Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Recently a candidate for Congress attended a meeting of political activists. He told the folks that he wanted to win the seat and hold it for 20 years. One of the activists ventured, “I take it you’re not for term limits?” “Oh yes, yes, yes,” said the candidate. “I’m for term limits. I’m a BIG supporter of term limits.”

Politicians are notorious at talking the talk, but then not walking the walk. For career politicians, issues are something they put in their speeches and commercials because they know that’s what voters care about. Issues are the bait politicians use to catch voters, but politicians aren’t committed to anything but the act of reeling us in. They often don’t respect our opinions the morning after the election.

But there is a pledge that gives us as voters a lot better handle on what is truly motivating someone to run for office. It’s called the Term Limits Pledge. It’s not a pledge to support term limit bills in a Congress dead-​set against them. It’s a pledge about not pursuing a career as a politician, at all. Going to Washington for a short period of public service as a citizen legislator. No more than three terms, tops.

Career politicians become skillful at the bob and weave of telling people what they want to hear, and then finding excuses for failing to follow through. But representatives who take the Term Limits Pledge swear off a career. They act on their belief in term limits. And they do fight for what they believe in. They walk the walk.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

An emergency has been declared in Washington. Has violence broken out? Are we on the verge of war? Walking on nuclear eggshells? No, none of that. The specific emergency declared by Congress is the 2000 census.

Now the census isn’t exactly an emergency. We’ve known about it since the Constitution was ratified in 1790. What gives? Congress is simply claiming it’s an emergency so they can bust the budget caps and go on a spending spree. Just one more Washington lie.

Yet, while Congress is playing games, there is a real emergency the continued lack of seriousness and honesty on the part of those in Washington who handle the people’s money.

In the 1997 budget deal, the President and Congress agreed to budget caps to slow future spending increases. But career politicians saw it as another Washington photo-​op, a nice fairytale for the folks back home. The spending caps give us a fighting chance against the looming crisis in Social Security and the $5.5 trillion in debt that crushes taxpayers with huge interest payments.

But to cynical career politicians the caps were meaningless the minute taxpayers turned off the evening news. The career politicians didn’t expect to deal with a group in the Congress who aren’t pursuing careers and thus are serious about keeping their word on the budget caps.

Those who made the Term Limits Pledge: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and others are fighting for honest accounting. They’re dealing with the real emergency in Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Denver is known as the “Mile High” city. Nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains, it is actually a mile above sea level. As the capital of Colorado, a political swing state, politics tend to be interesting there. Reforms like term limits first took root in Colorado. But Denver itself has not been reform-minded.

When a 1994 statewide vote limited the terms of all local elected officials, career politicians in Denver thought it must have been meant for others, surely not them. The good citizens of Denver would understand that the city couldn’t survive without the miracles regularly produced by these professional politicians. After all, the city is a mile above sea level higher than most of the thrones of Europe. So the royalists on the Denver council put a repeal of term limits on the ballot.

Voters were not amused, and when the votes were counted neither were the mayor and council. Voters said “wait a second!” and kept term limits by a two to one margin. Now the council has dreamed up a new scheme.

Since the voters won’t agree with them, they’ll simply reduce the voters’ control of the council. The council is taking the first steps toward destroying the initiative process that allows citizens to reform government directly. They are seeking to raise the petition requirements by 600 percent. That’s more than a mile high. It would destroy the initiative process completely.

Thankfully, there’s a big fly in the council’s ointment. Voters must approve this change. And they won’t.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Most of the folks we send to Washington want to do the right thing. Yet, after a few terms in office they begin to change. They stop representing us and start representing Washington, D.C.

The story of George Nethercutt, a Republican from Washington State, seems destined to become a classic of human weakness. On the strength of a pledge to serve no more than three terms, Nethercutt defeated the most powerful man in Congress, Speaker of the House Tom Foley. It was David toppling Goliath.

Now Nethercutt has broken his word to the voters. He’ll run again. And his campaign finance report looks like reports he attacked Speaker Foley for. Most of Nethercutt’s money is coming from Washington not Washington State, Washington, D.C. According to his FEC report, 91 percent of Nethercutt’s contributions, or more than $113,000, were from special interest PACs and Washington DC Political Committees, while only 9 percent, or barely $10,000 came from individual donors. Of those individuals, only three live in Washington’s 5th Congressional District. A fat $20,000 came directly from PACs controlled by the top leaders in Congress.

These so-​called leaders have been urging poor George to abandon his integrity in exchange for a career in Congress. It’s also clear that while Nethercutt was pretending to agonize over breaking his word back home, in DC he was in raking in PAC money and lying to reporters about it.

George Nethercutt is representing Washington, all right, but sadly it’s the wrong Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In a democratic republic, we control our government largely by voting.

That’s why it’s a so sad to see the low voter turnout in so many elections. Is there a way to fix this? Some people argue we should slap fines on people who fail to vote or even throw them in jail to rot alongside axe-​murderers, and other non-​voters. A number of countries do it this way, but frankly, I’m glad I don’t live in those countries.

Fact is, there’s little to vote on these days. The legislative districts are skewed toward one party and incumbents rarely face credible challengers. I can’t blame someone for not going to the polls when there isn’t anything to vote for. People tend to do what is in their interest. So instead of trying to force people to vote, why not give them something to vote for?

States where citizens can place laws directly on the ballot enjoy about 5 percent higher voter turn-​out than the other states. Just the other day, there was a local election in Nashville, Tennessee. Such local elections usually suffer very low turnout sometimes under 10 percent. Yet, Nashville’s election saw a 33 percent increase in voter participation. Why? Term limits opened up a majority of the 40 council positions as well as the mayor’s office.

So the people of Nashville had a lot of candidates running and much more competitive elections. In short, they had something to vote for. Same thing happened in states like California, Michigan, and Colorado and cities like New Orleans and Kansas City.

Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we try term limits everywhere?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Times are good. We know this first by checking our bank balances and second by hearing every politician under the sun grab the credit.

Pollsters often ask, “Who deserves credit for the good economy, the President or the Congress?” Some choice! Either way, politicians get the gold star. But one polling outfit, Rasmussen Research, asked the question a different way, giving three choices: the President, Congress or American business?

More than 70 percent said American business deserves the credit. Columnist David Broder writes that politicians “have made their constituents’ wallets fatter.” Senator Robert Byrd says Congress should spend the money they’ve “made” by “managing” the economy. But Congress isn’t a business that makes profits on goods and services. All of the money pouring into the federal purse comes from you and me in taxes.

Henry David Thoreau had a more accurate view of Washington’s economic wizardry. He pointed out: “Government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of the way. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.”

Thoreau was right. We can applaud the President and the Congress to the degree they stay out of the way of American workers, managers and entrepreneurs and let the good times roll. But no amount of Washington spin can rob the American people of the credit we deserve. We’re the ones making the money.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Some people have no business giving advice.

For instance, Howard Stern shouldn’t give advice on etiquette or diplomacy. Nor should Dennis Rodman tell us how to blend into the crowd. When it comes to advice on how to be frugal and guard our tax dollars, it ought not come from Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Byrd is known as the king of pork barrel spending, having tried to move whole agencies of the federal government to his home state at what would have been an enormous cost to the taxpayers. If all his pork-​barreling actually benefited the people, West Virginia would be the wealthiest state in the country. It’s not. It’s one of the poorest.

But of course, none of this stops Senator Byrd from pouring forth advice like a leaky fountain. Byrd complains in an article entitled “Time for Truth In Spending” that many of his pet programs are “facing crippling budget reductions under the current budget caps.” Yet, the budget caps allow more spending every year. There are no cuts.

The truth? One cannot teach an old Byrd new tricks. He wants to keep spending, always more and more. During the Senator’s 41 years in Washington our national debt has grown 20 times over from just under $283,000,000,000 to more than $5,682,000,000,000. Thanks for standing guard Mr. Byrd, but no thanks.

Senator Byrd created the fiscal mess, spending us nearly into bankruptcy. Frankly, his advice is for the birds.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

My wife and I are expecting a new baby. Needless to say, we’re excited.

But just the other day we got some bad news: our unborn child is already very deeply in debt.

According to recent estimates, a child born this year will have to pay $100,000 in federal taxes just to pay interest on the $5.5 trillion of national debt. That doesn’t include one penny to defend the country during the baby’s lifetime or any other federal program.

It doesn’t take into account state or local taxes, schools or roads. Nor does that include payroll taxes for Social Security. Those will be grabbing a bigger and bigger bite from future generations especially if politicians keep raiding the money we pay in.

My child is being stuck with a $100,000 tax bill to pay for the excesses of career politicians who’ve been pleasing every special interest under the sun before the baby was even born.

Steve Moore of the Cato Institute in Washington calls this “fiscal child abuse.” He’s right. The politicians in Washington regularly use their supposed concern for children to justify spending more and more on programs that don’t work.

If they really cared about kids they’d stop mortgaging their future. To me, the birth of a baby is like winning the lottery. So even career politicians piling up debts and sending my kid the bill can’t spoil this wonderful event. But what Congress is doing is child abuse and we’ve got to stop it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

There is a benefit to experience. And that’s why we don’t need experienced politicians. Confused? Don’t be, it’s simple.

We need representatives who are experienced in the real world, not in politics. One of the hottest issues today is healthcare and HMOs. Many people can tell you horror stories about bad decisions made by HMOs and about the problems facing our healthcare providers as well as patients. Many of the problems have been caused, not by the healthcare industry or doctors; they’ve been caused by politicians who try to dictate solutions from Washington for problems they don’t know anything about.

Yet, this may change. A headline in The Washington Post says “GOP Doctors in the House Put Patients Before Party.”

Representatives Tom Coburn and Greg Ganske are medical doctors and both have pledged to limit their time in Congress. Coburn will leave after this term. Ganske will leave in 2004. Coburn and Ganske are citizen legislators who put their public trust first ahead of a political career. They have the guts to battle their colleagues in order to do what’s right for the people.

Whether Washington politicians have any business legislating about the relationship between a doctor and a patient is a darn good question. But like it or not, the politicians are legislating in the healthcare field. At least we can be thankful there are congressmen who aren’t professional politicians. They have real world experience.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.