Posted on 04/02/2002 8:26:09 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
Republican Whip Ray Haynes represents California’s 36th state Senate District.
Education, Energy, Economy, Ethics. The four ‘E’s are the issues in state government today. What is happening in our education system, and why is it doing so badly, despite a huge infusion of money? Is our state energy problem resolved? What is happening in our economy, and what effect is that having on our state budget? How can we resolve the serious ethical problems that have arisen in campaign contributions and the operation of California’s state government?
Interestingly enough, the mismanagement of these problems in Sacramento, most notably by Gray Davis, can be traced to the same cause: “wrong thinking” about government’s role in our daily lives. There is a different way, a wiser way, but it is a way that requires government to lose a little of its power — that’s the problem. When politicians lose power, bad politicians lose office, and since unemployed bad politicians probably would also be unable to hold any other job, they fight — hard — to stay in power.
Let me explain. Our education, energy, economy, and ethics problems result from the belief that all solutions begin and end with a government program. Of course, the more government programs there are, the more people rely on politicians, either to receive a benefit or avoid a penalty. That reinforces the politician’s power; it forces people to support that politician or pay for not doing so.
This leads to the ethics problems. Everyone in Sacramento, for instance, knows that if they want an audience with the governor, they have to “pay to play.” If a business doesn’t pay, the governor has no problem signing legislation or increasing regulation that brings serious adverse consequences to the non-paying business. Most businesses pay just to stay in business.
Policy-making in California then benefits those who pay the most tribute to the ruling powers. The employee unions dictate school policy, whether or not the policy helps children (children don’t contribute money to politicians). The state’s accountability policy is the best example of that. The major impact of the accountability policy was to shift large amounts of money to the large urban districts with the largest, most influential unions. There has been little, if any, improvement in the quality of education in those schools.
The same is true with energy and the economy. Energy firms that paid Davis lots of campaign cash got good long-term contracts. Firms that paid the governor money got exemptions from laws, regulations, increased taxes, and favorable treatment. Those that didn’t saw their taxes raised and their business regulated. Many businesses, tired of the problems, just relocate elsewhere, where they don’t have to “pay to play.”
At a recent business conference, one business owner compared doing business in California to doing business in Bangladesh, where business owners have to bribe public officials to keep them off their backs. Another participant in that conference disputed the analogy, saying that, in Bangladesh, as opposed to California, the rulers asked to be paid only once, while in California the rulers just want more and more.
Bad politicians like big government, because it gives them more power. They can always think of reasons for more government programs, but the bottom line is that they want more power for themselves: that is how they maintain their position. California politicians have taken more power over education, energy, and the economy for that reason. It has hurt the economy, hurt children’s education, and nearly destroyed our energy future. That is natural in politicians; it also the best argument against big government.
Wow is that ever true. And boy oh boy does governer Grayout like big government.
One of our Founding Fathers observed that America was doomed as soon as her leaders discovered that the populace could be bribed with their own money.
A lot of wisdom, there. I hope Simon and many others will have, AND TAKE, the opportunity to make that argument far and wide!
Dan
This is the only point with which I disagree. The revolving door is kept well oiled, and in the course of a politician's career, he accumulates many favors owed him. He also knows where the bodies are buried. A guy like Condit, for all his hand-wringing, will do just fine in private life.
This summarizes the liberal thinking on everything ... government first, last and always.
As a conservative, government should be the LAST resort for any solution to any problem.
I'm very concerned about these accusations of campaigning for legislation. If a Republican had a fraction of these accusations launched against him, he would be chased out of office by the Democrats and the press. Sadly, we Republicans (and the press) are silent on this issue.
Gray Davis is corrupt, he is a political whore, he is a power hungry Machiavellian criminal. He should be in jail for not only bribery, but fiscal malfeasance that will bankrupt California.
Gray Davis has got to go. I'm sure the prison guards he gave such a nice raise to will take care of him behind bars.
"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard - the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money -- the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law --men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims -- then money becomes its creators' avenger.Such looters believe it is safe to rob defenseless men, once they have passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes on, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter."
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapse over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the worlds greatest civilization has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:*From bondage to spiritual faith
*from spiritual faith to great courage
*from courage to liberty
*from liberty to abundance
*from abundance to selfishness
*from selfishness to complacency
*from complacency to apathy
*from apathy to dependency
*from dependency back again to bondage."
Alexander Fraser Tyler
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