Phil Esterhaus
Are you old enough to remember the roll-call sergeant on Hill Street Blues? As the officers headed for the exits, he froze them in place.
“Hey, hey, hey, people!”
All eyes turned toward the sarge.
“Remember people, let’s be CAREFUL out there.”
People, let’s be careful when we vote this year.
How can you tell if a candidate is focused on your best interests? Or some special interest?
One or two local Republican candidates primarily represent poultry growers. That’s perfectly all right. The poultry industry is important to the Eastern Shore economy. But it’s not the only industry on the Shore. Tourism is pretty important, too. No industry should have a disproportionate share of political power.
Poultry industry advocates claim state clean-water regulations will put chicken growers out of business. That’s nonsense. If we allow water pollution, it will definitely put the tourism industry out of business. And the watermen, and the seafood industry.
Let’s do some problem-solving. We can find cost-effective ways to control runoff that will NOT put anyone out of business. There’s plenty of room on the Shore for farming, and seafood, and tourism.
Some candidates of the Republican persuasion have a simplistic slogan. “Less Taxes — More Jobs.” Sounds good a to me. But how exactly does that work?
You reduce taxes for businesses, and presto, you get more jobs? What about reducing taxes for ordinary people? Let’s cut the sales tax, as soon as it’s feasible. That would benefit both businesses and consumers.
Businesses create jobs. Everybody says it, so it must be true. Well fine, show me the jobs. Seems to me, businesses have been busy exporting jobs for at least two decades. Corporations take the tax breaks and run for the border. It’s called corporate welfare.
Small businesses have a legitimate gripe about burdensome regulations. There’s too many rules, they’re too complex, and they’re enforced by arrogant bureaucrats. Cut regulations to the bone for small businesses, I say. But watch the big corporations like a hawk.
Wish I had some easy answers for our economic predicament, but I don’t.
Rather than answers, it’s important to ask the right questions. Take some examples:
- A bill to water down clean-water regulations? Who does it benefit? If the answer is narrow, like “It benefits chicken growers,” then I’m suspicious. If the answer is wide, like “It benefits all people who use the water,” or “future generations,” then I’m in favor of it.
- An amendment for a moratorium on school construction? Who does it benefit? If it benefits all the children, I’m for it. If it benefits taxpayers, I’m sympathetic, but I’m against it. If it has to be framed as children vs. taxpayers, I’ll come down on the side of the children every time.
- A proposal to eliminate government regulation of the egg industry? Or the oil-drilling industry? Or the meat industry? Let’s talk about that after supper. What we need is government to do a better job enforcing the regulations already on the books.
Let’s be careful out there in this global economy. Don’t go swimming with sharks. Just say “No” to the special interests.
– John Hayden
