Philip Blumel:
Is that the calvary coming? No, it’s the lobbyists. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the term limits movement for the week of May 4th, 2020.
Stacey Selleck:
Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel:
Last week, we asked what the rumble was we were hearing off in the distance. Now we know.
Philip Blumel:
There was a really illuminating story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. There are lobbyists for business groups, labor unions, governments, nonprofit associations. They are descending on Washington D.C. as Congress is considering the next round of aid to combat the economic fallout of this virus thing.
Philip Blumel:
They’ve already voted to pump some $3 trillion of direct grants, loan guarantees and other measures into the economy. And now, Congress, of course, is gearing up to do it again and everybody wants a piece of it. And the article gets really granular, and I think this is really helpful to understand what’s happening there.
Philip Blumel:
For instance, lobbyists for, as an example, Saks Fifth Avenue, are, figuratively at least, knocking on doors of Congress members, advocating that the eligibility rules will be changed in the next package so that they will be eligible for more aid.
Philip Blumel:
Another example is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is a public sector union. They’re pushing for Congress to allocate some $700 billion to state and local governments.
Philip Blumel:
The Professional Golf Association. They are also are arguing for a change of the rules so that they can get access to cash. They too, have a tax structure that made them ineligible for participating in the first packages and they want theirs.
Philip Blumel:
The American Society of Association Executives, which is a lobby which represents other lobbies, such as the Chambers of Commerce, also want a tax rule change for the very same reason as the PGA.
Philip Blumel:
And here’s an interesting example the article gives. The men’s grooming company, Harry’s. They hired a lobby firm very close to the president to change a provision that makes it harder for startup companies to qualify for government loans. Harry’s, of course, was doing good business prior to the pandemic. We know that arrival firm offered $1.4 billion to buy it last year.
Philip Blumel:
So fortunately for Harry’s, they could afford to hire top lobbyist, Brian Ballard, who was a fundraiser for Trump’s presidential campaign. Fortunately, also, Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, is on the board of Harry’s. That might help too.
Speaker 3:
This is a public service announcement.
Philip Blumel:
While politicians offer only lip service to term limits, Senator Ted Cruz is an active proponent of the reform. He’s the chief Senate sponsor to the U.S. Term Limits Amendment, and has invited U.S Term Limits’ executive director, Nick Tomboulides, to Washington for the first Senate hearing on term limits and decades.
Philip Blumel:
Here, Senator Cruz takes on term limits skeptic Ben Shapiro on his own Ben Shapiro Show: Sunday special, episode number 54, from June, 2019.
Ben Shapiro:
And let’s talk about term limits for a second, because I know that this has become a big talking point on the right.
Ben Shapiro:
I’m personally pretty ambivalent about term limits just in the sense that, to me, the final repository of powers and the people, if they feel like electing a Congress person 11 times, I suppose that that’s their right. I would prefer they not.
Ben Shapiro:
But why do you think that that restriction is necessary, as opposed to simply saying to the people, “Vote somebody out”? I mean, you took out a guy who is much more favored in your Senate race.
Senator Ted Cruz:
So look, I understand that sentiment and there are times even when I’ve been pretty amenable to it. I don’t think it recognizes the reality of the political process today. Number one, there are massive advantages with incumbency, incumbency in terms of free media, in terms of money, in terms of infrastructure. It’s incredibly difficult to defeat an incumbent.
Senator Ted Cruz:
But number two is interesting. I used to be a supporter of term limits until I got in the Senate, and now I’m a thousand times more a supporter of term limits because what I’ve seen… The dominant instinct, Ben, in the Senate, and it’s true in the House also, is risk aversion.
Senator Ted Cruz:
There’s an old joke that politics is Hollywood for ugly people. There’s enormous truth to that. You’ve got old, fat, bald guys who were the unpopular kids in high school who suddenly get elected to Congress. And they go to a cocktail party and they’re handsome, and they’re witty and they’re wise. They tell a joke and everyone laughs, and it becomes like a narcotic. And what happens is, incumbent members of Congress. Their dominant focus is, I must get reelected, no matter what.
Senator Ted Cruz:
And so, on any big issue, on any big choice, if there’s a serious solution, the reasoning often is, you know what? If we do that, that entails risk. And if there’s risk, I might not get reelected, and if I don’t get reelected, who am I?
Senator Ted Cruz:
And so, one of the big virtues of term limits is that it ends the phenomenon of career politicians. I’m the author of a constitutional amendment in the Senate to term limit senators, to two terms term limit House members to three terms.
Senator Ted Cruz:
And the virtue of that is that at least you throw the bums out and bring new people in. And I think you’re more likely to have, I hope, a Congress that is responsive to the people because the elected officials are not just obsessed with staying there for life.
Philip Blumel:
States and municipalities are agitating for money and, naturally, have tremendous political connections all up and down the line. Politicians in Washington, of course, climbed a ladder to get there.
Philip Blumel:
And the International Council of Shopping Centers, Retail Industry Leaders Association, National Association of Convenience Stores… Well, there’s so many examples. It’s endless. They’re all there and they’re all banging on Congress doors.
Philip Blumel:
So before I go on, I want to make it clear that I don’t doubt that all of these groups and the many others have legitimate needs and are suffering because of this pandemic, okay? So don’t get me wrong. After all, we shut down the economy and the revenues are not flowing in. All right, so everybody’s got trouble.
Philip Blumel:
The point I want to make, and the one that is relevant to a term limits podcast is, who is it in Washington that is making those tough decisions? Do counties get it? Does the PGA get it? Does Saks Fifth Avenue get it, et cetera?
Philip Blumel:
Do we really want these decisions to be made by professional politicians whose success in shaking down special interests for favors is part of the cement that keeps them permanently in office. I mean, the hoards of lobbyists that have established mutually beneficial long-term relationships with these decision makers of course would argue, “Yes,” as the answer to that question.
Philip Blumel:
But wouldn’t you and I, wouldn’t the people, rather have representatives with a wider range of real world experience and with far less perverse incentives in making these decisions, representatives with less to gain from making more politically expedient choices, people that have run businesses themselves sometime in recent decades?
Philip Blumel:
“Oh, my poor boy,” I hear. “How naive you are.” It’s in times like this that we see the great benefit of experience in crafting workable legislation, weighing all its very parts, making the difficult decisions and confident that once this legal work of art becomes law, it can roll out efficiently and effectively to help all our fellow citizens in need.
Philip Blumel:
Yeah, right. We saw how that worked out with the first two packages, and of course, any package that rolls out of Washington, D.C. And our experience as citizens suggests that we could use some representatives up there who have better incentives and more relevant skills than giving speeches, making deals and raising money.
Philip Blumel:
Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. It is a tragedy for our nation that professional politicians who do not face significant electoral competition and are so distant, so divorced from the concerns and needs of working Americans, that they are at the helm during this current crisis. It’s enough to make you sick.
Philip Blumel:
America needs term limits on its Congress. You’ve signed already, I know, but let’s get our friends and family to sign the online petition for congressional term limits. Go to termlimits.com/petition, copy that webpage address and send it to everyone you know with a note urging them to sign. We’ll be back next week. Thank you.
Speaker 2:
The revolution isn’t being televised. Fortunately, you have No Uncertain Terms Podcast.
Speaker 6:
USTL.