Lawson Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute sees evidence of a real-life Grinch at work as 2014 draws to a close. Bader explains in a column posted at Human Events.
[T]he truth is that during these dark days of December, the Grinch shows up not in Whoville, but at a lame duck session of Congress, where he morphs into a red-tied Congressman who bundles away goodies for his constituents at the expense of the American taxpayer. …
… Here are the top pending Grinch awards for 2014.
The National Defense Authorization Act, already passed by the House, contains a massive federal land grab – a provision that creates eight new national parks in 10 states, expands seven existing parks, designates 245,000 acres as wilderness, and withdraws another 289,000 acres from natural resource production. As my colleague Myron Ebell notes, ““This is a backroom deal locking up federal land so it cannot be used to produce natural resources, such as energy, minerals, livestock and timber — a devastating economic effect on people in the rural West.”
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) has just introduced an Export-Import Bank reauthorization bill. Remember when it seemed we’d killed Ex-Im back in the summer? It was good to raise awareness of this boondoggle, but it’s still there, lingering in the shadows. Rep. Fincher claims his legislation is a “compromise” bill, but if it’s attached to some “must-pass” bill, we’ll know we’re back to the old cronyist games conservatives often rail against. But there’s more.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, set to expire on December 31, wields the specter of terrorism to justify a huge piece of corporate welfare. The law, which allows the government to backstop insurers up to $100 billion per incident, has a very broad definition of terrorism. The Treasury Department has reportedly told insurers that a cyber-attack could be considered a terrorist incident to kick in the bailouts. The law increases moral hazard and provides fewer incentives for the private sector to fortify itself against such an attack. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) rightly called it part of “a long and ugly history of insurance schemes that underestimate and misprice risk. Each time the purported beneficiaries end up more at risk while taxpayers end up footing the bill.”
Republican donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has been lobbying GOP leadership to protect his brick-and-mortar businesses from competition from online gambling. The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that nothing prevents states from legalizing and regulating online gambling within their borders. But that hasn’t stopped Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) from introducing the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (HR 4301, S. 2159), a bill written by one of Adelson’s lobbyists, that would rewrite the original 1961 Wire Act so as to prohibit all forms of Internet gambling and overturn laws passed in states already legalizing online gambling. Have Republicans forgotten the principles of federalism that supposedly make up their core beliefs? This effort went nowhere this lame-duck, but we can be sure that Adleson and Co. will be back to try again.
