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Entries for 'Carter Wrenn'
Carter Wrenn posted on May 21, 2013 15:22
There’re a lot of clever politicians and smart politicians but there’re not many politicians with the courage to take a stand they know is unpopular.
The other day, baffled by the raft of tax reform plans floating around the State Legislature, I asked an economist to explain the virtues of ‘consumption taxes’ to me – and he did in a simple way even an economic illiterate like me can understand: He said, Income is good, investment is good, saving is good – so tax them less; spending (consumption) is not so good – so tax it more.
Senate Leader Phil Berger sees eye to eye with that economist and he means to reform North Carolina’s tax code to base it on ‘consumption taxes.’
Now, if you’re an average guy studying the tax code, it looks like an irrational muddle. But if you’re a politician studying that same tax code it doesn’t look so irrational at all – instead it looks like the labyrinthine result of legions of smart politicians, over years, carefully calculating which taxes they could raise without getting voted out of office.
For example, those politicians decided not to tax food because everybody eats. They decided not to tax prescription drugs because a lot of older people vote. The income tax code is ‘progressive’ because there’re fewer rich people than poor or middle class people. Farmers get the loopholes when they buy a tractor because rural politicians want to be friends with farmers.
The whole tax code, politically, is highly practical.
And that’s a problem Senator Berger ran into head-on. Because to cut taxes on income and savings, but to do it he had to raise taxes consumption. And to do that he had to close what my economist friend calls tax ‘loopholes.’
That’s logical. But it left Senator Berger facing a helluva fight. Because a senior citizen not paying sales taxes on his blood pressure medicine doesn’t see that as a ‘loophole.’ And neither do a whole welter of other groups who enjoy tax exemptions.
For instance, the Association of Realtors doesn’t see the home mortgage deduction as a loophole. And it doesn’t see switching to consumption taxes as a cure to the housing industry’s doldrums. So it’s running one ad saying folks will pay 25% in sales taxes (consumption taxes) when they buy a home and another ad with a young man saying, It’s wrong to take away my money for tax reform.
The Hospital Association doesn’t see exempting hospitals from paying sales taxes as a loophole either – so it’s weighed in, too, with an ad and website saying hospitals are fighting for their survival and closing their ‘loopholes’ is the worst kind of news for their patients.
And, of course, the Democrats don’t like Senator Berger’s plan – they let fly roaring his idea of tax reform is ‘regressive’ and will tax the rich less and the poor more.
So Senator Berger’s got a tiger by the tail. Before he’s done ‘closing loopholes’ there’s a fair chance he may be the most vilified elected official in North Carolina. But, anyway you look at it, you have to give Phil Berger credit: He’s no finger to the wind politician. People may be arguing for years whether he’s right or wrong – but, either way, you have to admit he’s got the rarest trait in politics: Courage.
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Carter Wrenn posted on May 06, 2013 10:14
Who’d have thought it was possible – the Internet sweepstakes poker parlor folks have offered ‘to put $500 million’ in the state treasury – if the legislators will just see the light and let them stay in business.
Whoever heard of anybody volunteering to pay half a billion dollars in taxes? You have to wonder how much people in North Carolina are spending while sitting in Internet sweepstakes parlors? A billion? $2 billion? $5 billion?
The story started last year when legislators voted to close down the sweepstakes parlors and put ‘em out of business;---of course the sweepstakes parlor operators didn’t much like that so they sued and took their lawsuit all the way to the State Supreme Court. At the same time, in case their lawsuit didn’t work out, the parlor operators got a couple of friendly legislators to sponsor a new bill to let them stay open – and that’s when they dangled that $500 million carrot in front of legislators.
And that’s not the only carrot: The newspaper reported sweepstakes operators also contributed $520,000 to politicians. And, a sweepstakes parlor operator told the News and Observer how, since last year, they’ve been spending $40,000 a week to pay lawyers and lobbyists.
That’s eye opening too. The politicians received $520,000 in contributions – while the lawyers and lobbyists were paid $2 million. Four times as much. What does that say about the ‘market value’ of politicians as compared to lobbyists?
The whole thing’s such a tangle it’s bound to land some of our well-meaning, church going Baptist legislators in a quandary: Righteousness must be whispering it’s wisest to shut the sweepstakes parlors down but temptation must be whispering $500 million is a lot of money to say No to.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 30, 2013 10:10
Up in Washington, Senate Leader Harry Reid and House Leader John Boehner and a handful of politicians have been sequestered in secret meetings, trying to agree on a solution to one of Washington’s most burning problems: How to exempt Congressmen and their staffs from ObamaCare.
Then, to their surprise, word of the meetings leaked – landing on the front page of Politico – and in the next breath, facing an awkward question and needing a quick explanation, the politicians stumbled, sheepishly telling the press they were worried about putting their staffers under ObamaCare because it would lead to a ‘brain drain’ on Capitol Hill – and, of course, one wit immediately wrote the newspaper, How could that be? There hasn’t been a glimmer of a brain on Capitol Hill for years.
Next Politico treed Democratic House Leader, Steny Hoyer, asking where he stood on exempting Congress from ObamaCare – like a man weaving through a minefield Hoyer put out a carefully scripted statement saying he was studying “all the policies in the Affordable Care Act, to ensure they’re being implemented in a way that’s workable for everyone, including members and staff.”
After cornering the Democrat next Politico descended on John Boehner and Boehner’s spokesman, with equal care, announced, “If the Speaker has the opportunity to save anyone from ObamaCare, he will.”
What those two bits of carefully parsed political-ese meant – when translated into plain English – was simple enough: Both Hoyer and Boehner had said Yes.
So in all the great breadth and sweep of America, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters, one sacred patch of ground may be untouched by ObamaCare – Capitol Hill.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 26, 2013 09:29
A legislator looked at a bill, winched, looked at another legislator and said, ‘Well, if I don’t vote for it I guess I’ll land in a primary.’
‘You think,’ the second legislator said, ‘that Republicans in your district are for people carrying guns in bars?’ The bill allowed people carry guns in bars, restaurants and on college campuses (as long as the gun is in a locked box).
‘Looking at the emails I’m getting,’ the first legislator said, ‘I’d say they do.’
‘How many emails are you talking about?’
‘Over a hundred.’
‘And how many Republican voters are in your district?’
‘About 20,000.’
‘So, because you got a hundred emails, you think you’re hearing the voice of 20,000 Republicans saying they support people carrying pistols in bars?’
The first legislator bristled. ‘You think that’s wrong?’
‘I think if you want to know what voters think you should take a poll.’
The first legislator, his mind made up, scratched his head. ‘You ever try that?’
‘Yep.’
‘What did it show?’
‘It said Republican voters have more common sense than legislators give them credit for.’
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 17, 2013 11:44
Last week Gary thoughtfully wrote a squib (below) urging people to visit young Thomas Mills’ new website PoliticsNC – so I did. And got a surprise. Young Mr. Mills was – genially – taking me to task for writing how the Democrats passing voter laws (over the years) to elect Democrats, had led to Republicans (once they had power) doing the same thing to elect Republicans, which, taken altogether, was a pretty good example of how one sin begets another – the political version of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth with no remorse anywhere.
Mr. Mills didn’t mind me criticizing my own party but he didn’t particularly like me criticizing his party – the way he sees it, Republicans have done all the sinning while Democrats have done none at all. He made his case this way: Republicans are trying to pass laws that discourage people from voting while the Democrats, back in the days when they had power, had pursued a loftier goal: They’d passed laws to encourage more people to vote. Which sounds fine. Except that argument collapses in the face of one fact: Right in the middle of their lofty crusade to get more people to the polls, Democrats passed a law to make it more difficult for people to cast absentee ballots – because Republicans were more likely to vote that way than Democrats.
There’re other examples of Democrats changing laws to elect Democrats – like in the 1980 election: Locked in a tight race for US Senate, Democrats decided if a voter marked the block next to Republican John East’s name in the race for U.S. Senate, but, then, also marked the Straight Democratic ticket block on the same ballot, they wouldn’t throw the ballot out as spoiled – they’d count it as a vote for Democratic Senate candidate Robert Morgan.
Toward the end of his blog, Mr. Mills wrote, “Carter should know politics is about perception and the perception here is...” – well, the perception here is Republicans are “old, bigoted white guys.”
I don’t know of an idea that has done more harm in politics than the thought, Perception is what matters...it’s like saying, If I lie, cheat and steal, it doesn’t matter so long as people think I’m a walking breathing paragon of moral rectitude.
There's also an easy way to prove it’s a fiction to say ‘perception’ has the power to save a politician from the older truth that bad deeds breed consequences – just look at what’s happening in front of our eyes (over voter laws): Democrats sowed the wind and now they’re reaping the whirlwind and, in time, Republicans may reap an indigestible harvest as well.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 16, 2013 10:32
For years Jesse Helms wrote every speech he made, typing each on an old reporter’s typewriter, then one year when he was unusually harried he decided it was time to hire a speechwriter – so we hired ‘John.’
John was an unusually gifted writer but for all his virtues he had a peculiar view of politics (and the world in general). John saw politics as one tiny pinnacle of pure white light populated with saints, surrounded by a pitch-black engulfing darkness filled with goblins and liberals who had to be exterminated and, since the saints were badly outnumbered, the way John saw it there was no room for the luxury mercy.
Of course the fearfulness of his vision meant he was angry a great part of the time and naturally, over time, his anger turned him mean.
For six months John diligently labored writing passionate and articulate speeches for Jesse then one day in December, as we walked to my car to go to lunch, John handed Jesse a speech and launched into a tirade about Christmas – he said Christmas was a greed-ridden desecration of the story of the Christ child, an abomination reeking of materialism, then tore into Santa Claus, saying Santa Claus was a hobgoblin invented by greedy shopkeepers to con little children – then he stepped in front of Jesse, turned to face him, and said, Somebody needs to stand up and tell those children the truth about Santa Claus – and pointed to that speech.
Not with the white-hot passion (born of fear or betrayal or meanness) of a common murderer but with the cold-calculated passion of a Grand Inquisitor ticking off the names of heretics John had proposed the murder of St. Nicholas.
Jesse stopped dead in his tracks, rocked back on his heels, looked back at John, and grinned, Well, if you don’t mind, I believe I’d as soon pass on running for the Senate by telling children there’s no Santa Claus.
Back in those days you could usually find a fellow like John in almost every town of any size but given the limits of geography and communications in those days it was nearly impossible for John to find (or share fellowship with) his natural political soul mates. He was sadly isolated and fought his political battles alone.
John passed on a decade ago but today his lineal descendents (not in blood but in politics) are happier because they’re no longer alone – modern day Johns build websites then with the click of a button other ‘Johns’ can find them and they form a tribe as bellicose as Huns.
The other day, without meaning to, a soft-spoken lady from Charlotte who’s one of the four Republican leaders in the House – Representative Ruth Samuelson – sent one of those Hun-tribes into a white-hot fury.
Back to 2007 a previous state legislature passed a bill to encourage companies to produce ‘renewable energy’ – like solar power – in North Carolina; hardly a word has been said about the bill for six years, until last week when State Representative Mike Hager stood up in a House Committee and announced that utility companies using solar power was adding millions of dollars to electric bills and he was going to put a stop to it by repealing that six-year-old bill.
Those two words – renewable energy – reverberated across the Internet with the power of a magnet and hit a tribe of Johns right squarely between the eyes. Because the one person they knew who favored renewable energy was Barack Obama. And that’s all they needed to know. No sooner had Mike Hager sounded the war tocsin than a full-throated battle cry filled the air and charges flew about the evil of government subsidies and the worse evil of government interfering with the free market – which in a way didn’t add up because utility companies are monopolies and there is no free market for selling electricity.
Then just when it looked like Representative Hager’s bill was sure to sail through that committee Ruth Samuelson stood up and politely said that it might be a good idea for legislators to stop and do a little research before voting.
About an hour after that one Hun-like tribe put a picture of Samuelson and a picture of another Republican legislator on its website alongside a picture of Obama then added a headline over the pictures roaring: They voted with Obama!
The way that tribe saw it Ruth Samuelson had gone over to the Dark Side or, worse, become a liberal – which didn’t add up either because how on earth could an Obama-liberal be one of the four Republican Leaders in the State House?
So I looked up that 2007 bill and an odd fact popped up right away: George Bush was President when that bill passed. Then a second fact leaped off the page: The most rock-ribbed conservative in the legislature, Phil Berger, had voted for that bill. As had Thom Tillis, Tom Apodaca, Skip Stam, Robert Pittenger and just about every other Republican in the General Assembly.
Whether that Hun-like tribe’s attack on Ruth Samuelson was cold-blooded calculation or hot-blooded rage there’s no getting around one more fact: It was an act of pure meanness – like when John told Jesse, You ought to tell little children there is no Santa Claus.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 15, 2013 14:27
Republicans and Democrats over in the legislature have been battling hammer and tongs but, still, it raised eyebrows last week when the News & Observer reported Republicans have declared war on the cities.
House Speaker Thom Tillis explained the new conflagration philosophically, saying ‘Part of the conflict is due to a different world view of the role of government.’ Other legislators were blunter, saying ‘Cities are getting too big and too powerful’ and ‘Cities are too arrogant.’
The mayors (who’re mostly Democrats) tried to fight back but the legislators (who’re mostly Republicans) had them over a barrel: The General Assembly had the power – legally – so it rolled happily forward redrawing school board districts, rewriting local housing regulations, and taking the airport from Charlotte, the water system from Asheville and Dix Park from Raleigh.
But, a year from now, this war may take a turn that surprises the General Assembly: Years ago, when Jesse Helms first ran for Senate, most of the voters lived in small towns and rural crossroads not big enough to be called towns. But those days have long-since vanished. Cities are now the political dynamos and cities and suburbs decide elections and mayors (like Raleigh’s Mayor Nancy McFarlane) are popular – more popular than, say, a Republican legislator from Raleigh.
So what began as a legal fight may spiral into a political fight and, next election, if Mayor McFarlane decides to lead one of those independent Super PAC campaigns, Republican legislators in swing districts in Wake County could become casualties.
There’s also another more nuanced problem. Legislators changing government policies – like cutting spending or reforming the tax code – is one thing. But Republican legislators passing laws to weaken Democratic mayors is another thing entirely. Voters are pretty tolerant of politicians’ foibles and clay feet and hardly a soul believes anymore American Democracy is an exercise in selflessness or clean hands – but sometimes when a politician goes too far he runs afoul of a political current that runs bone-deep – then the wind changes and tolerance ends and a bedrock American spirit (that cannot abide a politician who grabs for too much power) breaks loose and wreaks havoc.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 11, 2013 14:52
Years ago some crafty Democratic gnome sitting cloistered in a cell pouring over reams of demographics (trying to figure out the political inclinations of people who didn’t vote) had a revelation: If those folks did vote, a lot more Democrats were going to get elected.
Now, in a way, that sounds odd (after all, How could he know?) but as far as political theory goes he was standing on rock-solid ground. Demographics seldom lie.
Of course there was no way to keep an earthshaking fact like that secret – word of the gnome’s discovery quickly reached Democratic legislators. About the kindest thing to say about what happened next is: Those legislators started passing laws to help themselves get elected – they passed a ‘motor-voter’ law so that every time anyone over eighteen years old applied for a driver’s license they were also handed a voter registration form. But, to the Democrats’ chagrin, while registration soared, most of the new voters never even bothered to go to the polls.
It was a setback but the Democrats legislators took it in stride. They went back to work and tackled the problem from a different direction, writing a whole new set of laws – they passed ‘early voting’ and ‘same-day registration’ and ‘Sunday voting’ and, suddenly, in 2008 what they’d been dreaming of actually happened: Those non-voters flocked to the polls and for the first time in forty-eight years – in the same election – the Democrats elected a Governor, a U.S. Senator and the Democratic candidate for President won North Carolina.
The Democrats must have felt the Promised Land was within reach but then the unexpected happened: Republicans won the next two elections. Suddenly, Republicans were in control of the State House and Senate, and – the way they saw it – if Democrats could pass laws to elect Democrats, they could repeal them, or better still, add a few new laws to elect Republicans. They rolled out bills to repeal Sunday voting, end same-day registration, end straight-party voting and curtail early voting. Then proposed laws to make it tougher for college students to vote and to make absentee voting easier (since Republicans vote more often by absentee than Democrats).
There’s a kind of rough justice in all that but looked another way it’s also proof of an unkind truth: One bad deed begets another and, after that, it’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth with no remorse anywhere.
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Carter Wrenn posted on April 10, 2013 11:10
My grandmother used to say, ‘Idle hands are the devil’s workshop’ – and while legislators are waiting for the Senate to introduce its budget over in the General Assembly, they’re making a strong case that temptation and too much time on your hands is as deadly a combination as ever:
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One legislator sponsored a bill to make teaching cursive handwriting mandatory in public schools, saying teaching cursive would develop brain activity in third graders and help them read historical documents like the Constitution – which a Google search shows, is available in print on the Internet in 123,000 places.
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Two legislators declared the 1st Amendment (and the Freedom of Religion Clause) of the Constitution doesn’t apply to North Carolina, and that under the 10th Amendment, the legislature can nullify federal laws they don’t like – but they missed one crucial fact: The last time the state legislature tried to nullify the Constitution it didn’t work out too well.
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A Senator filed a bill to prohibit male students and female students from rooming together in dormitories at UNC – it’s hard to argue with that, but a better question to ask might be how on earth UNC ended up with a Chancellor who could be gulled into believing it made common sense to allow gay men to room with straight women in UNC dormitories?
So, with the time they had on their hands, legislators wrote bills that enraged women, nullified the Constitution, stimulated brain activity, separated gay men and straight women at UNC, and threatened FBI agents – is it any wonder (according to the latest polls) only 23% of the voters approve of the way the state legislature is doing its job?
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Carter Wrenn posted on March 28, 2013 12:08
With much fanfare just before she left office Governor Perdue announced she’d made a grand deal to lease Raleigh all of the land at Dix Hospital for 99 years. When the deal landed in the newspapers, a friend, who’s spent a good part of his life buying and selling real estate, called, laughed and said, 325 acres of land in downtown Raleigh is worth a lot more than $500,000 a year. Then he added, How on earth do you reckon they got around the requirement the state has to get competitive bids when it sells land?
There was much celebrating in Raleigh – about the only person who had a discouraging word to say was Senate Leader Phil Berger who allowed Perdue’s deal just didn’t pass the smell test.
For the next three months peace reigned then with its usual delicacy the State Senate charged out of its corner swinging – it was like a blitzkrieg: Boom, boom, boom – a Senator filed a bill to kill the deal, held a hearing and the bill passed.
The fur flew: A line of prominent Raleigh business leaders (who liked Perdue’s deal) proclaimed they were horrified, just horrified, the state would break its word and renege on a contract – no honorable person, they said, would do that.
Of course, being called dishonorable (by folks who’d just cut a sweetheart deal with the state) didn’t sit too well with the folks in the Senate. When business leader Jim Goodman testified at the Senate hearing he said breaking that contract was “not honorable” so many times it rubbed Senator Tom Apodaca the wrong way, so Apodaca let fly with a broadside of his own declaring he didn’t appreciate being threatened or intimidated.
Now, Jim Goodman, who owns several hundred million dollars worth of television stations, sure would intimidate me but the Senators didn’t even blink.
On paper, the Dix lease certainly looks like a sweetheart deal and John Hood over at the Locke Foundation reports the land’s worth five times more than Raleigh paid. And even the folks who like Perdue’s deal aren’t disagreeing – instead, they’re arguing it’s a fine deal because creating a 325 acre park in downtown Raleigh will be a great boost for the economy.
On the other hand, there’s also no doubt our friends over in the State Senate have a gift for bellicosity – they can crank up and get rolling faster than a panzer tank when sometimes, especially when they’re right, a little finesse might accomplish the same goal with a bit more gentility. Anyhow, now, we’ve got a brawl on our hands with Raleigh’s most prominent business leaders hollering cancelling a sweetheart deal is a rotten thing to do and it’s not a pretty spectacle.
Before it was shuttered Dorothea Dix was the state’s mental hospital – maybe they ought to reopen it for one day and hold a ‘pacification therapy’ session to calm everybody down – before the House votes.
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