Just when you think government cannot get worse, short of human sacrifice or a ban on jelly doughnuts, along comes the Anchorage Assembly, a lunch bucket packed with hubris, lousy ideas and ersatz politicos eyeing the political barometer and ignoring common sense.
In its latest flash of shameless pandering, it overturned Mayor Dan Sullivan's veto of an amendment that allows city employees still on the clock to ethically participate in charity fundraising. Sullivan had questioned whether city firefighters on duty were violating the ethics law by helping the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Alaska with its annual "Fill the Boot" fundraising campaign. The Assembly amended the law to clarify that such activity is, indeed, ethical -- and Sullivan used his veto pen. That set up Tuesday night's mini-drama.
In front of an emotionally charged chamber crowded with firefighters gathered to hear a resolution honoring a fallen brother, the only Assembly members who stood up for taxpayers and common sense were Chris Birch, Jennifer Johnston and Debbie Ossiander. The rest, including some who call themselves conservatives -- Bill Starr, for example -- happily voted to hand out taxpayer money taken by force to whatever private entity tickles their fancy.
The funny thing is this: The vote was cheap political theater. The aim, as Assembly Chairman Dick Traini said, was to put the mayor more in the "cross hairs." (That's Palin-talk, isn't it?)
But the override really means nothing. The amendment's wording allows Sullivan to set policy for the administration's employees -- the vast majority of city workers -- and the Assembly to set policy for its handful. A mayoral policy forbidding the practice of on-the-clock fundraising would put the kibosh on it for most of the city -- until a mayor down the line decides the practice is acceptable and changes the policy.
Meanwhile, the usual suspects are busy trying to frame the overall argument as one pitting firefighters and other good folks against a mean-spirited administration. They seek a political wedge for the next election, but the real issue is government's role in charity.
The answer is easy: It has none and giving it one is a dumb idea. It can lead to nothing but problems. Why, some will ask, is government involved in one charity, but not others? Who will pay for the lawsuits filed by charities left out? What would charities or nonprofits have to do to get on the fundraising "A" list?
More important, how would these eight Assembly members explain to an elderly woman losing her home because of increased taxes that the money they have taken from her by force is going to fund a charity?
Government -- federal or local -- was not established to dispense charity. That has been the case from Day One, from James Madison to Davy Crockett to Franklin Pierce to Grover Cleveland, when it was understood that government is not a cash cow; that the Constitution has no provision for handing out tax money to benevolent causes; that Congress has specific, enumerated powers.
Congress in 1794, for instance, appropriated $15,000 for French refugees in Baltimore. Madison, accepted as the father of our Constitution, wrote, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."
Politicians nowadays trying to convert government largesse into votes by criminally misusing the Constitution's "Welfare Clause" and ignoring government's specific powers could not care less -- and a soft American public has grown accustomed to raids on treasuries national and local to satisfy its wants and feelings of entitlement.
Because of that, this nation -- drowning in red ink to pay everything from farm subsidies, to bailouts, to corporate and individual welfare, to Medicaid, to Medicare, Social Security, health care, library subsidies and so much more -- is broke. We are more than $16 trillion in debt. We are sadly, inarguably, one calamity from absolute catastrophe, and we may take the world with us.
But we cannot stop. Politicians are more than willing to tap the Treasury -- even print worthless money, if necessary -- to buy votes and power. It certainly is no better at the local level.
In Anchorage, next year's budget deficit is expected to be about $20 million because of feel-good government and union paybacks for political support. Our august Assembly is but a microcosm of the irresponsible national excess.
We deserve better. Or do we?
Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.
PAUL JENKINS
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