ThisIsCommonSense.org

They say that only 2 things are certain in life: death and taxes. Let’s focus on taxes, considered certain for two reasons.

First, taxes are collected involuntarily, and secondly, politicians are very fond of spending other people’s money. Very.

A new report from the National Taxpayers Union says the tax revolt that began with Proposition 13 in the 1970’s would never have happened without the initiative process. NTU found that tax limitation measures passed directly by voters through the initiative have a made a very real difference. On the other hand, tax measures passed by politicians themselves are typically “toothless.”

Why do our so-​called representatives behave so badly when it comes to taxes and spending? The longer a politician sits on the receiving end of your tax dollars, instead of the paying end, the worse it gets. He grows fond of spending money and thereby making friends among special interests.

Our Founders advocated the proposition “No taxation without representation.” But today’s political leaders don’t really represent us on tax issues.

The exceptions are found among those who term-​limit themselves. They know one day soon they’ll give up their powerful position spending our tax dollars and have to go back to merely paying the bills like the rest of us.

Hank Williams used to sing, “I’ll never get out of this world alive.” But the only thing that’s certain about taxes is that career politicians like spending our tax dollars a whole lot more than “We, the People” like paying them.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

President Reagan used to say that Congress spent money like drunken sailors. But he would always apologize to drunken sailors because at least they spent their own money.

Well, there Congress goes again. They’re spending over $100 billion on 198 programs that Congress itself did not authorize.

It works like this: Congress passes an authorization bill which says how much money should be spent and how. Then Congress passes appropriation bills to actually release the funds from the Treasury to “cut the check.” If a program isn’t authorized then Congress has not approved it. Yet, the appropriations committee writes legislation to fund programs that Congress didn’t authorize. And the Rules Committee has a rule under which congressmen cannot object to this unauthorized spending.

A rule against objecting to breaking the rules. Only in Washington!

Who found this little trick and brought it to light? A crusty, old careerist who knows where all the bodies are buried?

Well, no. A freshman, first-​termer, Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado. A guy pledged to serve no more than three terms in Washington. This new kid on the block got 13 other congressmen to sign a letter to the Rules Committee criticizing this practice and urging the Rules Committee not to block objections to this unauthorized spending.

P.J. O’Rourke once said: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” At least we know that not everyone in Congress is drunk with power.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

When our elected officials take office they pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. We all revere the Constitution, or do we?

According to a recent poll by Rasmussen Research, if the Constitution were put to vote today, it would not pass. Only 49 percent would vote in favor.

What’s going on here?

The problem is that if elected officials don’t obey it, our Constitution becomes just another piece of paper. The old Soviet Union had a constitution that guaranteed various rights, but nobody paid attention to it.

Only 1 in 3 Americans believe the government operates under the Constitution, and fully half believe it definitely does not. And true enough the federal government can do virtually anything without constitutional restraint.

For decades, Congress has passed legislation that mocks the limits of the Constitution, yet the Supreme Court barely ever rules an act of Congress unconstitutional. Yet, when it comes to term limits on which the document is silent the court declares the actions of 23 states unconstitutional.

Why? Because the careerists know that term limits would limit their power, just as the Constitution itself does. The Constitution frees the people by placing limits on the federal government. The American people will support the Constitution, provided our elected officials abide by it. And we must fight to prevent politicians from turning our Constitution into just another piece of paper.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

“We’re all in this together.”

That’s what Robert DeNiro kept saying as he risked his life to help people against an oppressive government in the futuristic movie “Brazil.”

A new poll says DeNiro is right, or at least most Americans agree that “we’re all in this together.” Specifically, 67 percent want their representative to look past the narrow interests of their district or region and work for what’s best for the country as a whole.

It’s an old political trick to play on divisions between states, regions, races, nationalities, and religions. The idea is to distract voters. Instead of worrying about what we get from Washington for the tax dollars we spend, they want us to look at what we get compared to some other group.

The politicians want you to think they bring home the bacon. But what they don’t want you to consider is that even in the fattest pork district in the country, the average taxpayer pays a lot more in taxes than they get back.

Career politicians beat their chests about returning a few pennies on the dollars you fork over. They conveniently fail to mention that they voted for wasteful spending in every other district in order to get their pet pork project passed. We all end up poorer, not richer. And the only ones fighting this “rob Peter to pay Paul” mentality are the representatives who limit their time in Congress.

Americans understand that their district won’t truly benefit from policies that hurt the entire country. The career politicians are always trying to separate us, but the American people know we’re all in this together.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

If one more condescending elitist in Washington says the public is “fat, dumb and happy” I’m going to scream.

Professor Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia put the conventional wisdom a little more delicately: “These are good times. They’re not that crazy about Congress, but they really don’t care.”

It’s true, of course that the American people are happier when the economy is strong. Why shouldn’t we be? Our hard work and smarts made it happen.

But we’re not so happy with our government. The Center on Policy Attitudes reported that: “the majority of Americans is quite dissatisfied with the American government. Given that the US economy is booming … one might expect Americans to show higher levels of satisfaction. Nonetheless, fewer than a third of Americans say that they ‘trust the government in Washington to do what is right’ most of the time.” The study also found that 83 percent of us believe special interests have more influence than voters, 67 percent say government doesn’t understand what they think, 89 percent say gridlock in Congress is caused more by partisan posturing than honest disagreement.

The bottom-​line is that this is our government and it should listen to us, but it doesn’t. The career politicians would like us to be “fat, dumb and happy” so that we’ll shut up, pay our taxes and leave the decisions to them.

But until our representatives stop putting their own careers ahead of the public interest, the American people will not be happy. Even in good economic times, we want a government that works for us.

Is anyone in Washington listening?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

As children we learned that honesty was the best policy. When we get older some people forget this lesson. They’re called politicians.

Mark Twain once humorously called Congress “America’s only native criminal class.” We laugh, but when politicians campaign saying one thing and then do the opposite it assaults the very foundation of our representative democracy.

How can the people control their government if they are lied to by those who go to Washington to decide policy? How can they know what they’re voting for?

Pundits are quick to blame the voters for the country’s problems. After all, they say, we elected the bums.

But hold on.

Jimmy Carter promised to balance the budget, but never submitted a balanced budget to Congress. Four years later he was defeated by Ronald Reagan, who likewise promised a balanced budget and never submitted one. Then George Bush promised he would not raise taxes. He did. Bill Clinton defeated him promising a middle-​class tax cut that he soon abandoned.

A number of Congressmen have pledged to limit their time in office knowing that’s what the voters want. The good news is that most of those who made the term limits pledge are keeping it. Those few who aren’t keeping their word have denied citizens an honest choice in elections.

We cannot allow politicians to break their word in the belief that they’re all dishonest. They aren’t all dishonest, and we must hold them accountable for their words and deeds. Honesty is not only the best policy; it’s the only way that we as citizens can have a say in our government.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.