This will be one of the last times I talk about politics for a while. I’m done….finished. I’ve spent plenty of time over the past few months contemplating and debating politics…specifically, why our political system is such a disaster.

Consider for a second…in many races around this country, campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars to elect senators, representatives, and governors….jobs that pay no more than a couple hundred thousand bucks per year.

In my world (remember, I’m a business guy), there’s a three-letter term called R.O.I. – Return on Investment. Basically, you invest some sort of money, and you intend to get it back…and then some….at some future point.

That’s what business people do. Really, that’s what everybody does. We make investments in hopes of getting them back. We make investments in love. We make investments in sports. You can even say that we make investments that are theological, by taking the time to pray to whatever deity we believe in, and in return, we hope to get a return on investment.

I know that sounds kind of crude, but really, life is just one big R.O.I.

So I ask myself, what is so important, particularly to Governor Ed Rendell, since he’s the biggest spender this year in Pennsylvania, and all of his backers that they’ll spend over 20 million dollars to get whatever “it” is.

You’re not stupid. You know what I’m talking about. The fact of the matter is that the State of Pennsylvania, like every other state in the union, is for sale. It has to be. Otherwise, why would people spend 20-plus million dollars to get there?

You want a casino? You pay for it.
You want laws favoring casinos? You pay some more.

You want land? You pay for that. (“You” being the politicians seeking office)

You want a hillside that looks structurally deficient, but you still need somebody to rubberstamp approval for somebody to build on that hillside? You pay some more.

That’s the way the system works. It’s not “Government for the people”, folks, it’s “Government for the Wealthy and Privileged”. Never forget this.

It’s not just big government and gubernatorial races, either. Many politicians have now found ways to create ways to create their own “self-perpetuating money machines”.

Take Mike Veon. What a piece of work. Essentially, Mike has taken a very clever approach, whereby he reroutes YOUR money into HIS slush fund that, in turn, masquerades as an economic development/stimulus organization.

This slush fund (again, using YOUR dollars, not his) is used to dole out small amounts of money to pet projects for supporters and buddies of, you know who, MIKE VEON.

Now once compromised, these people have no recourse other than to reelect Mike Veon, so the looting and plundering cycle continues. He’ll never be beaten. He owns too many people. Too many people are beholden to him.

In turn, Mike takes full advantage. I don’t know exactly what he gets in return, but I do know that he flies back and forth from Harrisburg to Beaver County. That’s 40,000 taxpayer dollars a year. He’s got a big, fat salary. He’s got a tax-free per diem. Dreamland-like medical benefits for life, as well as his world-class pension.

You should know this. When Mike Veon “retires”, he’ll be paid more per month in pension than just about all but 1% of Pennsylvania workers.

(Well, WE’LL be paying that. You. Me. The rest of us.)

I’m a business guy. I’ve paid outrageous salaries to people many times in my life. It’s nothing to pay out salaries of $200,000 or more in private enterprise. But in business, the ROI principle holds. I’ll give you $200,000, but I want to see $1 MILLION come back as a result of your efforts.

Let’s look at performance of our state, then. First off, in order to perform, you SHOULD come to work, right? Most of the people that we elect to come to work in the State of Pennsylania actually “work” anywhere from six to seven months per year.

They’ll say “Oh, we have to go back and campaign….”, but they actually work at their jobs very little. Of course, maybe that’s a good part, as when they DO come to work, they tend to screw things up.

I don’t begrudge these guys the money, but I want to see the results. As far as I can tell, the State of Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom of many economic measures that I can’t list them all in the mere space of this blog.

So, that’s what you get for your money, zip!

-These are the facts. I doubt there’s anybody reading this right now who actually thinks that the government we get in this state is equivalent to the results we get. It stinks. We all know this.

Balancing the other side of this are the campaing ads that you’ve seen that tout the various candidates. “Candidate X walks on water. He or she works hard…_________ balances the budget.”

(By the way, that’s one of my favorite lines in the Rendell ad - ”He balances the budget.” Of course, he does. He’d go to jail if he didn’t….”He reduces taxes.” - How’d you like that big fat property tax reduction check you got…oh, yeah, you didn’t get one so far, and when you do, it’ll probably be just enough to pay for one speeding ticket.)

They’ll say “We’ll improve our education system!” We’re currently 46th in the nation. And so on and so on.

We’re being ripped off. I suspect you’re all mad as hell about it. So what are you going to do on Tuesday?

You’re going to vote the SAME PEOPLE back in office. It’s mind- boggling. I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how rational people can look at the price, the return on investment, the performance, the results, and say, “Good enough. Take another four years. Sit at the trough. Eat my money. I don’t care about results. Go Steelers.”

(or “Go, Haunted House”, or whatever occupies your time…point being, people just don’t care.)

Look, I may be the dumbest guy on radio, but even I can see right through this scam. So, on Tuesday, I plan on pulling the anti-incumbent level every time I can. I hope my wife does the same. I hope my mother does the same. I hope all my friends and relatives do the same.

People will say “But you’ll lose all that experience!” I say, “Right!”

“Good!”

The “experience” we’ll be losing will be the “experienced” guys in office ripping us off, while making it look like they’re not ripping us off. The “experienced” people we have in Washington and Harrisburg right now are “experienced” THIEVES.

(Not ALL of them…but MOST of them)

So we get rid of them all. And we get a new bunch of less sophisticated thieves in office. And these thieves will steal from us, too. After all, some of the most scurrilous people in America over the past few decades have learned that THE place to loot and plunder without having to do any hard work is in government.

But it will take these guys a while to learn the system. Meanwhile, some good guys may take notice, and in two or four years, we’ll have to fire these guys as well. And maybe once more two/four years after that.

But, eventually, the bad guys in Harrisburg and Washington will realize the futility of their approach. The “elective office” door is locked, and they’ll have to find a new slop trough in which to stuff their faces. Meanwhile, real citizen politicians, people who really WANT to serve only for a short term (as our Forefathers had originally intended way back when), will be the only ones coming around.

This means that the cost of elections will drop precipitously, as these citizen politicians haven’t been around long enough to set up the business of thievery, and our quality of government will go way up.

This is called, “taking the long view”. Few people ever take the long view.

Remember, nothing of value comes easily in this lifetime. Good government is certainly no exception to this rule. But it’s what we’ve got to do.

Either this, or term limits, but the use of term limits means that we’re once again allowing the foxes in the henhouse to set the rules of engagement. No thanks. Been there. Done that.

You may say “Well, we’ll get the worst people in the world. They’ll have no experience.” And I, in turn, ask you, “What ‘experience’ do most of our current politicians have anyway, besides the ‘experience’ involved with lying and cheating to get reelected?”

Would you not much rather have WISE leaders than EXPERIENCED leaders. Because I believe that with this approach, we will likely only get WISE people to run.

How can I be certain of this?

For one thing, these people will have to come to the party with little or no doubt that they can “make it” in the world.

I recently had Rick Miller, President of Olin College, on my radio show, and one of the things he said about Olin is that they’ll only accept educators with no tenure on the Olin staff. His rationale (and mine) is that by that approach, you’ll only get the BEST people.

(It’s like unions. Unions only protect the WEAKEST people. Not strong people.)

But with this approach to politics, you’ll only get competent people to show up. They’ll think, “Hey, I’ll go over there. Work for two or four years, then go back. I can take care of myself.”

Presumably, these people have already experienced all of the pain and pleasure that life can bring, and consequently, can relate to the people they’re governing.

Tell me, would you not rather have people making decisions about YOUR life who have already made decisions about other people’s lives before making their way into government?

How can ONE of our current politicians ever know what it’s like to “make a payroll” if he/she has never MADE a payroll? Or how can a current politician empathize with a “working stiff” if he/she has never BEEN a “working stiff.”

It’s like I’ve said before: Today’s politician is somebody who won their class election in high school, then thereafter got so power drunk that he/she went on to study law, then went directly into politics without ever having participated in real life.

Again, they’re not ALL like this. But it sure as hell seems to be the way that the process is heading.

Professional politicians. As I like to call them, “People packed in cotton” for their whole adult lives. And that’s where we’re heading. Read books or watch movies about what I call “Field-made leaders.” Look at a group of people stuck on an island, or a company where the department is adrift, or a band of privates or corporals who lose their sergeant.

What happens? It’s generally the wise, sage old person who thinks before acting steps up and uses that wisdom to lead that group to the promised land.

To quote Joe Sobran: If just 10 percent of us vote out the incumbents, we will eventually remake our government.

I ask you: what the HELL do we have to lose?

Let’s get these guys OUT…this time…next time…until they finally learn that THIS is not the place to come steal. Then we’ll get good people in place.

After 40 years of working WITH the system, my only conclusion is: it doesn’t work!