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Six Billion Temptations

Jimmie | September 18, 2008 | Comments (0)

Daniel Henninger, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, hits on a theme I explored back in February.

You say Sarah Palin doesn’t have enough “experience” to run Washington? Washington is barely fit to be run.

The problem isn’t standard political corruption. The problem is that the $2.8 trillion federal budget is a vast ocean of Beltway pilot fish feeding off scraps from the whale — lawyers, lobbyists, ex-Members of Congress. No one runs the Sea of Washington. It’s too big, too deep.

Barack Obama wants to dig a deeper hole. John McCain should ask the American people if they want this to go on, because it’s nonsense to vote for government to do “more” and then whine when it doesn’t work or degrades into sweetheart-deal hell.

Unfocused “reform” rhetoric from Mr. McCain isn’t enough. The public has been there, heard that. Sen. McCain should talk about what he knows — fat Fannie and Freddie, farm-bill bloat, the ethanol subsidy fiasco, the federal procurement mess. Show people Gov. Palin’s 18 single-spaced pages of 2007 vetoes. Then identify Congress’s bipartisan supporters of the Legislative Line-Item Veto Act and ask the voters’ support. Appear with GOP congressman from Sarah’s new generation who want to help — Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Kevin McCarthy of California. There are others.

Promise to spend the first two years on this historic political reform effort, and if a Democratic Congress laughs, promise to barnstorm in 2010 for a Congress willing to act, from any party.

Back in February, I wrote this:

I want to lay a number on table: 5,794,392,523.36.

That number is the reason why, no matter whether we outlaw every single earmark, no matter how much John McCain silences our voices on the eve of an election, and no matter how much someone rails against “corrupt money politics” or vows to bring “honesty” back to the halls of Congress, we will ever have anything but a Federal government driven by cash.

That number is how much every single member of Congress has the power to spend if they pass
President Bush’s $3.1 trillion budget.

That, folks, is a big honking number.

That number is what John McCain should be attacking every day. He should be explaining to people that there is no way we can possibly end the corruption in Washington DC so long as each member of Congress controls almost 6 billion dollars.

It is patently unfair to ask any human being to remain as pure as the driven snow so long as they have control of that much public money, largely without question or limit.

Do you think you would remain unsullied if someone kept putting 6 billion dollars in your hands every year and almost never asked you to account for it? Do you think you’d use that money wisely or would you kick some to your friends and the folks willing to do you a solid? Might you be willing to throw some of that money to someone who was willing to put a few bucks in your pocket?

Yeah, I think we’re all in the same place. We’re human beings. We won’t deal honestly all of the time and when the chances to act dishonestly arise as often as they do for the average member of Congress, none of us would be a saint. We’d all act badly in some way.

So why do we continue to put the temptation to act wrongly in front of them? Why do we give them so much money then act shocked when they do what any other normal human being would do? It makes no good sense for us to gripe about earmarks if we keep giving them all that money. Doesn’t it make much more sense to remove the temptations to spend our money badly by giving them less of our money to spend?

At the very least, we will get out money back and will have only ourselves to blame if we blow it.

There is only one solution to the corruption that has infested Washington. Shrink the Federal budget. That should be John McCain’s go-to message from now to November. If he does that, he’ll be sitting in the Oval Office next year. Mark my words.