Term Limits

I recently (and finally) finished reading Michael Tanner's Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution. It is a decent book that points out many places where the Republican Party has gone astray. Tanner certainly does not have much love for President Bush.

One topic I had never given much serious thought to is term limits. Tanner mentions them in his book and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. The likelihood of them being enacted, I regret to say, is about as probable as me going to Mars.

The idea certainly resonates with voters. Tanner notes that during the 1990s “voters in 21 states approved term limits for their members of Congress.” Unfortunately those victories were overturned in a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton. In the opening paragraph of his dissent Justice Thomas writes:

Nothing in the Constitution deprives the people of each State of the power to prescribe eligibility requirements for the candidates who seek to represent them in Congress. The Constitution is simply silent on this question. And where the Constitution is silent, it raises no bar to action by the States or the people.

I am certainly no lawyer, but that seems reasonable to me. And I imagine I am much more likely to agree with Justice Thomas rather than Justice Stevens (who wrote the majority opinion).

Tanner used two simple quotes that got me thinking.

Former Congressman and current South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford stated, “If I’d viewed my career in Congress as the next 30 years of my life, I think I would have been a lot more hesitant to bring up Social Security.” I would suggest that Social Security could be replaced by any issue.

Former Congressman Matt Salmon noted, “The independence that comes from limiting my terms has enabled me to vote against the bloated budget deal of 1997, and to challenge my own party’s leadership.”

Where are those who challenge the leadership now (on either side of the aisle)? Once in Washington our Congressmen and women seem to fall in line and shut their traps, worrying more about their career trajectory than the fools that elected them.

I do not know what would have to happen for term limits to be passed into law, but I can dream, can’t I? Nothing would warm my heart more than to see a bunch of unemployed career politicians.

Terry Hoeppner - RIP

This news is a couple of days old, but I thought it was worth mentioning the sad passing of Terry Hoeppner from complications of brain cancer. He was the head football coach of the Indiana Hoosiers and former head coach of Miami University. From all accounts he was a good coach and an outstanding man. I hope his family is able to find comfort in knowing that he had a profound effect on many student athletes.

This marks the third passing in the last year of former Miami head coaches. Randy Walker passed away just about a year ago from a sudden heart attack and Bo Schembechler also passed away. Walker and Hoeppner were the two coaches that were at Miami when I was there.

Thanks Joe

I'm a week late and $7 short, but better late than never. I wanted to thank Joe Blackburn for stepping up to the plate and challenging Walter Stosch. Every Virginian who values the money in their pocket owes Mr. Blackburn a debt of gratitude.

It will be interesting to see what Walter Stosch shows up next session. I'm not holding my breath, but hopefully Blackburn scared him back to the right.

The other interesting part of this, as Norm has noted, will be if Allen can repair his image with the conservative activists who are baffled by his endorsements of Stosch and others. I believe it will be a long, very long, road back.

The Obsolete State

So I haven't blogged in forever. This probably isn't the start of regular blogging again, but it could be. There are a few things that are worth mentioning. First, Norm is hanging up the keyboard. Hopefully he'll continue over the Cost Cutting Caucus Blog.

Another thing that I have not seen mentioned is the Virginia Institute for Public Policy study entitled The Real Story of Eminent Domain in Virginia: The Rise, Fall, and Undetermined Future of Private Property Rights in the Commonwealth. It may very well have been mentioned elsewhere and I fully admit to having my head in the sand lately.

If you have not read the above study I strongly encourage you to do so. There are those out there who claim Virginia does not have a property rights problem, but I am afraid they are mistaken. We do have a problem and it is one that needs to be addressed. I might add that it should be addressed to fix the problem, not to pay lip service to the idea. This is not a left or right issue. There is no right more fundamental than private property rights.

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete, but so is the state, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under "M" for mankind—in the Twilight Zone." - Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone "The Obsolete Man"

The Sci Fi channel had a marathon this weekend of the Twilight Zone. I liked the above quote. Is Virginia on the path towards obsolescence? If the GA fails to protect property owners again this year I am afraid the answer will be "yes".

A Vision for Victory for Virginia

I was able to make it last Friday to Williamsburg for the Virginia Institute's Vision for Victory in Virginia. It was an excellent event. I wish I could have been there all three days.

On Friday former Congressman Dick Armey, Senator Ken Cuccinelli, Delegate Rob Bell, and others from the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute spoke. Additionally, there was a Thomas Jefferson reenactor Friday evening. He was excellent.

I hope to post some comments over the next week about what was talked about (and I still hope to post some more about the Senate Leadership Summit as well).

Many thanks to VIPP for putting this on.

Cantor Calls on Webb to Stop Religious Attacks and Focus on Issues

This was put out today by the Cantor campaign. It is worth posting in its entirety. I don't understand the bizarre fascination on Allen's genealogy by the Webbites.

Richmond, VA—Responding to attacks by the Jim Webb campaign, Congressman Eric Cantor (VA- 07) released the following statement.

“Throughout his career and campaign, Senator Allen has been a leader focusing his energy and efforts on making our Commonwealth a great place to live, work, and raise our families.

“I applaud Senator Allen’s efforts to stay focused on the issues that matter to Virginians throughout this campaign.

“In the primary, Jim Webb produced and mailed a cartoon of his Jewish opponent depicting him with a long nose and money coming out of his pockets, calling him the anti-Christ of outsourcing. His Democrat opponent rightly condemned this anti-Semitic ploy.

“Now, we learn that Jim Webb’s campaign operatives, on his behalf, have been pushing a story that George Allen has Jewish relatives.

“In some perverse way Jim Webb believes that this will cost Senator Allen votes.

“Jim Webb is dead wrong. The people of Virginia are fair minded, honest, and moral. Appeals to bigotry fail in Virginia, because Virginians look to a person’s integrity and character. Jim Webb is failing this test of integrity. It is time for Mr. Webb to start talking about the real issues facing the Commonwealth and America.

“I am proud to have Senator Allen as Virginia’s Senator and my friend; he has made Virginia a better place to live.”

Paid for and authorized by
Cantor for Congress

Senate Leadership Summit

I was fortunate enough to attend the Senate Leadership Summit for Young Professionals today. Over the next couple of days I plan on covering what some of the speakers talked about, my take, and what I heard from others.

The list of speakers and panelist was impressive. They were:

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (who was the summit chair)
Senator Lisa Murkowski
Senator John Sununu
Senator John Thune
Senator Lamar Alexander
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chow
Carly Fiorina - Former Chairman and CEO, HP
Dan Mitchell - Heritage Foundation
Dr. John Goodman - President and CEO, National Center for Policy Analysis
Charles Miller - Chairman, US Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education
Stig Leschly - Founder and Managing Partner, SRL Capital Managment LLC
Rosie Mauk - Former Directory, AmeriCorps
Bill Taylor - Co-Founder and Founding Editor, Fast Company Magazine
Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services

I've got a lot of notes. I'm glad I was able to take the day off and go to DC today and while I certainly didn't agree with everything I heard, it was well worth it.

Webb's good politics, bad policy tax cut proposal

The good people at the Tax Foundation have a post up about Jim Webb's proposal to cut taxes for veterans. The proposal would give a 5% tax break for veterans. On the surface it sounds like a good idea, one that I might support. However, it deserves a little more scrutiny. Webb claims one of the things it would do is:

And one of the things that that would do, by the way, in my view, is to bring more people from across class lines into the military.

I suppose that may be true, but as the Tax Foundation points out

There are better ways to accomplish that goal rather than via the tax code whose complexity makes it to where you may not actually help those you are intending to help.

The best point made is this:

If the purpose of this proposal is to reward veterans for the value of their service that they have provided to society, why is the value of one veteran’s service a function of his/her current income?

Good question. To illustrate if veteran A makes $100,000 and veteran B makes $30,000, who is going to see the most benefit? Obviously veteran A. As the left would say, this is a tax cut for the rich. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a 5% reduction for everyone (including the "rich"), but when you're trying to help veterans, income should not play a role. The only difference in reward should possibly be based on length of service and rank.

I would rather see our veterans rewarded in other ways. Cut them a check, raise their pay, increase benefits, but increasing the tax code complexity and rewarding only those who make enough to actually notice a benefit is the wrong way to do it.