Friday, March 27, 2020

Insatiable greed - but I don't know if it can be stopped


I've been struck by how many pressure groups are doing everything they can to get their clients included in federal government bailouts following the coronavirus pandemic.  They defy logic and reason while appealing to emotion, patriotism, naked self-interest ("Our people won't vote for you unless you include them!") and everything else they can think of.

The governors of America's 50 states are far from the least guilty.  Anyone would think they were helpless, unable to cope unless they got billions and billions more dollars from the federal government.  In reality, of course, that's not how America is governed.  The states are supposed to be largely financially independent, standing on their own two feet, so to speak.  Many smaller, weaker state economies are supported by annual federal government payouts, because some contribute more to the central government in taxes than they receive in services, or don't have enough of a tax base to be economically self-sufficient.  Nevertheless, in general terms the states are supposed to "cut their coat according to their cloth", and not spend money they don't have.  One of the reasons so many state budgets are wasteful and filled with pork is that they already receive too much money from the central government.  It's a huge drag on our national economy.

Many states, having played the prodigal son and "wasted their substance in riotous living" (politically speaking), are now demanding that the federal government hand over every penny they say they need to fight the coronavirus pandemic.  Governor Cuomo of New York is probably the poster child for such greed.  He's demanding five or six times more money than the current bailout package sets aside for New York state - despite the fact that this will inevitably deprive other states of what they need.  There's only so much available, after all.  This isn't a bottomless cornucopia that can never be exhausted.  He's also demanding many times more ventilators than the state has been promised - despite his administration having decided back in 2015 to forgo the purchase of 15,000 ventilators, after "determining that the expense was too much and there would be insufficient staff to man the machines even if there were an outbreak".  If New York wouldn't spend its own money to meet its needs, why should the rest of us spend ours?  And why should the federal government be responsible for all pandemic-related expenses anyway, when the states have their own budgets and their own expenditure priorities?  They need to step up to the plate themselves.

Our Founding Fathers set strict limits on what the federal government's responsibilities would be, and how it should spend national revenues.  Those limits have been honored far more in the breach than in the observance for many decades, if not centuries, so that central government has become a leviathan dominating this country - precisely what the Fathers feared.  This current crisis is further eroding what the constitution dictates.  In one sense, it's hard to argue against that, because the need is so great:  but in another sense, it's extraordinarily dangerous, because it gives central government yet more leverage and control over the states, and over the lives of individual Americans.  That's antithetical to liberty, to put it mildly.  Remember the late President Ford's prescient warning:  "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."  I fear greatly that we may find that out the hard way in the not too distant future, if the socialist wet dreams of so many of our aspiring politicians come to fruition.

The corporate world is no better.  Industry pressure groups and their lobbyists are frantically trying to make sure that their losses are paid for by the US taxpayer, rather than out of their profits.  That's equally unconscionable, IMHO.  The list of groups holding out their hands for a bailout is almost unbelievable:  airlines and casinos, private jet operators, even cruise lines - the same cruise lines that register themselves in foreign countries to evade strict US maritime safety standards, to say nothing of avoiding paying taxes in the USA!  As Skift notes:

While about half of the cruise industry’s roughly 30 million yearly passengers are American, few of them realize that once they leave a U.S. port and territorial waters, they are no longer protected by the country in which they live or booked the ticket. Health, safety, labor, and other issues on board are governed by flag states — usually countries like Panama, Malta, and Bermuda — which have less resources and regulatory might than the U.S.

Critics have said for years that this structure means cruise ships have lax health and safety attitudes when compared to other industries, like aviation, and that labor practices on board — crew commonly work seven days a week, for months at a time — are in grave need of reform.

There's more at the link.

I see no reason whatsoever why the cruise shipping sector, legally based outside the USA and exempt from most US taxes, should be bailed out by the US taxpayer.  Let them see to their own needs, or approach the governments of those countries in which they're headquartered and/or in which their vessels are registered.

Finally, let's remember that the entire bailout package is going to be financed by deficit spending.  This isn't money we've got in the bank, just waiting to be used.  No, it's going to be added to the already incomprehensibly large national debt, which will one day have to be repaid.  The larger the bailout, the greater that debt will become and the more difficult impossible it will become to pay it off.  That should worry every American taxpayer.  The politicians who put together the bailout package aren't going to pay for it.  No, the cost of this bailout is going to be shuffled off onto our shoulders.  That's a very scary thought - and a very good reason to limit the bailout to true essentials, and minimize the pork barrel spending it will inevitably contain (because politicians can't help themselves, and are fundamentally untrustworthy).

Lobbyists, with very different priorities, are having a field day.

The prospect of a bailout of a scale without precedent has set off a rush to the fiscal trough, with businesses enduring undeniable dislocation jostling with more opportunistic interests to ensure they get a share ... While the halls of the Capitol are eerily quiet, lobbyists are burning up the phone lines and flooding email inboxes trying to capitalize on the stimulus bills moving quickly through Congress.

. . .

The conditions for a lobbying blitz are ideal. Concerns about costs and deficit spending largely have been moved to the back burner. The process is being rushed, with legislation being written in private and rushed toward votes without much scrutiny of the fine print. Both parties are under intense pressure to deliver for key constituencies.

“The only industry that hasn’t been slowed down by the virus is the lobbying industry,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California.

Again, more at the link.

I wonder if we could include a provision in the bailout forbidding companies that receive funds from it to hire lobbyists to pressure Congress for more funding or legislative favors?  I'd vote for that in a heartbeat!

Peter

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Peter.
I just want to clarify for your readers that Coumo speaks for New York City and the city folk. Those of us in upstate NY are nothing like the people in NYC and he does NOT speak for us. We are mostly country-type folk (My wife and I live near the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains) we are mostly made up of Conservative/Libertarian type folk here and the ONLY reason that NY state always goes to the Democrats is STRICTLY because of the population density of the city. Practically the entire upstate region of the state votes Conservative/Republican but our voices are never heard because they outnumber us in the city. And also for your readers, an FYI.....the upstate NY region hosts some of the most beautiful country, mountains, fishing, hunting, bike trails, lakes, etc....in the entire USA. No bullshit, I've lived here for 52yrs and visited 40 states in my lifetime and upstate NY still ranks among the most beautiful.
Just wanted this clarified before everybody starts hating on us here in New York and blaming us for the spread of the virus.

Erron in UPSTATE NY

McChuck said...

"There's only so much available, after all. This isn't a bottomless cornucopia that can never be exhausted."

Money machine goes "Brrrr".

TechieDude said...

Your point about the cruise ship lines was right on point. Not only are they headquartered elsewhere, and their ships flagged on other countries (I've never seen a US flagged cruise ship), they are an extravagance. Just like Las Vegas casinos. They should be generating tax money, not consuming it.

And those incompetents in the gubmint need to pay some sort of price. The screwups from the CDC are unconscionable. This is their JOB. One that we fund them $11b/year to do.

All these Cuomo types that have been working feverishly on nonsense for years, leaving the boring work of preparing and governing aside in favor of every leftist idiocy.

This is where the rubber meets the road. They failed their people, and I hope the people make them pay.

TechieDude said...

The ventilator craziness makes little sense. OK, they didn't buy enough. But they need to be staffed. You can't plug it in, put a tube in your gullet, and pair it with your mobile. They sedate you heavily, and you need monitoring.

Here's where my moral dilemma manifests; From what I've read, if you get to that stage, you're cooked. I've seen more than one doctor post that where they say they've never seen anyone come off one with this. Even when it's used normally, it's pretty physically damaging.

https://texags.com/forums/84/topics/3102444

In oldsters like me, it usually buys time for the family to come to grips with the inevitable. They then make an awful decision (I've had to do it. Twice).

This is a pass/fail thing. And while the odds are in your favor, it's a hard fail. Maybe that needs to be more the message. Something along what Aesop's been saying for a month - You'll be told to go home. Ventilators are not hope.

NITZAKHON said...

One of my hobbies is collecting the largest denomination bill of hyperinflated currencies. I have, framed, a 50 million Deutschmark bill; I have a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars also framed. Just received are Hungary and a few others.

I have to wonder... will I someday - assuming I survive the coming unpleasantness - be adding a 500 million dollar bill?

Jonathan H said...

I'm with you, but I'd go even further - the government created this crisis, and then are treating its symptoms with cash.
They SHOULD be treating the problem they themselves, particularly idiotic governors like Cuomo, created. The federal government put out reasonable suggestions - many state officials (mayors and governors) have gone well beyond suggestions by making sweeping executive declarations, many of which have no legal basis - but which will, and are, being enforced by heavy handed police action. If this precedent stands, it will significantly increase unaccountable government power.
In case you are interested, here is a legal analysis of Pennsylvania's declaration and how there is no legal basis for it:
https://blog.princelaw.com/2020/03/18/governor-wolf-can-neither-shutdown-private-business-nor-confiscate-firearms-and-ammunition/

milton f said...

When you say... "it's extraordinarily dangerous, because it gives central government yet more leverage and control over the states, and over the lives of individual Americans. That's antithetical to liberty,..."

...that is exactly right. Why is there a W.H.O. and a C.D.C. if those bozos don't have local sources for sufficient quantities of "essential materials" in the right places? The entire "we don't have any test kits" story ought to bring about the immediate termination of 10% of that publicly funded so-called-health-organization leadership. Heads would roll if this was a real business, they should roll for those responsible in this case as well.

Secession is the only solution to this clusterflick.

MattB said...

Wasn't it Reagan who said that? Not Ford!!

Will said...

I'll second the call for heads to roll in the CDC. Literally. And then stuck on pikes placed in front of various and sundry .gov office buildings in D.C. Maybe add a few from the DOJ, for wanting to institute martial law.

BFR said...

People talk about "money" as if it is a thing.

How can it be when millions of people only ever see a series of numbers that move from one category to another?

Imagine for a moment that what everyone sees as "money" is nothing more than an artifice, a construct; something that can be synthesized at will and is only controlled by the perception of those who think that they "have it". A construct that can be changed in size and value at will, by those with the power over it.

Think of how ludicrous it must seem to those in control when anyone says that they have "X" (buying power).

The very notion of such an instrument is notional at best. You cannot exhaust something that only has a subjective existence.