Whence Abramoff?

Opinion Journal ^ | 1/27/2006 | Daniel Henninger

[groanup]

Whence Abramoff?

The Spend and Collect Beltway Party really knows Jack.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER

Friday, January 27, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff. Once the hunt's on, some names sound to the scandal born. Tongsun Park, Charles Keating, Elizabeth Ray, Fannie Fox, Susan McDougal. Now comes Jack, the central figure in what Beltway Democrats are trying to build into a bonfire that will burn down Republican control of Congress. Every time someone tells Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid that he, too, took money from Jack's clients, he starts jumping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin yelling, "This is a Republican scandal!" Harry Reid, Harry Reid. One could get used to that.

Poll after poll says the public thinks both parties are equally corrupt. It depends, of course, on what the meaning of corruption is. If by corrupt you mean lobbyist sleaze, quid pro quo, the pork barrel, earmarks to nowhere and grossing out even the public's generally low expectations, then yes, both parties are equally corrupt.

But it gets worse. Congress legislated the system that now exists. Congress planted the seeds back in the '70s for what is revolting you now with two enactments--the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. Both were marketed as reforms.

The first law turned political Washington into a trillion-dollar industry camouflaged as the federal budget. The second ensured that sitting members of Congress and K Street lobbyists would become the entrenched management of that industry. Compared to this, Enron is a kindergarten game.

[pigdog]

I understand, but the FairTax will also help reduce the ease and therefore the ability (and incentive) for the corruption that goes on now with the K-Street crowd (the lobbyists) being able to buy tax favors which can be so easily hidden with taxpayers being never the wiser.

With the FairTax, that ability goes away since the tax is quite visible to all - by design.