Beware What Politicians Tell Us
This article was first posted to the May/June Edition of Tampa Bay Magazine.
a recent TV show, a politician said he put the public's interest over political interest. I pondered that statement for a millisecond, shook my head and shouted to myself, PBS. (That is my personal acronym for “political bull s-t."). He spoke with such sincerity, I almost wanted to believe it.
You may think I am a cynic, but I cannot keep quiet and listen to this excuse anymore regarding expensive programs that don't work and increase the national debt. The cronyism, corruption, self-interest and lack of common sense in our government leadership is as President Abraham Lincoln said, “self-evident."
It cannot be in the public interest to bankrupt this country by running monumental deficits and accumulating debt we can never pay. The US cannot survive this irresponsible fiscal insanity. If we do not change course, there will be major problems ahead.
“Green" is not the answer. It is not in the public interest to drive up energy prices, and hurt us with inflation, when we have no viable alternative to power our cars, trucks, and farm equipment, or to power our entire economy, which requires massive amounts of energy. Nor does it make sense to cancel almost-built pipelines, which are the only efficient way to transport gas and oil. We will not stop using fossil fuel just because we transport it over land (which adds to cost and carbon pollution).
I am not against being a good steward of the environment, but it is not in the public interest to spend trillions of dollars we don't have to promote policy that has virtually no impact on climate change. Even John Kerry, the first U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, has admitted that if we get to net zero tomorrow, it will have no material impact on climate. Yet we encourage and require unaffordable electric vehicles by subsidy and government requirements, when, with current technology, they do virtually nothing for carbon emissions. That is not in the public's interest. Kowtowing to those who have no idea of the impact of what they are proposing makes no sense at all. When a new technology works, people use it of their own free will. You will not need a government order to make them do so.
Ethanol is bad for the environment-expensive, corrosive to our engines, drives up corn prices, yet it is required to be added to our gasoline to help some farmers and ethanol producers. That is not helpful to the public.
The War on Poverty has become a colossal mess. It began with good intentions, but since the government implemented it-60 years and $25 trillion ago, the poverty rate has not improved. The incentives are backward and have led to costly permanent dependency on the government and a breakdown of families instead of helping folks become truly independent, which was the original objective.
When Seattle passed a law to raise the pay of food delivery drivers, it practically drove drivers out of business and resulted in a much lower net pay, as it drove the cost of delivery up and usage down. The result harms the people and businesses that used to benefit from the old system. The city council may not have helped the intended beneficiaries.
My list of questionable government actions could go on and on and on. However, government is, by its very nature, inefficient because government representatives are not spending their own money and have no incentives to be frugal with the public's money. Quite the contrary, they are incentivized to shower us with goodies to buy votes and do things that “sound good but feel bad." The results seldom meet the promises, and no one seems to embrace accountability as our debts mount.
Our economy works just fine, when the government lets the market work on its own.
Our nation's founders were very wise. They understood nothing was more toxic to our liberties than unchecked power. That is why they devised the federal system of government with limited federal government power and the rest reserved to the “states or the people," as ordained in Amendment 10 to the Constitution. They would be shocked to see the mess we have made of their well-planned system. Our country is being slowly destroyed by the behemoth called government and its “good intentions."
Think for yourself. The next time a politician says he/she is looking out for the public interest, beware.
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