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Scandal-Less

Term Limit Protection

In the 15 states voters have enacted term limits for their state representatives and senators, those politicians and the lobbyists and heads of powerful interest groups constantly complain that the limits are a problem.

I know. That’s why I like term limits.

Am I a broken record on the subject? Perhaps. But let me tell you about a different type of record . . . criminal.

“Are term limits good ideas for Pa. elected officials?” asked a Newsworks.org headline, after Steve Reed, the former 28-year mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, “was arrested on nearly 500 criminal charges that included corruption, theft, bribery and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity.”

“Top N.Y. lawmaker arrested on corruption charges,” read a January USA Today headline. Sheldon Silver, after more than 20 years as Assembly Speaker was “arrested on federal corruption charges alleging he was involved in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme for more than a decade.”

In 2009, after Massachusetts saw its third House Speaker in a row indicted, I ranked New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts as the three most corrupt states. The top contenders all have one thing in common: a lack of term limits.

A couple years ago, I joined Greg Upchurch, a St. Louis patent attorney and entrepreneur at a conference on term limits in Missouri. Greg (the driving force behind the state’s 1992 initiative) told the audience, mostly opposed to term limits, that the limits are here to stay.

Before term limits, Upchurch pointed out, legislative leaders were going to prison for corruption. With term limits, there simply haven’t been such scandals.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Term Limit Protection

 

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Common Sense

Bedbugs in their Bonnets

When Congress began meddling in interstate commerce, using the most generous criteria to justify federal interference in private business and state powers, critics with common sense argued that the ultimate result would be absurdity.

If Congress wasn’t made to stick to the powers Constitutionally enumerated, then there would be nothing Congress wouldn’t do!

The proponents of big government said, in effect, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Yet the ridiculous is now the normal business of Congress. Recently, the august members of the House have been deliberating the “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.” This legislation would direct the Commerce Department to provide grants to eligible states to assist in the inspection of hotel rooms.

Representative G.K. Butterfield, a North Carolina Democrat, says that bed bugs, 50 years after being nearly eliminated, are back.

Hmmm. Since hotels depend on their reputations to make money, they have every incentive to fix this problem, without taxpayer help. Hotels should be financially responsible for their own inspections. If there is a role for local and state governments, it would be to streamline the court system to make it easier for afflicted customers to get compensation.

But Congress authorizing $50 million to solve their bed bug crisis? Butterfield insists “it’s not a joke.”

But it is. On us. Congress now defines commerce as extending to the traffic of bed bugs.

Oh, it’s nice that Congress worries about us so. But let’s kill bed bugs locally.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Remember Rangel

Have you ever tried to build a multi-million dollar monument to yourself?

No? Well, I guess you’re not New York Congressman Charley Rangel. He’s been trying to fund the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

Monday, July 28, 2008

So far he’s nabbed a $1.9 million earmark to help put his name in lights, not to mention two HUD Department grants totaling another $700,000 from taxpayers.

Rangel’s goal is to raise $30 million for his Center. So, now he’s raising more money from special interests. Including those interests that have business before the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs.

While watchdog groups are questioning the ethics of this fundraising in general, Rangel’s use of official congressional letterhead to solicit contributions for the Center seems without question to be a violation of House rules.

Recently, Rangel ran into more trouble in New York City, when it came to light that the congressman has four rent-stabilized apartments. Once again, government regulation benefits the powerful.

Did I mention that this same congressman uses taxpayer money – $777 a month – to lease a Cadillac? Rangel says he wants his constituents to think their congressman is “somebody.”

Give him his due, though. After 38 years in Congress, Mr. Rangel has firmly established himself as a somebody – somebody responsible for helping achieve the lowest congressional approval ratings in history.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Stay Awake for the Brownouts

Years ago, I would actually listen to lectures by economists on how the electric grid might function better. Pretty much only one thing remains in my head, the conclusion: Regulatory agencies and government-run electrical companies tend to be very inefficient when it comes to capitalizing their enterprises.

Have you nodded off, yet?

Sorry. There’s always been something a bit boring about these discussions. But the subject matter is really worth staying awake for.

Why?

Well, experts predict that in as soon as three years, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland – the area where I live – will be enduring rolling brownouts.

It’s not the fault of PJM, the already-regulated electric transmission company servicing the area. It’s the fault of members of Virginia’s State Corporation Commission and Maryland’s Public Service Commission.

Yes, ever more people are moving into the area. But the officials in charge of allowing new electric infrastructure to be set in place are refusing to grant permission to lay down the miles of new high-voltage electric lines the increasing demand requires.

What’s their rationale? Board members say they need more studies. Bureaucrats love studies. Could it be that friends and family and business partners of the board would be amongst those doing the studies?

I bet economists would have a less incendiary explanation. But the upshot is clear. Bureaucracies can be dangerously slow institutions to rest progress upon.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Too Much Trouble to Respect Rights?

We often lament the abuse of eminent domain power that occurs when the property of one private owner is forcibly transferred to another private owner.

But this doesn’t mean all grabbing of property for “public use” is honorable or sensible. Government officials too often mindlessly deploy their power, simply because they possess that power and can get away with abusing it.

And if the easiest way to get what they want also happens to show brutal contempt for the rights of their constituents? Hey, them’s the breaks, pal.

The editors of a Phoenix area newspaper, the East Valley Tribune, also oppose such arbitrary assault on the property and rights of others. In the town of Chandler, Arizona, Lloyds Complete Auto Supply must close its doors. Not because they can’t make money any more, but because Chandler officials want a new town hall. Aztec Wrought Irons in the same neighborhood is also on the government’s hit list.

There is no more urgent reason for the peremptory bulldozing of these businesses than the expiration of a ten-year lease in a private office building where many city officials have their offices. That’s the crisis. That’s the dire emergency.

The Tribune believes that instead of using tax dollars and police powers to “knock down decades of hard work,” Chandler officials should take the trouble to align their plans with those of property owners.

Yes. They should.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.