Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Ever wonder why our federal government is so eager to break up a non-monopoly like Microsoft, but is jogging through molasses when it comes to deregulating the power companies?

Microsoft has plenty of competition. Traditionally, the utilities have had no competition, government protected them. Now 26 states have introduced utility deregulation. There have been efforts in Congress, too. But such efforts have stalled. Why? Well, the utilities proved savvier than Microsoft when it came to lobbying the men in DC with the power-red ties. The utility industry has spent millions to bottle up legislation in Congress. They set up phony front organizations to hide their involvement. One is Citizens for State Power, which has ties to conservatives and a right-wing tilt; the other is the Utility Shareholders Alliance, which has ties to an electrical union and a left-wing tilt.

When the lobbyists needed to sway a conservative crowd, they used the one organization; when they needed to manipulate liberals, they used the other. No real ideology. No principles. Just a lot of pragmatic politics to save a rust-encrusted status quo. Who pays the price? You and me, in higher energy costs. Let’s deregulate two monopolies: The power companies AND the iron triangle of politicians, special interest groups and lobbyists polluting our civic life. Time to give the electric companies a jolt of competition. Time to give the AC-DC power establishment in Washington another kind of jolt: term limits.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In 1776, Thomas Paine galvanized public opinion for independence from Britain with his best-selling pamphlet “Common Sense.” Paine wanted America to be a beacon of liberty to oppressed peoples around the world.

“Freedom hath been hunted round the globe,” wrote Paine. “O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.” For millions, we have indeed been that asylum, that refuge. But today, some Americans seem to disdain that role.

Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, is a glaring example. Over the past year, ever since his team played a two-game series with the Cuban national team, he has refused to sign any player, regardless of talent, who defects from Castro’s workers’ paradise. Angelos, a million-dollar donor to Democrats, thinks he’s assisting Clinton’s policy toward Cuba. The willingness of a prominent American like Angelos to kow-tow to a tyrant is disturbing.

And isn’t this employment discrimination? Discrimination against those who risk life and limb for freedom. Once such courage was honored not punished. The policy should be that no dictators need apply. But for Angelos, it’s the victims who are turned away at the door. Let’s not go see the Orioles play in their taxpayer-financed stadium, not until they cease to be the ally of dictators. It’ll be easy: they aren’t any good this year especially off the field.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Yahale Yadede, a student at Northeastern Illinois University, is getting a first-rate education in political science. The only problem is that his education is coming from a little real-world experience in Illinois politics.

Mr. Yadede was elected as the student representative to the University’s Board of Trustees. He worked to represent the interests of students as well as taxpayers, who foot the bills at the public institution. The school’s Board of Trustees is made up of one student and nine trustees appointed by the governor.

From the beginning the Board expected the student representative to be seen and not heard. But that just wasn’t Yadede’s style. One thing he did: oppose a plan to build a palatial estate for the University President. He thought the million-dollar price tag was excessive and wasteful of taxpayers’ money. He found several residences close to the University available for half the cost. So now the Illinois Legislature is involved, passing a bill forbidding graduate students from serving as the student trustee. You guessed it: Yadede is a graduate student.

The House of Representatives also passed a one-year term limit on the student trustee, but no limit on those appointed by the governor. The Senate realized how silly they would look slapping a term-limit on a lone student trustee while merrily cashing in on their own unlimited political careers, so they nixed that provision. Yes, you can get a first-rate education at our universities just watching the political double standards. Ah, higher learning.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Why are you contributing money to help every incumbent congressman in every district in the whole country get reelected? You probably haven’t asked yourself that question, because you didn’t know you were, did you?

On average, each of our representatives spends over $100,000 of our tax money on mailings that help them get reelected. They don’t have to ask our permission. How on earth do they get away with it?

Congressmen gave themselves this advantage. It’s called the franking privilege. It was originally designed to allow our representatives to respond to our letters, but the career politicians who now rule the roost in Washington have turned it into a reelection mailing fund. Congressmen like to say that they’re just “informing” their constituents with these mailings. Funny though (isn’t it?), that congressmen send out far more unsolicited franked mail in election years then in non-election years. But I guess we’re supposed to believe that’s just a coincidence.

The franking privilege is just one of many advantages of incumbency. Not only do incumbents tend to enjoy much bigger war chests than their challengers, they’re also able to send out a heck of a lot more mail than any challenger can without spending a dime of their own money. Incumbents spend more of our tax dollars than challengers on average spend in the entire campaign. No wonder over 98 percent of incumbents are reelected. So much for fair elections.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In Washington it’s politics over people.

A case in point: Congressmen Jay Dickey of Arkansas has been under fire lately. Black farmers are seeking help in making the Department of Agriculture pay up after a court awarded monetary damages in a lawsuit alleging discrimination. Dickey told the black farmers that Republicans won’t help them because they haven’t contributed to or voted for Republicans. A large number of black farmers in the lawsuit live in Dickey’s district so the congressman is in for a very tough reelection battle. Therefore, he’s trying to contain the damage of his candid admission that career politicians often decide policy on the basis of who helps them politically, not what is right and just.

Dickey, supposedly a fiscal conservative, is now publicizing a long list of projects costing millions that he has showered on African-Americans. He even pushed a bill, finally, to urge the Department of Agriculture to pay up. But get this: the Congressional Black Caucus defeated the bill. Why would the Black Caucus undercut a bill that urged the government to pay damages to black farmers? Because they didn’t want Dickey to get the credit. Mr. Dickey and the Black Caucus are at each others throats, but they have something in common: they both decide the issues based on what’s best for their own political careers, not what’s best for the country. That’s why voters of every color and creed want term limits. No wonder over 98 percent of incumbents are reelected. So much for fair elections.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Our Constitution is the highest law in the land. It establishes the specific powers of Congress, and reserves other powers to other institutions or to the people. That’s why members of Congress are required to take an oath to uphold the Constitution.

But as with most of their promises and commitments, congressmen don’t have a very swell track record of doing what they have pledged to do. In fact, sometimes I wonder whether they even know what the Constitution says. Sure, the career politicians often don’t read the legislation they pass, but since it can be thousands of pages long that’s not so surprising. Bad, yes, but not surprising.

But the Constitution is short, straightforward and to the point. Leaders who used words to communicate, rather than hide their ideas wrote it. Any person can read and understand the Constitution in 20 minutes. But Congress has a bad habit of knowingly passing bills of uncertain constitutionality, and treating the Supreme Court as the goalie for the Constitution; let the Supreme Court strike down sloppy laws if necessary. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

And that’s why Supreme Court Justice Scalia was right to speak out bluntly against this lazy practice that disregards constitutionality at will. Mr. Congressman: Pass only those bills you believe are constitutional. Stop passing legislation willy-nilly and peppering the Supreme Court with a zillion half-baked laws. You have a duty under the Constitution; you took an oath. Stop passing the buck.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

We have a special cultural glue in this country that goes beyond the laws, the Constitution, even the Bill of Rights. It’s called “The American Way.”

It’s about fair play and having your day in court and getting your chance to speak and make your choice when you vote. It’s about being able to trust that in the open and fair battle of ideas we can make our government what it should be. But the American Way is under assault. Trust is giving way to cynicism.

One reason is that the Federal Election Commission, a partisan organization itself, is allowing the Commission on Presidential Debates to turn those debates into a partisan tool. Gore and Bush are invited and no other candidates are allowed. Polls show 47 percent of voters want the option to vote for an independent for president this November. A majority wants to see more than just Bush and Gore on the national podium.

And yet the government is working in a partisan fashion against our democratic interests. Republican Alan Keyes warns that the partisan lock-out feeds a sense that [quote] “our elections are a sham, that have no significance, but are in fact a manipulated outcome dictated in the end by those who already have the power . . . That sense of cynicism will destroy our political system no, it is destroying it.”

Great civilizations fade when they abandon their fundamental strengths. It will happen to us, too, if we abandon the American Way.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Some years ago, Congress passed legislation giving the government far-reaching powers to battle organized crime. The law is known as RICO, for Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. RICO has often been used to harass people on a mere suspicion of wrongdoing that has nothing to do with “organized crime.”

Well, now a new kind of “organized crime” is bringing RICO full circle. The criminal enterprise being investigated? Congress itself. Sounds like an open-and-shut case. Are congressmen really racketeers? Democrat Patrick Kennedy is using RICO to sue Republican Tom DeLay for scheming to “extort political contributions from individuals and entities with interests before Congress . . .” Ouch. That’s a new one. Career politicians bullying folks for contributions? Somebody hand me the smelling salts.

And now Republicans are scouring public records to unearth fundraising shakedowns by Democrats. No one in official Washington seems too shocked by the charge that top-ranking Republicans are racketeers or for that matter, that so are Democrats. Polls show most Americans believe congressmen are more likely to use their power to “help friends and hurt enemies” than to achieve a “fair result.”

The Washington Post editorialized, “. . . both parties could be said to ‘extort’ money from business, with varying degrees of crudeness. Success against Mr. DeLay would therefore trigger a barrage of copycat litigation.”

By all means, let’s put a stop to this before the entire Congress gets carted off to the hoosegow. On second thought, where’s Janet Reno when you really need her?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Recently there was a congressional hearing on why the White House failed to honor a subpoena to turn over e-mail messages pertaining to one of the numerous Clinton scandals we’re supposed to keep up with. Considering the Administration’s deep and heartfelt commitment to the rule of law, one would expect them to abide by a court order to produce these e-mails.

But at the hearing, White House attorney Cheryl Mills wailed that holding the hearings does not feed one hungry child, or help one family to get healthcare, or help one person get job training, or . . . Well, you get the point: Something like “Yesterday’s gone. Let’s think about tomorrow.” Any recently arrested mugger would happily echo this sentiment. “Forget about me and my crime . . . what about the widows and orphans?”

Meanwhile, recent audits of the Medicare program have found billions of dollars misspent. Audits of other government programs show the same widespread failure to get money to the people these programs are designed to help.

And recently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development shelled out $2.8 million of our tax dollars to help people in Washington, D.C. get job training and start businesses. Problem is the money is all gone and the program didn’t provide any real benefit to the poor. Instead, well-connected consultants made off like bandits, while HUD was asleep at the switch. What else is new?

We may not be feeding the children, as Cheryl Mills complains; but we sure are feeding the crooked consultants. But that’s all in the past right?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

This is the tale of two congressmen.

One congressman became famous for speaking plainly. He pledged to abide by the people’s vote for term limits, serve three terms and then come back home. He said he would be a good listener. In an upset of David vs. Goliath proportions, he defeated the then-Speaker of the House Tom Foley. He sent a message far and wide of trust in the people and hope that there were people in public life of honesty, character and integrity.

But there was another congressman. This congressman pledged to term limits and not to take more than a third of his funding from PACs-in short, not to become just another Washington career politician. He carried with him the hopes and dreams of thousands of citizens for a government they could believe in, even be proud of.

But once in power, he changed. He voted three times to raise his own pay and pad his million-dollar pension. He went on junkets paid for by special interests. He took over a million dollars in money from outside his state, and a much larger sum from PACs and special interests than he had promised.

When it came time for him to honor his pledge to step down, he refused to meet with citizen groups. At a press conference closed to the public closed to the people he supposedly serves he announced he would break his word. So who are these two congressmen, you ask?

George Nethercutt and George Nethercutt. Wow, power really does corrupt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.