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Contributor
Ray
Haynes
Mr.
Haynes is an Assembly member representing Riverside and
Temecula.
He serves on the Appropriations and Budget Committees. [go to
Assembly Member Haynes
website at California Assembly][go to Haynes index]
 Follow
the Money
Government for the government…
[Ray
Haynes] 11/2/04
Politics
have always been about distributing the "booty" of
the private
sector. Politicians, in their pirate mode, take from
taxpayers, claiming they're
taking from the rich, and then distribute that take with their political supporters. This is as it always has
been.
Even James Madison
wrote, in 1787, in the Federalist No. 10, that much
of political activity is an attempt by "factions" (we
call them special interests
today) to take control of the levers of government, and use
the power they get with that
control to benefit themselves (mostly to get more money for themselves). What he never expected that
government would be taken over by those who work for the government to benefit
themselves. We are no longer of government "of the people, by the people,
for the people," as Abraham
Lincoln described. We are a government of the government,
by the government, for the
government, paid for by the people.
If the recent Secretary
of State scandals have taught us anything, it
is how the money that government takes in can be diverted to
the benefit of the politicians. It appears that Secretary Shelley,
when he was in the Legislature, put some pork in the state budget for his supporters,
and that pork was then diverted
to his campaigns in the form of campaign contributions. He
won his job with your tax dollars. Unfortunately, that happens
a lot more than we would like to admit, and in a lot more legal fashion.
The most blatant form
of using your tax dollars to elect pro-government
politicians is the government employee union. These unions are
ostensibly private organizations. However, their members
work for the government, all
of their money comes, indirectly at least, from your tax dollars, and the only way they get more money is by making
government bigger and increasing
their salaries.
This
is how a government union works in California. State
law requires
every government agency to recognize, and negotiate with, a
union made up of its employees. These
unions first demand is a contract to require
every government employee to pay the union "dues." As
the number of government employees increases, the revenue to the union
generated by these employees'
dues increases.
That revenue is used
to pay for the salaries of the union bosses, who
then make the decisions about which politicians get campaign contributions from the union, which are also paid for by
these union dues.
So-if a politician
supports bigger government, the union bosses make a
bigger salary, and have more money to make sure that politician
gets more campaign contributions. These "private" organizations
get their money from government
workers forced to pay them money, money which comes from your taxes,
and then use that money to elect politicians who will raise
your taxes.
Interestingly enough,
in addition to this incestuous relationship, the
government bureaucrats who actually draft the budgets also
make more money if their agency grows. Their personal interest
is advanced by increasing spending, not by saving you money.
Your tax dollars are,
therefore, administered by politicians who get power
by currying favor with union bosses who get money and power
by increasing your tax burden and by administrators who make
more money by increasing your
tax burden. The only people who make less money by increasing
the size of government in this system are the folks who pay
the bill, taxpayers like you.
Madison predicted
that if government allows any interest to take control
of the levers of government, that interest would use the power
of government to make more money. He just never thought
it would be those who work for the government who would take over the government
for their own benefit. Welcome
to the new millennium, President Madison. CRO
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