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This posting offers the main reason (money) and a possible solution (military service) to the lack of work done by Congress and The White House.
LAS VEGAS, NV (March 15, 2008) – A learned gentleman, who doesn’t want to be identified, told me recently that Congress doesn’t solve problems completely or immediately because there’d be no reason for anyone to contribute to their up-coming elections.
He’s right.
Our elected officials are more aware of sales tactics than the economic threat of China and India. Another gentleman, with experience in government, told me this week he was always amazed that so many members of Congress had never read the Constitution. I’m not surprised.
I once flew cross-country, seated next to a Congressman. Later at baggage claim my wife was worried: “What’s wrong?” I told her I was frightened, because I knew more about economic and international issues than the Congressman did. And his dearth of knowledge was appalling.
In fairness, I’ve had intellectually invigorating conversations with a number of smart, elected officials. Among them are: former U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, current U.S. Senator John Ensign (who endorsed my book), former U.S. Congressman Bob “B-1 Bob” Dornan, and current Nevada State Senator Warren Hardy.
So, if there are some smart politicians who care about issues and the people of this country, how do we get what we had happen in Congress this past week? And how do we stop it?
First, the U.S. House forced itself to vote for an outside commission to investigate ethics complaints against lawmakers. The measure was a half-hearted attempted by the House Democrats who said during the 2006 campaign they would clean up Congress. Don’t they mean they’ll find someone to help them clean up or sweep things under the rug?
The best comment came from Congressman Todd Tiahrt, from Kansas, who is against the outside policing. He said, “If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you’ll vote no.” Depending upon how you interpret that, you could think he is a nut case or very prescient. Does he mean he’s preserving his ability to raise money and stay in office or is he concerned about preserving the nation’s trust?
Self-preservation of the lower sort was in high order in the U.S. Senate this week also. The so-called more contemplative elected body overwhelmingly rejected a bill to put a moratorium on earmarks.
These guys have balls. In an election year, they vote no to transparency and democracy. Why? They’re holding onto their fiefdoms, their place at the trough, and the privilege they’ve created.
And how does this affect you and me?
Look at the economy. Granted, we were expecting a down-turn. But this recession (there I finally publicly admitted it) seems much deeper because of the liquidity crisis and drop in home equity due to the sub prime mess. The problem was not the investment vehicles. In fact, I would say mortgage-backed securities are brilliant. The problem was the lack of oversight by government. We wanted to keep government out of our business.
And now government needs to step in and save an investment bank, Bear Stearns. And the government needs to pump cash into the banking system in the hopes that people will start buying again – even though the move could cause other problems like the continued lower dollar and future inflation.
Look at the current scandal in Las Vegas. At least six people have contracted hepatitis C because a group of clinics re-used syringes and vials during colonoscopies. My friend and columnist Jon Ralston has been banging the pans loud on this one. He points out that prisons are reviewed more stringently in Nevada than these clinics. He writes:
But what do we make of the Swiss cheese regulation of these ambulatory surgery centers and the state’s failure to enforce the laws, as weak as they are? Indeed, there is a bitter irony here: Those who always say regulatory controls inhibit businesses too much - hello, chamber folks - should wonder what might have happened if the state had the resources and the will to use them. But these same folks also chant about government running more like a business - and if it had in this case, maybe some of this bad business could have been avoided.
It’s not that our elected officials are making bad decisions, though they are; it’s, in most cases, they’re making no decisions.
I feel like we’re in a Woody Allen movie from the 1970s. Two older women are sitting in an upscale restaurant. The first one says, “The food is not very good.” The second one says, “And the portions are so small.”
Why in 2006, when faced with the growing talk about immigration problems and even a roaming town hall tour, Congress would adjourn for the mid-term elections without even casting a vote?
Why is it that the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is now creating economic policy when his job is to control the flow of money in our banking system? Think about what just happened this week and over the weekend with the aforementioned Bear Stearns mess. The government is bailing out an investment bank to insure there won’t be a “chain reaction of failures among its lenders and trading partners,” according to the New York Times.
That means tax-payers are going to take responsibility for the faltering mortgage-backed securities. Why? There was inadequate regulation of the mortgage industry. You’ll hear a lot of criticism of Bernanke over the next few months by certain segments of Wall Street. But remember, Big Ben is doing the job others won’t do.
Congress is like a neglectful parent who fails to work with their failing child and blames the teacher instead. The truth is that Republicans will tax-cut us to death while Democrats will spend us to death. I’m tired of the moronic Republicans who keep talking about permanent tax cuts. They will tell you that JFK proved that tax cuts stimulate the economy. Yes, it did – in 1962! We’re living in 2008. If we continue to cut taxes and INCREASE spending, the logic goes out the window.
The underlying reason for this lack of leadership and economic understanding is campaign money, lobbying money, and under the table deals to help an elected official and his or her buddies.
If you run a successful small business today in America, you are a miracle worker. You survive in spite of the clowns running our country. Ask yourself how Congress has lower approval ratings than George W. Bush and yet the incumbency rate is still at ninety percent? And why do we constantly shake our heads and wonder how a group of adults come up with the laws they give us? And yet we survive.
Can we keep this up, though? I don’t think so.
Here’s how we stop it. It’s a five-point military action plan for Congress. In short, I want our elected officials to go to war – against stupidity and special interests.
First, stop all campaign money to all campaigns. Giving to a political campaign is not written in the Constitution. Just because so many people – including the Supreme Court – say the legal bribing of a politician (my term) is free speech, we don’t have to believe that or take it.
Support candidates who take no money. The late Senator William Proxmire, of Wisconsin, only spent $7,000 on his campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s. In today’s dollars, that’s $15,000, a far cry from campaign coffers that look like the GDP of an emerging foreign country.
We have to make elections an even playing field. Each candidate, depending on the district, should receive the same amount of campaign dollars.
Giving money to a politician looks like influence peddling. Allowing someone to give money to a politician who is supposed to represent all the people is like pissing on the Pieta. Being elected to office is a sacred trust.
Second, no elected official can meet with a constituent in private. You want to bring up an issue for debate? Deliver your comments or suggestions in a public committee meeting.
Third, since Congress falls over itself praising the military, they should act like them. So, Congress should be moved to an enclosed and gated military base. They will sleep in barracks and have a regimented schedule where certain duties must be done – or they don’t leave.
Those duties will include public meetings with constituents and experts. Their schedule will also include four hours a day of lock-down reading and studying the issues that face us. There’s something to be said when you hear someone like Joe Biden talk eloquently and balanced on a foreign policy issue, compared to our President who was surprised to hear four dollars a gallon gas is a reality this summer.
I just read an interesting Wall Street Journal Op-ed piece from March 15, 2008 by South Carolina Mark Sanford, who endorses John McCain. Governor Sanford cites the efforts of U.S. Comptroller David Walker, the only honest man in Washington in my opinion, to educate America on the fiscal disaster looming in the next five to ten years. And clearly, McCain is the only candidate of the three who even knows what fiscal responsibility is.
But Governor Sanford, and for that matter John McCain, never explain to us how we can continue to fight a war in Iraq – with trillions of dollars spent and to be spent – and balance a budget. We need our elected officials to address all the issues, not just the ones that will get them elected.
Folks, we’re in Iraq for a long time. Don’t kid yourselves. We need that oil or some form of stable oil prices. But we also need to stabilize the dollar and get our fiscal house in order before all the baby-boomers retire and drain the entitlement bank – and our children’s futures. And no one even mentions this, let alone explaining the sacrifices we will all be making.
Another example: we fail to discuss the need for more education. Instead, the Democratic candidates blame NAFTA. We don’t need to put up more barriers to trade and new workers. We need to re-educate and re-train the workers we have. NAFTA has given us more jobs than it has taken away. What’s worse: our kids don’t have the tools to compete in a global economy against China and India.
Let me give you a better analogy. Would you get on a plane when you know the pilot is asleep? That’s what we’re doing with our economy and our foreign policy. You think the economy is bleak now? Wait.
That leads to point four. Campaign season will last only three months. No candidate can hit the campaign trail or debate another candidate until August of an election year. Then from August until the first Tuesday in November, they can go out and beat the daylights out of each other. Before that, they’re working on the issues, passing laws, and studying the people’s needs.
The main reason our elected officials are so clueless on the issues that affect our lives is because they’re too busy raising money for their next election.
That brings us to point five: double the salaries of Congress and the President. This way they have a good salary and that’s it. They cannot take any other payment or compensation – and every expense they incur is public record. Hey, if they don’t like the pay or the scrutiny, then find another job.
Our elected officials are supposed to be fair arbiters of our laws. Think about it: journalists have more integrity than lawmakers. Going to Congress to work for the people is a sacrifice and an honor – not a boondoggle. Elected officials are mandated to serve the country – like our brave men and women do in Iraq, other foreign countries, and here at home.
When our brave men and women leave the military, they have to go find a job or career to finally make some money. When many of our elected officials leave office, they’re set for life. It shouldn’t be that way. When you serve in Congress, your financial net worth should drop – not soar. You’re sacrificing for your country, remember?
Trust me, this plan I just laid out will work. However, it will never see the light of day.
First, Congress would never remove their cushy lifestyles. Second, the media needs those campaign dollars which eventually become advertising revenue. Third, most Americans are too busy trying to straighten out their own lives. And fourth, we lack the collective economic education to see how these elected officials – and the next ones we elevate – are killing this country.
I’m glad it’s St. Patrick’s Day. I need a pint.
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November 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
[…] have a two-pronged solution. It’s posted in a previous column. The first part of the solution calls for a Canadian style of election – only based on time […]