Ronald Reagan famously said the most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
There are some other terrifying words. They are when a congressman or senator announces they aren’t running again.
That sounds counter-intuitive. After all, we want turn over in a body that now has almost as little turnover as there was in the old Soviet Politburo.
Far too often, when congressmen and senators announce their retirement, what follows is their audition for their next job. When these politicians decide they’ve had enough, unless they are elderly or in poor health, often K Street awaits them. On the way out, they are free to do some favors for people, and they can cash in those favors once they’re out of Congress.
The norm should be, every time a congressman or senator announces their retirement, everything they do should be scrutinized.
But occasionally there is a senator or congressman who defies the norm and tries to go out on a good note, doing something right for the nation.
There is a congressman who is doing just that. He announced earlier this year he is not running for re-election and is doing something good on the way out.
Who is it?
It is Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.
Camp is the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Camp wanted to do a massive rewrite of the tax code this year before he left. The leadership didn’t want to see that happen, so Camp has been busy trying to kill some of the worst and most offensive tax loopholes that billionaires use to feed from the government trough.
One of the worst loopholes that Camp is closing on the way out is the Wind Power Production Tax Credit.
This is a tax credit that Warren Buffett is using to make money. Buffett was interviewed on CNN a few weeks ago, and he even bluntly said this is what he is doing.
He said, “For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
If these farms don’t make sense to build without a government subsidy, why do they make sense for the government to subsidize?
In a few months, a new Congress will be sworn in and Dave Camp will no longer be a member. One of his legacies will be, as he was on his way out of Congress, he still tried to do the right thing and protect the average American taxpayer from special interests.
