incumbent was 10-​term Rep. Matthew Martinez of California. A local columnist says Martinez was a “dull, plodding back-​bencher … the kind of politician who makes me wonder if term limits aren’t such a bad idea.” Now voters have sent him packing.

Some may say that an incumbent losing at the polls shows we don’t need term limits. Well, if an incumbent being defeated every time Halley’s comet meanders by the earth is your idea of a vibrant democracy, maybe so.

Turns out Martinez lost his seat precisely because of term limits on the state level. This incumbent congressman was defeated by state Assemblywoman Hilda Solis, herself an incumbent. But unlike so many incumbents, Solis didn’t enjoy a lock on her seat. In term-​limited California, no one can stay in the Assembly for more than 6 years or in the Senate for more than eight.

Thanks to term limits, more challenges are being made to incumbents. Term limits are livening up campaigns not only state and local races where limits are the law but also for those pampered professional politicians in Congress. Every little bit helps.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Folks in Washington get pretty good at not practicing what they preach.

Case in point. A Republican fundraising letter complains about the “pure pork spending” perpetrated by those evil big-​spending Democrats. One item mentioned was a sewer repair project in Salt Lake City. Except that the Republicans backed this pork project, not the Democrats. Republican Senator Robert Bennett of Utah was a big backer of the sewer bailout. So was the rest of Utah’s GOP congressional delegation.

Oops! Suddenly the Republicans have egg on their faces, to go with the pork they’re dishing out. What to do? Well, how about admitting that Republicans are as guilty of pork-​barrel spending as Democrats? And that our entire current system of infinite incumbency is deeply flawed? That the desire for power at any price is polluting the principles of both parties? How about a little frankness, honesty, and rededication to purpose?

Not our heroes. A spokesman for Senator Bennett said, “Looks like another direct mail mistake.” “A typical direct mail snafu,” echoed a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Get the picture? Just a typo, really. Don’t worry about it. Go back to your TV show. The next time you hear about another Washington scandal, don’t blame the politicians or the bureaucrats. Blame the dimwitted proofreaders who allowed inconvenient facts to reach the ears of citizens like you and me.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

You might recall the case of Walter Polovchak, a Russian boy who came to our country in the 1980’s. His parents tried to force him to return to what was then the Soviet Union, but Walter resisted. He’s now a 32-​year-​old office manager in Chicago, and says he’s living the American Dream.

Now comes the case of the Cuban boy, Elian Gonzales. His relatives in the U.S. say his father has privately told them he wants his son to stay in freedom, but he cannot publicly say so in Castro’s totalitarian paradise. This case, when it first hit the news, saw Republican congressional leaders flex their vocal muscles and state with what appeared to be some sort of sincere conviction that they would take action to protect him and keep him in this country.

But after all their tough talk and posturing, Republican congressional leaders backed off. What happened? Well, they took a poll. In polls, most Americans want the child reunited with the father.

The point here isn’t one’s stand on this issue. We can respect those with whom we disagree. But how can we respect our so-​called leaders who throw their convictions out the window based on the latest tea-​leaf reading of the American psyche? If our leaders make decisions that affect our lives not on the basis of strongly held beliefs, but rather on their desire to cover their political hineys, who needs ’em? We deserve better and so does Elian.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

First the bad news: The 1998 elections were notoriously uncompetitive. Most Americans had no opportunity to cast a meaningful congressional vote. The reelection rate was 98.5 percent. No one who had served in office for more than two terms was defeated, and a fifth of congressional incumbents had no opposition at all.

The 2000 congressional elections could be even worse. There are only 30 open House seats. These are races where lots of candidates can vie for the seat because the incumbent steps down. In an open election, no candidate has the automatic advantages of an incumbent.

Here’s the good news: Term limits. Though politicians in Congress have voted down term limits repeatedly, the issue hasn’t gone away. Incredibly, 16 of the 30 open house seats this year are the result of term limits. More than half of open seats from a reform that the career politicians brag about killing. Five committee chairmen are retiring this year because, under the Republicans’ most significant reform, their terms as chairmen are limited to six years. Eleven congressmen are honoring their pledges to step down under self-​imposed term limits. Many of the candidates campaigning to take their place are likewise pledging to be citizen legislators, not career politicians.

Career incumbents who stay and stay and stay in Washington, DC, have monopolized our political process. Thank goodness term limits brings in new people and new ideas.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

People say that we need a president who can be a role model. It would be nice to have a president who is a good, honorable person. But a role model?

Role models are important. We all learn better by example than by countless lectures. Do-​as-​I-​say never works as well as do-as-I-do.

But let me go out on a limb and suggest that neither the president nor the entire federal government bureaucracy is competent to inspire and rear our children. Kids need role models that are real, live, up-​close not just “as seen on TV.”

Same goes for sports stars. Sure, ballplayers can be heroes for kids, but that’s a whole lot different than a role model. I was pleased when basketball star Charles Barkley made the same point to reporters he’s a basketball player, not a role model. His job is to play a game.

Growing up, my role model was my Father, certainly not President Nixon. If we really believe that politicians or athletes can carry out the functions of fathers or mothers, we’re stuck in a pretty dangerous delusion. Our goal must be to provide real role models to our children — people like us. We have to do the hard work of showing our kids what good, honorable people are like by being good, honorable people ourselves. Not pointing them to Washington, D.C. for heaven’s sake.

Luckily, a recent survey of young people restores some semblance of sanity to this discussion. Who do most young people see as their role models? Their mothers and fathers.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Politicians sometimes say government should be run like a business. But for one simple reason it never will be: it’s not a business.

Government agencies don’t need to satisfy customers or make a profit to stay in existence. But government can still use some of the methods of accountability practiced by private enterprise. And Congress deserves a pat on the back for doing something in this vein. In 1990 Congress required each executive agency and department to be audited and account for the money they’ve spent.

Now the results are in and the picture isn’t pretty. Out of the top 24 federal agencies, only half of them had sound financial statements. The White House spin machine boasted that there was some progress by several agencies, but Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, self-​limited to two terms in the U.S. Senate, wasn’t in such a celebratory mood. He’s not happy that half the agencies can’t tell the American people what they did with our money. The Departments of Education, Justice, Treasury, Agriculture, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, the EPA, Agency for International Development and the Office of Personnel Management have some explaining to do.

Congress was right to require real-​world accounting practices. Now Congress needs to follow through by requiring real-​world accountability. Agencies shouldn’t get more money unless they can tell us what happened to the last several billion dollars they spent. T

his is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Stop the presses. We’ve got a scoop.

Or rather, don’t stop the presses. What would be the point? It will be illegal for us to know about this scoop until after the November election. You know the old saying: “All the news that’s fit to print except anything that might embarrass an entrenched incumbent.” Or something like that.

Let me explain. During the ’96 Clinton-​Gore campaign, Vice President Al Gore participated in an illegal fundraiser at a Buddhist temple. Question is: did Vice President Al Gore, also known as Mr. Navet Incarnate, even know he was at a fundraiser? He claims he didn’t know, that he had just swung by the temple to press the flesh and lock up the Buddhist-​monk vote.

Well, turns out there’s a videotape of Al Gore’s flesh-​pressing. But a certain Judge Paul Friedman has sealed the tape from public view until after the fall election. And guess what? It’s the only piece of evidence in the case against the host of the fundraiser that isn’t being made public. And guess what else? Janet Reno’s Justice Department carefully steered the case to Friedman, a Clinton appointee, flouting rules that say cases like this should be randomly assigned to avoid political favoritism.

Seems kind of suspicious, don’t it? Well, thank God for a judge and a Justice Department that understand how a free republic should actually work. I guess we don’t want voters to see all the evidence, do we? After all, then voters might make a fully informed decision.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

My favorite restaurants are those greasy-​spoon diners, the kind that U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton recently visited. But she forgot to leave a tip for the waitress, a single mom. Now, there’s no need to make a federal case over someone innocently forgetting to leave a tip. At any rate, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Hillary seems to live in a whole ‘nother world.

For instance, she was shocked by the high property taxes in New York after she bought a home. For the last 18 years she hasn’t had to pay property taxes or rent or a mortgage or even an electric bill, because the taxpayers picked up those costs.

Consider two other issues: education and Social Security. Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and many members of Congress claim to be advocates of public schools. They argue against providing any funds for poor students to go to private schools. But they send their own kids to private schools, not public schools.

Take Social Security. Can career politicians really represent the millions of Americans who pay the high payroll taxes and depend on Social Security in their old age? Remember: congressmen don’t need Social Security for a second; they have a lavish pension that makes them millionaires when they retire. Can career politicians “feel our pain” if they don’t have to foot the bill?

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people means they should spend a little time in the real world. It’s just a tip.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

People can make a difference. The proof? Term limits are now the law for 18 state legislatures — nearly 40 percent of the country.

These laws were the work of thousands of activists retired senior citizens who petitioned in store parking lots in bitter cold and sweltering heat; young people who took time away from their families; small businessmen who took time away from their firms.

And they won. They changed politics-​as-​usual. Their goal wasn’t to throw the bums out so much as to let new people and new ideas back in.

But, many politicians are taking it personally. They think politics is all about them. That’s why they ignore the people’s vote. Again and again they sneak around looking for some way to overturn the clear will of the people.

Again and again good citizens, whose whole lives aren’t politics, are forced to take time away from their jobs and loved ones to battle the politicians. Benjamin Franklin pointed out that, “In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return to the latter is not to degrade them but to promote them.”

Some of our elected officials, whether they agree with term limits or not, have been willing to abide by the will of the people. They deserve our thanks. But those politicians who sow the seeds of cynicism by their un-​American maneuvering only make the case for term limits stronger.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.