It started with my disgust regarding the amount of money Americans are spending on politics. There has always been money in politics mind you. Our forefathers were wealthy. But I felt the opportunity to be a philosopher and construct our Constitution resulted mainly from the ability to spend most of one’s time thinking about grand ideas. Wealth sort of affords that behavior.
Anyway, the last presidential election was really a tipping point for me. Not because of who was elected, but because of how much money we spent doing it: Seven Billion Dollars. I remember feeling so embarrassed for America and wondering what my international friends must think of this excess. That seven billion wasn’t used for developing new technology that might support future jobs. It wasn’t used to educate our population, feed our poor or help our elderly. That money was taken from us (perhaps willingly) and used for giant conventions, fancy dinners, TV commercials and advertisements on radio, print. It was used to employee campaign staff, but what could those talented individuals have done if they weren’t trying to get someone elected? Maybe save the world.
Around this time I also listened to a podcast from This American Life all about congressional fundraising. It is horrifying and both parties are guilty. Here are just some of the highlights of that piece. Pelosi says she goes to more than 1 fundraiser every day and that is common. Congressman spend two to three hours a day fundraising in a call center across the street from the congressional offices. It is no wonder that no legislating actually gets done! The level of money requires that politicians use lobbyists to organize fundraisers. There are unwritten ‘rules for engagement’ that are really just a polite way of saying bribery.
Next came a podcast from Planet Money and about farm insurance. We taxpayers spent a record $14 billion on crop insurance and payouts in 2012. This podcast explored among other things how politics play out in the farm insurance program. What really disturbed me was an interview with the guy who helped craft the peanut bill. This man, Norfleet Sugg, explained that the bill is intentionally complicated. Sugg said that this complexity was beneficial because it was hard to criticize the complicated bill.
I’ve included another article from Bloomberg that says even though there is bipartisan (via President Obama and Republican Paul Ryan) support for cutting the farm insurance bill, lobbyists spent at least $52 million bribing (yea lets just call a spade a spade) lawmakers during the 2012 election cycle. The result is that congress plans to funnel billions more into the program. Our tax money will go to farmers who are wealthier than the average American. And you know whom the lobbyists included? Insurance companies. Because the government pays 18 insurance companies to run the program. And here is another little tidbit: the names of those receiving payouts from the program are secret!
The whole situation screams corruption. No longer is the best interest of the public or the country of any importance. The whole system has become bastardized and motivated singularly by money because if you don’t have money, you can’t get elected. And you can’t get money unless you commit to support legislation that is in the best interest of the contributor.
All of this lead me to believe that we need campaign fundraising reform; a big shift for this free market girl. But, it is clear to me that we must get the money out of politics if we ever hope to have a system that isn’t corrupt. Legislators can’t possibly do what they need to (even if they really want to) if they are restricted by the burden of raising millions of dollars.
However, the more I thought about this the more I became convinced that nobody involved in the political process will voluntarily vote themselves a huge pay cut. Lets face it there are billions and billions of dollars at stake. If politicians could say no to money, they would decline all those bribes that they continue to accept. It is just not going to happen.
According to the New York Times reporter Eduardo Porter, “Bigger markets allow bigger frauds. Bigger companies, with more complex balance sheets have more places to hide them.” We need smaller government budgets. Since we can’t get politicians to limit their budgets, the only option is to reduce the number of politicians and indirectly limit the budget. If we could reduce the size of government, we could make the budget smaller with less opportunity for corruption. Hence, my libertarian jump.
This is new thinking for me, but so far libertarian sounds like a reasonable alternative to the mainstream parties. According to their website libertarians advocate for ‘smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.’ I’ve been saying for years that I was looking for a political party that is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Libertarian sounds like just the ticket.
And, who doesn’t love Ron Paul? He looks and sounds just like a chicken!
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office
clearing mud 