As usual, Dr. Walter E Williams has the inside "shinny" on what is wrong with Washington and the inside Money game, that is currently swirling around Congress. If anyone here doubts that the good Doctor is wrong, please tell us what the real solution could be.

Attacking Lobbyists: The Real Problem is Government's Ability to Grant "Favors"
by Walter Williams (January 18, 2006)


Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist who's pled guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, has showered millions of dollars on the campaign coffers of both Republican and Democrat congressmen. Like a kid caught with his hands in the cookie jar, many congressmen seek to distance themselves by purging their coffers of Abramoff money. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., in reaction to Abramoff's guilty plea, has pledged to "examine and act on any necessary changes to improve transparency and accountability for our body when it comes to lobbying."

Whatever actions Congress might take in the matter of lobbying are going to be just as disappointing in ending influence-peddling as their Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the McCain-Feingold bill. Before we allow ourselves to be bamboozled by our political leaders, we might do our own analysis to determine whether the problem is money in politics or something more fundamental.

Let's start this analysis with a question. Why do corporations, unions and other interest groups fork over millions of dollars to the campaign coffers of politicians? Is it because these groups are extraordinarily civic-minded Americans who have a deep interest in congressmen doing their jobs of upholding and defending the U.S. Constitution? Might it be that these groups and their Washington-based lobby arms, numbering in the thousands, just love participating in the political process? Anyone answering in the affirmative to either question probably also believes that storks deliver babies and there really is an Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

A much better explanation for the millions going to the campaign coffers of Washington politicians lies in the awesome growth of government control over business, property, employment and other areas of our lives. Having such power, Washington politicians are in the position to grant favors. The greater their power to grant favors, the greater the value of being able to influence Congress, and there's no better influence than money.

The generic favor sought is to get Congress, under one ruse or another, to grant a privilege or right to one group of Americans that will be denied another group of Americans. A variant of this privilege is to get Congress to do something that would be criminal if done privately.

Here's just one among possibly thousands of examples. If Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) used goons and violence to stop people from buying sugar from Caribbean producers so that sugar prices would rise, making it easier for ADM to sell more of its corn syrup sweetener, they'd wind up in jail. If they line the coffers of congressmen, they can buy the same result without risking imprisonment. Congress simply does the dirty work for them by enacting sugar import quotas and tariffs. The two most powerful committees of Congress are the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees. These committees are in charge of granting tax favors. Their members are besieged with campaign contributions. Why? A tweak here and a tweak there in the tax code can mean millions of dollars.

You ask what can be done? Campaign finance and lobby reform will only change the method of influence-peddling. If Congress did only what's specifically enumerated in our Constitution, influence-peddling would be a non-issue simply because the Constitution contains no authority for Congress to grant favors and special privileges. Nearly two decades ago, during dinner with the late Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, I asked him if he had the power to write one law that would get government out of our lives, what would that law be? Professor Hayek replied he'd write a law that read: Whatever Congress does for one American it must do for all Americans. He elaborated: If Congress makes payments to one American for not raising pigs, every American not raising pigs should also receive payments. Obviously, were there to be such a law, there would be reduced capacity for privilege-granting by Congress and less influence-peddling.

I do believe that there are more pachyderms in DC right now, John. Whats stopping the GOP from putting an end to all of this?

(And consider this: Throughout history it has always been money that talks.
Yes. I'm afraid that it is business that wishes to devour our government and have their way with things!)

Here is just one example John.

When my family and myself went to Canada on vacation, we went over a set of railroad tracks in Ontario. Now we were able to go over those tracks at the speed limit - yes, thats right, without slowing down.

If we tried that here, I guarantee you that a wheel alignment job would be just around the corner for the car.

Why is it that are railroad tracks, that intersects with roads, are so rough here, while Canada's is so smooth?

And that's been keeping you up at night?? OK Gizzard, it is the result of the cooler climate in Canada. Apparently you were asleep in Physics class when transthermal conductivity was covered........................

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The thermal current is directly proportional to the coefficient of thermal conductivity. Different materials have different coefficients of thermal conductivity.

When heat is applied to a portion of a material, that heat will move through the material. This movement of heat through a material is called the thermal current. Depending on the composition of the atoms of that material, the heat may move very slowly, or it may move very quickly. This dependance is quantified by the coefficient of thermal conductivity. Each material has a unique coefficient of thermal conductivity. A high coefficient means heat moves very quickly; a low coefficient means heat moves very slowly. Below is a chart of thermal conductivities for some common materials. Compare your own empirical knowledge of how quickly heat moves through these materials with the values in the chart.



Material Coefficient of Thermal Conductivity (W/mK)

Air 0.026
Water 0.609
Glass 0.8
Concrete 1.0
Steel 46
Copper 401

Values taken from Tipler, Paul A. Physics, Third Edition. 1991.



When two objects of different temperatures are put in contact with one another, there is an exchange of thermal energy. This exchange, known as heat conduction, causes the warmer object to cool and the cooler object to warm.

The thermal energy of an object is a measure of the speed of the object's particles. When two objects of different temperatures are put in contact with one another, the faster moving particles collide with the slower moving particles, and energy is exchanged. The faster moving particles give up some energy and therefore slow down and the slower moving particles gain some energy and therefore speed up. This process, known as heat conduction, continues until an equilibrium is reached, where all the particles of both objects are moving at roughly the same speed. This equilibrium speed (or equilibrium temperature) must be somewhere in between the two objects' original temperatures. Therefore, the warmer object cools and the cooler object warms.

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Kinda like the same reason people in Minnesota have smooth faces as opposed to those in the southwest that have faces resembling the moons surface. You got alot to learn boy............................

Funny - I thought it was because Canada built better roads and inset their railroad tracks into the crossings so you could cross over them smoothly in you're fancy American automobile.

Silly me!