It’s been 77 years since members of Congress took a pay cut. It happened April 1, 1933, and it was no April Fool’s joke, as the nation was in the Great Depression.
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Competition improves the breed, and no breed is more in need of improvement than the U.S. Postal Service. Postmaster General John Potter has proposed ending Saturday delivery because his operation, already a chronic money loser, faces a $7 billion deficit this year and an estimated $238 billion in losses for the current decade.
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It could hardly be a shocking revelation to anyone that the sidewalks and business doorways of the Haight have largely been taken over by loitering street thugs who get high, threateningly demand handouts and seriously intimidate tourists and residents alike.
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And now from the Department of Common Sense comes a proposed constitutional amendment to cap federal spending at 20 percent of the annual gross domestic product. Actually, the idea originated with President Thomas Jefferson, but it doesn’t take a renaissance man like our third chief executive to figure out that government spends too much and won’t stop until it’s forced to do so.
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They started out in perfect alignment, 12,500 men stretching more than a mile, battle flags waving, bayonets fixed and gazes focused on the enemy across the valley, tensely waiting for them on Cemetery Ridge. Less than an hour later, it was over, with more than half of them dead or wounded, their cause having reached its high-water mark and failed.
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Truckloads of abuse have been dumped on retiring Kentucky Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, who challenged Congress to heed its own rules and stop spending money it doesn’t have, specifically $10 billion for unemployment benefits, COBRA health insurance subsidies, transportation construction projects and much else.
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Much that’s wrong with Congress was well-illustrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s inability to answer a straightforward question about the ethical lapses of one of her most powerful members. Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News asked Pelosi on Sunday whether House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel should have known it was a violation of ethics rules to accept Caribbean trips paid for by special interests. Here’s the exchange:
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Because the $8 billion annual tourism industry is San Francisco’s biggest moneymaker — with high-spending conventions bringing one-third of our visitors — it is a vital business investment to keep our convention facilities on par with the competition. This is especially true for the 964,000-square-foot Moscone Center, which brings the Bay Area some of the nation’s most prestigious and lucrative conventions.
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President Barack Obama is expected to sign a measure that will charge foreigners a $10 tax to visit the United States. The House passed the Travel Promotion Act last November; on Thursday, the Senate sent it to the president’s desk following a 78-18 vote. The legislation creates a $200 million-a-year government-run tourist bureau, the largest in the world, which will supposedly create up to 290,000 American jobs, at least according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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Anybody who expected Thursday’s Blair House health care summit to produce a dramatic breakthrough hasn’t been listening to the national debate on the issue during the past year. Two fundamental flaws guaranteed it would be nothing more than political theater.
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