Politics, Government & Public Policy: April 2004 Archives

KERRY BEATS THE SPREAD!

With all the recent talk of Constitutional amendments for this and that, here's a good example of what amendments are for.

The House on Thursday took up legislation that would require the holding of special elections within 45 days of the speaker confirming that a terrorist attack or other catastrophic event had left at least 100 seats vacant in the 435-seat body. ...

The Senate already allows governors to appoint senators when a vacancy occurs prior to an election. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has proposed a constitutional change giving states the flexibility to come up with their own methods of quickly filling seats in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Congress. ...

Simpson and Cutler, in a recent letter, said not one of their members went into the task with the desire to amend the Constitution. "Nevertheless, the evidence we considered led us to conclude that, for the sake of the Constitution itself, the security of our nation and the preservation of the Congress, a constitutional amendment is necessary to provide continuity in the face of a catastrophic attack."

I'd tend to agree that legislation alone isn't enough, since it's not at all clear that Congress has the power to authorize special elections under any circumstances. There is no Constitutional provision for filling a vacant House seat before the next general election; it probably wasn't considered necessary 200 years ago, because House elections come frequently and it wasn't conceivable that a significant fraction of chamber could be eliminated at one stroke.

BFL sister Irish Lass is hostessing (?) a Party for the President, and Dick Cheney is supposed to call. Sounds like fun, too bad I'm nowhere near Sacramento. If you, however, are, go here and request an invitation.

There will be a pro-abortion rally this weekend in Washington and a march in favor of abortion rights. It claims to be "non-partisan".

"This march is non-partisan, it is not political in the sense of electoral (politics)," said Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a march sponsor.

However, Feldt said the event aimed to "create a social climate in this country that is so supportive of reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care that it will simply be a matter of course that anyone in public office will be so as well."

That's like saying cutting taxes is a non-partisan issue.

As usual it's impossible to have a substatial debate on the issue because the abortion advocates refuse to acknowledge the real point of disagreement. No one disputes the right to choose to reproduce or not, the problem is that there's no concensus on when reproduction actually occurs. To a pro-lifer, once a woman is pregnant she has already reproduced and has already exercised her right to choose.

Organizers hope for a bigger turnout on the Mall than a 1992 abortion rights march, which drew 500,000, according to the National Park Police, which no longer gives official crowd counts. The biggest demonstration was an anti-Vietnam War rally in 1969, which drew 600,000.

Except for, perhaps, the 1997 Stand in the Gap rally that drew between 500,000 and 1 million attendees. No official estimate was given, but according to NPP officers I spoke to on the scene they'd never seen a crowd that size before (and one officer claimed to have worked on the mall for thirty years).

It shouldn't surprise anyone that campaign finance reform is a total mess. Democrats, who stood to lose the most if "soft money" contibutions were effectively curtailed, are accepting more money from millionaires, billionaires, and unions than ever before. I don't care how much money the Democrats raise, that's not the point. The point is that CFR is entirely ineffective in achieving its stated goal.

That's the sign of a bad law! It doesn't actually accomplish its goal, it just adds layers of red tape, regulation, and expense.

As for CFR specifically, money is like water: it flows downhill -- and nothing is lower than politics. The only way to combat government corruption is to reduce government power. As long as the government has the power to meddle in things, it will, and people will spend money to get it to meddle in their favor.

Is it just me, or does it seem wrong that millions of Americans pay no income taxes?

Everyone paid taxes on April 15, right? Wrong. Tens of millions of Americans will pay no federal taxes this year.

Americans will file about 132 million tax returns this year and all will pay less in federal taxes due to three Bush tax cuts. But 44 million people will pay no federal taxes at all — that's the highest number in U.S. history and it translates to 33 percent of all tax filers.

Obviously some people are poor and can't pay much in taxes, but I don't like the idea that anyone pays zero. What incentive is there for them to control government spending and encourage fiscal responsibility? Why should someone who pays no taxes hesitate to raise my taxes and then spend the money on himself?

No reason, that's why.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention: that number doesn't even include poor people.

In addition to these 44 million zero-tax filers there are another 14 million whose incomes are so low, $20,000 or less, they are off the tax roles entirely. Add to that the dependents, children, family members and those who aren't taxed at all — it equals 122 million Americans who live completely outside the federal tax system.

Upon discovering this information, those who are fond of crying "chickenhawk" will no doubt immediately call for these non-taxpayers to be disenfranchised.

As I've mentioned before, civilian control of the military is an important feature of our democracy. I -- and probably most other hawkish writers -- frequently get comments saying that since I'm not in the military I shouldn't be so quick to put our boys in danger. It's the old "chickenhawk" argument, and it's based on several false assumptions.

False assumption 1: Only people in the military are involved in defending our country. This is pretty obviously false, because our military couldn't exist without a vast civilian infrastructure to support it. Someone needs to build the weapons and other tools the military uses, and there's no reason to assume that any individual person would be used more effectively if they were to join the military. Some people are in a position to make a greater contribution to national defense from the civilian sector than they could make if they enlisted.

False assumption 2: People who don't join the military aren't brave. It's likely true that there are more brave people per capita inside our military than outside, but the armed forces hardly have a monopoly on bravery. What about police and firefighters? What about brave women, who aren't very likely to join the military? What about civilian contractors like (*gasp*) Halliburton who perform dangerous jobs that the military isn't equipped to handle? And so forth.

False assumption 3: Only those in the military (or with military experience) are qualified to opine on national security issues. In fact, our founding fathers very purposefully rejected this odd notion when they put the military entirely under civilian control. The Commander in Chief is an elected civilian, and Congress is in charge of declaring war. These office-holders are prohibited by law from being in the active military.

In the modern world, only in tyrannical dictatorships do generals possess autonomous authority to wield military power. The very foundation of democracy is the principle that the public -- made up of civilians, those without hard (military) power -- is the ultimate sovereign of the nation. The military consists of volunteers, and each soldier enlists to serve the interests of his country, as determined by the sovereign majority of civilians.

Each member of this sovereign citizenry has the right encourage their elected officials to exercise the powers of government in the way most desirable to that citizen. No one demands that those who have too little income to pay taxes stop lobbying their represetnatives on monetary matters. Just like taxation and spending, national security is an issue that concerns all the citizens of the country, no matter what their status or position in life. We are all entitled to an opinion, and we're all entitled to vote for leaders who will execute our preferred policies.

Remember Cruz Bustamante? No? He ran for governor against Arnold... ring any bells? He's still the lieutenant governor of California.

Anyway, while running for governor he accepted almost $4 million from Indian tribes to fund his campaign... for re-election as lieutenant governor. But he wanted to use the money for his gubernatorial campaign instead, so he just rolled it from one account to the other. A judge ordered him to move it back, and to return the money to the donors.

Now it looks like the whole scheme was purposefully designed to circumvent campaign financing laws, and Mr. Bustamante has been fined.

California's lieutenant governor paid a record $263,000 fine for violating campaign donation limits in his run against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (search), the state's political watchdog agency said Tuesday.

California's Fair Political Practices Commission charged in a civil lawsuit filed in January that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (search) and his supporters improperly moved $3.8 million between campaign committees during the recall election in an effort to skirt contribution limits.

Although agency officials have said Bustamante faced fines of as much as $9 million, the $263,000 settlement is still the largest ever paid in California by a candidate. The agreement was approved Monday by Judge Loren McMaster.

Naturally, Mr. Bustamante himself is not to blame.

"It was never my intention to violate the law," Bustamante said. "Unfortunately, the FPPC's regulations weren't as clear as they could have been. We believed that we were using a process the FPPC had allowed in the past and that our actions were consistent with the law."

But, considering the egregious nature of the violations, not everyone was convinced by his pleas of ignorance.

The maximum contribution from any donor to a candidate running in the recall election was $21,200. Investigators said there were 16 contributions, valued at $3.8 million, that exceeded the contribution limits.

"Given the purposeful nature of the conduct, we thought it was important that this needed to be the highest paid," said the agency's chief of enforcement Steven Russo.

Sixteen contributions with an average size of $237,500 -- more than ten times the allowable amount. Those regulations must have been pretty vague.

So there's a big to-do over Jamie Gorelick's memo that built a wall between law enforcement and intelligence operations, but I'm surprised this is a huge revelation. I can't remember where I heard it, but -- although I didn't know the contents of this specific memo -- it seems like old news to me. Ms. Gorelick is hardly the only compromised member of the 9/11 Commission.

Although I'm no fan of mass transit, that's generally because it's a publicly-funded debacle. Mark Aveyard points me to a City Journal article that explains some of the problems New York is having with its bus system and how those problems are the result of a corrupt public financing system.

Responding to complaints about poor service on the private lines, the mayor has demanded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority take over the routes—which in one stroke would absorb them into one of the most expensive, heavily subsidized public transit systems in the nation. But the problem isn’t that private firms run the routes, as the left-dominated City Council and other anti-privatization critics have charged and as the businessman mayor seems to believe. The problem is that the city hands out those transportation contracts under a no-bid system that breeds inefficiency and cronyism. ...

To lower costs, genuine privatization is necessary—and that means setting up real competitive bidding for transportation contracts. Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Diego have all realized sizable savings by turning to competitive bidding in this area. In Denver, bid-out routes cost 46 percent less to run than those the city still runs directly; in Los Angeles, which now contracts out more than half its bus service, the savings amount to roughly 40 percent.

A "genuine privatization" scheme would eliminate subsidies entirely, and I'm not sure that's what's being proposed here. Nevertheless, it's a step in the right direction.

Light rail could work in the same way, although building a line would require a massive capital investment by the developers. Such an investment could be financed with bonds, though, in the same way municipalities pay for public works projects.

Lileks (or as I call him, Lily) posts a quote from John Kerry that is as confusing and incoherent as anything George Bush has ever said.

Bob Edwards: "President Bush says Sadr's defiance can't stand. What should the U.S. do?"

Kerry: "Well, ahh, huh, it's interesting to hear that, when they shut the newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq, and, well, let me change the term legitimate --when they shut a newspaper that belongs to a voice, because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days, and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment, so it creates its own set of needs in order to deal with the possible future spread of terrorism. But at the same time, if its unaccompanied by a broader set of moves to try and broaden our own base in Iraq, um, I just think it asks for great difficulties."

Yeah, ok.

The most interesting aspect of the local Wal-Mart saga is that the company is using ballot referendums to bypass California's excruciating zoning and environmental regulations.

Inglewood's City Council last year blocked the proposed shopping center, which is to include both a traditional Wal-Mart and other stores, prompting the company to collect more than 10,000 signatures to force Tuesday's vote in the working-class community in southwestern Los Angeles County.

On Monday, religious leaders and community activists including the Rev. Jesse Jackson urged Inglewood voters to defeat the ballot measure, arguing that it gives Wal-Mart license to begin construction without having to go through the usual array of public zoning, traffic and environmental hearings or reviews.

"You don't get to get around all of the environmental impacts accepted in this country," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "You don't get to bypass the city and their building and safety and their planning departments. What they have done is they have gone over the top."

No, Ms. Waters, they've gone to the top and over your head -- directly to your bosses, the voters.

But of course, in America, the voters aren't really in charge....

Opponents have vowed legal action if the measure passes.

Update:
The ballot measure doesn't look likely to pass. I would have voted for it if I lived in Inglewood, but oh well. I may not like the decision, but I'm content that the people have expressed their will. The result reinforces what I consider to be unjust and inefficient regulations, but so be it.

Reminiscent of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's brilliant "Tax Me More!" fund, BostonIrish reports that Taxachusetts has created a checkbox on its state tax forms that allows the taxpayer to decide which tax rate he wants to pay: 5.3% or 5.85%. Surprisingly, even though recent tax-hike proposals by liberal lawmakers were only narrowly defeated, a mere 0.03% of taxpayers have opted to pay the higher rate.

Some will argue that no one wants to volunteer to pay the higher rate because then they'll be unfairly carrying the burden of paying for services that other people get the benefit of... but isn't that the exact position that "rich" people in higher marginal tax brackets are in already? Very few are eager for the government to redistribute wealth when they themselves are not the beneficiaries. This attitude reflects blatant hypocrisy on the parts of many presumed advocates of progressive taxation.

As I wrote last year, the tax rebellion continues. In 2002 Massachusetts voters almost passed a ballot initiative that would have eliminated all state income taxes, and it's only a matter of time before they try again and succeed. If the Bay State isn't first, there are plenty of others waiting in the wings.

(HT: Ace-o-Spades.)