I’m back from a week’s hiatus. Before returning to the ongoing thread about voting zombies, here’s a little thought about our elected officials here in CA.
On the bottom of page one of each edition of the Wall Street Journal is a throw-away squib, not hard news, often a human interest story. Last week appeared one reminding America of what the CA legislative branch has accomplished this year.
- We legislatively passed a “Cuss Free Week” [sic], a week in which the state of California would do without profanity. (Participation was voluntary, of course. There was no enforcement or incentive.)
- CA legislators passed a bill to prohibit the state filming cows in New Zealand.[1] The purported purpose of the bill was to protect American jobs. (Nevermind that we’ve filmed cows in the Alps and in South Korea, and those practices are not banned.)
- CA legislators tackled the issue of whether to change the state rock. (Did you know that states have official rocks? Your tax dollars at work.)
- CA legislators created a “spiny lobster commission.” Way to keep creating jobs, boys! Too bad that these jobs, like nearly all jobs created by legislation, create no wealth but instead put a drain on taxes.
Funny that a legislature that is so thorough as ours could have failed to pass a budget this year! (Yes, this happened both on federal and state levels this year. On the federal level, I believe this is the first time since ‘74 or so.)
The bigger picture
We… are… paying people salaries of $116,208[2] to legislate meaningless curse-free weeks. We have crummy representatives in office, and it’s scarcely a wonder that some voices are clamouring to vote out incumbents because that’s a general necessity in the effort to slough career politicians.
Career politicians are people who entered the public sector to make a living. The problem with such people is that their primary objective is… to make a living. For most, that translates into robbing Peter to buy votes from Paul and Mary—higher taxes on the rich, more social programs and more government jobs. For others, like Robert Rizzo of Bell City (an L.A. suburb), the game is simple plundering (he wrote himself a $600,000 yearly pension for being Chief Administrative Officer of a town of ~36,000 people).[3]
Professional politicians aren’t a bad thing per se, but let’s do stop supporting candidates who have never had to make payroll or stick to a budget. Let’s get some people who have worked in the private sector, like we have. We live in an age where legislators don’t have to live under the health plans they design or the budgets they pass.
[1] AB 1778
[2] http://www.theliberaloc.com/2007/12/03/california-legislature-set-to-get-a-big-raise-do-they-deserve-it-2/
[3] http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/09/29/2098431/bell-pensions-will-be-larger-than.html
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Have you seen any of the versions of “Brewsters Millions”? Brewster inherits $10M, but he could choose to take $100M and spend it all withing a set time and at the end have nothing to show for it, and if he does that he will inherit $1B. He takes the challenge. As part of spending he buys his way into the election running under the label “None of the above,” because he thought the candidates were scum. He backed out, but enough people voted for None of the Above, that it won and a new election had to take place.
And I think one person in CA during that election for Governor with the 300 candidates ran under “Don’t vote for me.”
If only that was truly an option on the ballot.
Maybe we should put you up for election. :-)
If you don’t pass a budget, then you can’t be accused of deficit spending, right? Sounds like a GREAT idea!
…a great idea for flushing down the toilet, that is.
Looks like our federal legislature has been spending its time crafting bills (why do we need Congress to name so many postal offices?) and resolutions (e.g. H.Res.18, 26, 63, etc.) more carefully than the California legislature.
Great to see your back! I personally feel that politics is a game for fools, and that is why we have so many fools in office…because only a fool can play.
I hear epithets like “DO YOUR CIVIC DUTY..,” or “IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT SOMEONE ELSE DOES UP ON CAPITOL HILL, THEN RUN FOR OFFICE!” and I think to myself, why don’t more sane, self-less, and honest people run for office? I have come up with the idea that the vast majority of people, are far too lazy to care about a good politician. They only care about BAD politicians. And a BAD politicians is titled so, when he effects peoples lives negatively. That whole thought process is bass ackwards. Until people can increase the level of devotion that they feel towards government of all levels, things will remain at the status quo.
Welcome back Markham. I enjoyed today’s post and comments–which got me to wonder what percentage of our federal and state employees are “career” politicians (working very hard to make sure they are re-electable–unfortunately that seems to be with pork barrel spending that does not serve the public well in the long-term, but looks good to many voters).
Prior to being elected to serve the public good, which of our officials worked in the private sector? in what setting? for how long? (did they make and keep balanced budgets at work?) and how many terms have they served in office?
Does anyone know if such listings exist, and if so, how to access them? Due to time constraints, I am not interested in researching each individual politician. Thanks in advance.
P.S. Reading Wikipedia today, I read that Barbara Boxer graduated in 1962 with an undergraduate degree in economics from Brooklyn College and then worked for 3 years as a stockbroker (while her husband was in law school; they later moved to CA and had 2 children); she first ran for office in 1972 (Marin Country Board of Supervisors–she lost) then worked as a journalist (Pacific Sun) and as John Burton’s aide (he was a member of Congress at the time). She was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 1976 (served for 6 years) and was then elected to the US House of Representatives (1982).
Fern, Thanks for the information. I had better state that everybody has done some work in the private sector, but what matters is work with the kind of accountability that we need in a public servant.
(re: Barbara Boxer, Mussolini got his start in Journalism too.)
I think Edwin means that he’s glad to see that “you’re” back, not “your” back.