Unintended consequences
The desire of GOP Representative Fred Upton to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next congressional session is laden with irony. It also illustrates how Congress sustains a dysfunctional nanny state bulging with over-regulating bureaucrats and tax parasites.
You must simply ask yourself why. Why would the newly-elected Republican House majority consider the co-sponsor of the incandescent light bulb ban to chair the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee? Why have yet another moderate chair a committee where the critical battles over energy policy will take place beginning January 2011?
More importantly, why would any principled House Republican consider supporting Upton after the American majority believed their promises and voted them in to cut spending and deregulate Big Government? Overcoming concerns that he's too moderate for the job, Upton emerged this week from a GOP steering committee meeting as the winner of a bitter internal Republican battle to chair the powerful energy committee. It seems that House GOP Leader and Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner utilized some of his senior House allies to push through the appointment -- bypassing conservative Texan Joe Barton to do it.
No big deal, right?
"So what," you say. "No big deal. Nobody's happy about the expensive, under-performing, and mercury vapor-laden compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), but it's just a bulb after all," you reason. Yet it is a big deal, just as the November election was a big deal. How can the House Republicans"This is a slap in the face to every voter who placed their trust in the GOP to stop the madness." justify rewarding someone who thinks nothing of strengthening the control of government over the personal lives of its citizens? This is a slap in the face to every voter who placed their trust in the GOP to stop the madness.
In a recent Washington Times article, Upton claims to have "seen the light." Here's what the Michigan Republican said: "We have heard the grass roots loud and clear, and will have a hearing early next Congress. The last thing we wanted to do was infringe upon personal liberties -- and this has been a good lesson that Congress does not always know best." Indeed. Upton now repents and says he's learned his lesson and that he fervently wants to unshackle consumers and restore their choice in light bulbs. How generous. Yet there is more to the story that makes it a very big deal.
The stink behind the scenes
In 2007, Fred Upton co-sponsored legislation with California ultra-liberal Jane Harmon to ban the incandescent light bulb, making it mandatory that consumers purchase only CFLs. The ban became part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This CFL mandate was driven by the contrived, money-grabbing and redistribution scheme known as man-made global warming. According to Roger Hedgecock, however, political gamesmanship was also afoot in concert with promoting more regulation via the phony warming dodge.
Here's what Hedgecock said: "GE and Philips (the two major makers of incandescent bulbs) were the lobbying force behind the Upton/Harmon ban. These manufacturers wanted to close their U.S. plants and replace them with new plants in China "If it was just light bulbs for which he was repenting, you could almost swallow the story. Yet Fred Upton has supported gun control and stem cell research." to more cheaply make the new international CFL bulbs. GE got enviro cred and higher profits when the Upton ban passed. Ultimately, the Upton ban caused thousands of jobs to be lost here and sent to China while increasing the cost of lighting to U.S. consumers." Hedgecock notes that the last GE light bulb plant in Winchester, Virginia, closed this past October, laying off 200 workers.
If it was just light bulbs for which he was repenting, you could almost swallow the story. However, Fred Upton has supported gun control and stem cell research. In 1995, he harshly criticized Speaker Gingrich for failure to compromise with Bill Clinton in that year's budget standoff. He joined Christie Todd Whitman's IMP-PAC (It's My Party Too), a liberal Republican political action committee. This is not the track record of a Republican who values First Principles and the liberty of individual Americans.
Yet today, thanks to his establishment cronies, Fred Upton is virtually assured the chair of Energy and Commerce.
Stop doing, start undoing
Karen, an astute Upstate New York blogger known as The Lonely Conservative (she is very lonely indeed in that bluest-of-blue state), summed it up nicely in that wonderful, common-sensical, Upstate way: "Too many lawmakers feel the need to do something. They craft legislation that intrudes on our lives,"The only thing most Americans want lawmakers to do these days is undo so much of the damage they've done in the past." and say 'Look, we did something.' Then we have to elect people to undo what's already been done, or find a way to manage it. The only thing most Americans want lawmakers to do these days is undo so much of the damage they've done in the past." Indeed. Her finger is on the pulse of the problem.
Economist Friedrich von Hayek also understood what Karen perceives. In his book, The Road to Serfdom, von Hayek wrote: "To the socialists of all parties" (underline mine). He understood the extremes to which well-educated men and women, motivated by goodwill or something like it, restricted lives and shackled livelihoods with a miasma of unintended consequences -- all stemming from good intentions.
Which brings us back to Upton. Selecting Fred Upton as a GOP chair for anything is a very big deal, if for no other reason than it is emblematic of everything that's wrong in the relationship between Washington and the voters. Those of you we elected to serve in Washington are not listening, despite what you promised.
Is it too much for us to ask that you keep your word?
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