Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Senator John McCain of Arizona is running for President. One of his key issues is campaign finance reform. While most Americans want campaigns to be reformed, few paid any attention to McCain’s recent legislation.

The reason isn’t voter apathy, but voter common sense.

Career politicians have been promising to reform elections for decades. Every time they pass so-called reforms the problems get worse, not better. Incumbents win more easily and fewer challengers can effectively wage campaigns against them.

On the Senate floor, McCain claimed “we are all corrupt.” He admitted he was “guilty of the appearance of corruption” for taking money from those with interests before the Senate Commerce Committee, which McCain chairs.

Yet, eight of the top 10 contributors to his presidential campaign have major issues before his committee. To that, McCain said he had no choice but to take the money if he wanted to compete for the presidency. In other words, everybody does it.

A lobbyist whose firm donated to McCain said, “He acts like he’s entitled to it. He sees no connection between twisting our arms for money and then talking about how corrupt the system is.” Congressmen who claim certain contributions are corrupting and yet take them anyway are like those who attack career politicians but refuse to limit their own time in Congress phonies.

Ghandi once said, “We must become the changes we seek.” That’s a nice way of saying “put up or shut up.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Congressman Tom Davis, who heads the House GOP’s campaign arm, says, “It’s all about body count.” He’s talking about the Republican majority in the House.

Today that majority is just five seats.

When we think about politics, most of us think about the issues. We want to know where candidates stand and then vote accordingly. If we embrace a particular political party, again, it’s usually on the basis of their platform and principles.

Yet to leadership of both parties in Congress stands on the issues seem virtually irrelevant. All these professional politicians care about is holding power and the perks and privileges that come with it. What’s important is the body count.

ake Rep. Charles Rangel, please, a 30-year incumbent Democrat. When Newt Gingrich was still Speaker of the House, Rangel regularly assailed Gingrich as worse than Attila the Hun. Gingrich was the incarnation of all evil.

Yet when asked recently about the virtue of getting Republicans to switch parties to the Democrats, here’s what Rangel had to say: “We’re counting numbers. If Newt Gingrich was a member of the New York delegation and we could convince him to cross over, we would.”

Did you get that? For voters, politics is about principles. About ideas. But for the bodies in suits in Washington, D.C., what counts is the pursuit of power.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

What should be done when corruption is rampant?

Ask the U.S. Congress that question and you may be surprised by the answer. Congress is a HUGE supporter of term limits. Yes, that’s right. They LOVE term limits.

No, I haven’t skipped a dose of my medication. Congress is lecturing the International Olympic Committee on the need for term limits. In fact, Congressman Henry Waxman of California threatened legislation to prevent U.S. companies from giving money to the Olympic Committee unless the committee adopts various reforms including term limits.

The Olympic Committee has been chastised for allowing members to accept lavish gifts from cities lobbying to host the games. There are rules against this, but the rules haven’t been enforced. Now, don’t get me wrong. Congress is 100 percent correct. (And how often does THAT happen?) The Olympic Committee would benefit greatly from term limits, from new ideas and fresh perspectives.

But the hypocrisy from Congress is . . . well . . . frankly . . . now that I think about it, not all that surprising. Congress has passed term limits for the president, the Speaker of the House, committee chairs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Military and now wants them on the Olympic Committee.

They love term limits for everyone-except themselves. Sheesh! What a do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do Congress. That’s why the gold medal for unlimited hypocrisy goes to: Congressman Henry Waxman. Climb on top of your pedestal now, Mr. Congressman, for the medal ceremony.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s a great, big, beautiful world out there. But it can also be an expensive world to American taxpayers.

Congress just approved $12 billion in foreign aid. Now President Clinton wants even more.

Ultimately, American taxpayers should be the boss of whether their money goes abroad, and if so, how much. That’s why we elect representatives so we’ll have folks in Congress who represent our interests. Whatever your feelings on foreign aid, it’s another sign that our representatives in Washington don’t pay much attention to the majority of taxpayers.

A survey by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland found incredibly that not a single congressman believes the American people support foreign aid. Not one. But they keep sending our money overseas just the same.

In his new book Who Rules America, Eric O’Keefe writes: “Take, for example, foreign aid. Even a cursory glance at the record of Congress demonstrates that they do not think like the folks back home when it comes to matters abroad. Perhaps the political class is right about foreign policy. Why then don’t they take their case to the public that will pay the price?”

Most Americans oppose foreign aid. That’s why those in office who support it should take their case to the people. Instead, career politicians just arrogantly continue to send billions to foreign countries against the known wishes of the public.

When a career Congress just ignores the people on the issue of foreign aid, is the problem really foreign aid, or a foreign Congress?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again.” But Vice-President Al Gore is desperately trying to go home.We’d love to help him.

The only problem is: where’s home?

Let me tell you why I’m a little confused. First, Gore attacks his Democratic opponent, former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, for leaving Washington. Then Gore turns around and, with great fanfare, moves his presidential campaign headquarters out of Washington.

You see the point of the switcheroo, don’t you? Americans would rather have a President who hasn’t spent his whole career cloistered in Washington. The GOP front-runner is a Texan, and nobody thinks of him as a creature of the Beltway.

Bradley, Gore’s Democratic opponent, served three terms in the U.S. Senate, but then retired. One minute Gore attacks Bradley for leaving Washington and the next Gore moves his campaign headquarters to Tennessee to distance himself from Washington.

But Gore has lived most of his life in Washington, not Tennessee. He grew up in D.C. and already has a 24-year career as a politician. Gore isn’t alone among career politicians in finding it hard to figure out where home really is.

Many remain in Washington, D.C. after they retire, never returning to live in the states they hold so dear. Former Speaker Tom Foley never returned to Spokane. Kansas Senator Bob Dole isn’t in Kansas anymore. The only home career politicians know is in the heart of power. For citizen legislators, home is where the heart is.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

The St. Louis Rams are the only undefeated team in the National Football League. One big reason is Kurt Warner, the lowest paid and highest rated quarterback in the NFL.

Warner’s success story demonstrates the importance of never giving up. In college, he played football for little Northern Iowa, and wasn’t in the starting line-up until his final year. In the second game, he was injured and out for the rest of the season. No NFL team drafted him.

The Green Bay Packers gave him a shot, but then cut him after training camp. He went home to a minimum-wage job stocking grocery store shelves. But he didn’t give up on his dream. Soon he was playing in the Arena Football League. That earned him a try-out with the Chicago Bears.

But he deferred the try-out for something more important: his marriage to Brenda, a single mother of two. On their honeymoon, a scorpion bit him and his arm swelled so he couldn’t throw a football. His try-out was canceled and the Bears never called again.

Last year, the Rams signed him to play in the European league. Warner excelled and came back to the U.S. as a back-up. Then the Rams’ first-string quarterback was injured and a star was born! Nothing is as powerful as perseverance a lesson for political reformers to heed as well.

Those who seek to limit the power of politicians and empower their fellow citizens have always been the underdogs. What’s the difference between those who succeed and those who fail? Winners never quit.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

“Indian-giver” used to mean someone who gave you something and then took it back. You don’t hear this phrase anymore; it was deemed offensive to American Indians.

But wait a second. The term doesn’t apply to Indians; it applies to the politicians in Washington. In treaties between Indians and the U.S. Government, Indians have kept their word, while the federal government has repeatedly broken theirs. And the duplicity is not all in the past, either.

Earlier this year Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was found in contempt of court for what a federal judge called a “shocking pattern of deception” that “abused the rights of Indians.” The case involved the mishandling by the Interior Department of 300,000 Indian trust fund accounts worth $2.5 billion.

Babbitt is also being investigated over a large campaign contribution to the Democrats from one Indian tribe, which may have led Babbitt to deny a casino license to another tribe. Republicans have been quick to blame Babbitt to score political points.

But what about their oversight responsibility? Why don’t they act to solve the problem?

The only action coming from Congress is to give Interior even greater control over the Indian tribes. New legislation hands bureaucrats virtually unlimited authority to redistribute federal money between the tribes. Congress complains about the bureaucracy, but ignores their abuses. Congress’ job isn’t to assign blame, but to require accountability.

As Indians have learned, career politicians speak with forked tongue.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.”

Our country’s founders believed in the people and our ability to govern ourselves. While the rest of the world denied the rights of the individual, America affirmed them. We put our faith not in kings or experts, but in the common sense and decency of the average person. And in doing so, we moved from a poor backwater nation to become the richest, most powerful country in the world.

But what about today? Do you really think today’s Washington power elite see the people as their superiors? Do they view us as capable of self-government?

A recent Pew Research Center poll asked government officials this question: “Do Americans know enough about issues to form wise opinions about what should be done?” The response from our so-called servants in government, if not surprising, is certainly troubling. Thirty-one percent of congressmen said yes, but 47 percent said no, the public is uninformed.

Of Washington bureaucrats, 14 percent said yes but 81 percent said no. Frankly, the government in Washington doesn’t think you or I know very much. Little wonder then that Washington doesn’t listen to us or think we can govern ourselves.

But Washington is wrong. Self-government made our country great. Let’s remind them we’re the boss.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities begins with these famous words, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . .”

But Dickens’s immortal words come in handy today.

Arkansas is experiencing a tale of two Houses. You see there is a very big difference between Arkansas’s two legislative chambers. The House, where term limits went into effect in 1998, is more than half freshmen lawmakers. The Senate is still home to crusty old politicians. After the House finished this year’s session, their work was praised even by many who were originally skeptical of the Legislature’s ability to handle the massive turnover from term limits.

The worries turned out to be unfounded. It was a model session. The Senate had more experience in how government works, but that turned out not to be a good thing. Federal prosecutors issued 133 felony indictments against several powerful long-serving Senators in the most sweeping corruption prosecution in Arkansas history.

These senators knew the system, all right well enough to steal more than $1.3 million from Arkansas taxpayers. The so-called “experienced” legislators have a pretty sorry record. But Arkansas’ Senate gets a fresh start when term limits hit next year.

Then, paraphrasing Dickens, “It will be a far, far better legislature than they have ever known.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.