Hide Your Wallet: Congress is Still In Session
"I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts". Will Rogers
You have to give credit where credit is due. Since January 20, less than 60 days into their rule, the Democrats and a couple of Republicans have spent over 1 Billion dollars – that’s Billion with a capital “B” - for every hour of the day. They have now voted in favor of spending over One Trillion (with a Capital T) dollars, but I have news for our readers, there is still lots more fun to vote on and spend in 2009.
On the spending side, transportation professionals know that there is a Highway Bill to be drafted and voted on. The last bill was a paltry (dare I say pathetic) $286 Billion dollar bill. This year, the Chairman of the Transportation Committee, Rep. Oberstar, has said that this Highway Bill will cost at least $450 Million to $500 Million dollars. Who is going to pay for this Highway Bill? Part of me wants to answer “Who cares? Just turn on the presses and print some additional money.” However, we all understand that the taxpayers will foot the bill through a consumption based model that includes higher tolls, new tolls on existing interstates, or a vehicle mileage tax. One way or another, we’re all going to be paying more to travel and drive our vehicles.
Moving beyond the mundane topic of spending, let’s head into the legislative swamp lands. At a recent AFL-CIO convention, the President promised that the Employee Free Choice Act, commonly referred to as “Card Check” will pass. Under card check, when the Union gets 51% of a company’s workers to sign a union organizing card, that company will have a union. Forget secret ballots or elections to determine whether there will be a union; that is so passé. Get the cards signed and you’re in business. Of course there will be no pressure placed on employees to sign the card – after all we live in America.
Most business people believe that Card Check will be a jobs killer. Not to worry. According to that business and economics genius, Teddy Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Card Check is “a critical step toward putting our economy back on track.” Kennedy (along with Rep. Miller) notes that the bill will create tougher penalties for employers who fire or discriminate against workers attempting to unionize and would force employers and unions to submit to binding arbitration if they are not able to agree on a first contract. Yep, that sure sounds like that is going to create a bunch of jobs and contribute to our recovery.
Never mind that Teddy Kennedy has never created in the Private sector in his lifetime. But then again, if expertise, or knowledge of a particular matter was a requirement for serving in the House or Senate, the Chambers would be virtually empty.
If you find this stuff boring and mundane, let me ask you: how important is your job? If the answer to that question is “pretty important,” then please pay attention: What you have seen thus far is just the tip of the iceberg.
If you’re looking for transportation related stuff, you might be interested in things like:
The Hours of Service matter that is being brought back on the radar screen.
Security and screening initiatives that could make it very difficult to efficiently move your products around the globe.
The fact that this administration, Senate and Congress, in just sixty days, is proving to be one of the most blatantly anti-business groups of elected officials in our life times (which is really saying something).
And there is more. They’re not content just screwing things up domestically, Congress has moved on to the international frontier where they have decided to close down the Mexican Truck program. In turn, Mexico has said it will increase tariffs on $2.4 billion dollars of industrial and agricultural goods, likely to include politically sensitive farm products in retaliation for ending a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks on American roads. Nothing like igniting a trade war to get the economy moving again.
I would be more than happy to debate any of these points with our readers. And for those of you who are thinking that it’s about time that business owners or business executives get their comeuppance, let me close with the words of two great Americans:
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
And in the words of one of our greatest early Statesmen, Senator Daniel Webster: "I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. — From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy."
Folks, let’s take his challenge and act in an intelligent and vigilant manner so that we speak out against the wrong and apply the remedy. Let’s make Webster proud.
