by Bob Barr | Sep 21, 2022 | Townhall Article |
TownhallWith much of the island still without electricity as a result of Hurricane Fiona pummeling Puerto Rico on Sunday, one might think that the Biden administration would be leading an effort to repeal a 1920 federal law that continues to cost the island’s inhabitants dearly for every gallon of petroleum imported into the island, which in turn pushes the cost of most consumer goods far beyond those on the U.S. mainland. The administration, along with a majority of the Congress, however, stubbornly refuses to seriously consider weakening, much less repealing, the Jones Act (also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920) as a way to help the island’s 3.2 million inhabitants cope with inflation, high unemployment, and lack of basic necessities..The Jones Act is best described as the poster child for overtly protectionist legislation that long ago outlived any usefulness it might have provided when signed into law. It was designed to protect the domestic maritime industry against competition from other countries; a goal it has accomplished for more than a century. The law does this by mandating that shipment by water of any goods or cargo between any two U.S. ports must be conducted only by vessels built in the United States and that are at least 75 percent U.S.-owned and crewed.The Jones Act was passed in the aftermath of the First World War, during which America’s maritime fleet had been severely impacted by German submarine attacks, and when our nation’s shipbuilding and cargo carrying capacity was insufficient to meet the needs of the war effort. While national security might at the time have constituted a legitimate basis on which...
by Bob Barr | Sep 20, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerWith a huge public workforce, high unemployment, and an energy sector plagued with recurrent Third World-style blackouts, is Puerto Rico a sign of things to come for the United States mainland?The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is an “unincorporated territory” of the United States whose 3.2 million citizens enjoy U.S. citizenship. To be fair, the island suffers from weather and geography problems not of its own making. It lies in the path of tropical storms and hurricanes that periodically cause widespread damage, such as Hurricane Fiona which crossed the island last Sunday. The Commonwealth’s problems, however, extend beyond geography and weather. Even before Fiona hit, the entire island had been without electricity. Some areas had not fully recovered from a previous island-wide blackout in 2017. The electricity situation has become so notoriously bad that one of Puerto Rico’s internationally known singers, Bad Bunny, included complaints about his homeland’s energy failings in a recent music video.Not only are Puerto Rico’s outdated and poorly maintained power plants constantly vulnerable to storms, but also to what has become almost a regular occurrence – fires caused by faulty equipment. Whatever the cause, of course, power outages have a ripple effect that cuts off water to homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals; in turn leading to serious economic and health concerns. As with issues faced by Americans on the mainland, shoveling more taxpayer dollars at problems does not necessarily result in better quality of services or products. In recent years, because of the devastation caused by Puerto Rico’s constantly failing electrical grid system, billion of dollars have flowed from the mainland to the island for the express purpose of fixing the...
by Bob Barr | Sep 14, 2022 | Townhall Article |
TownhallIn the now-distant past, the top priorities for the Democrat Party reflected views held by many middle- and working-class Americans, and included health insurance, higher wages, and support for public education. That once moderate set of priorities has now morphed into an agenda more at home in a European socialist country than middle America.Today’s Democrat Party is in love with abortion and at war with the Second Amendment. With regard to both guns and abortion, Democrats often have employed direct means of accomplishing their goals of unlimited abortion and very limited Second Amendment rights – appropriations riders, legislation, and executive actions. But they also exhibit no hesitancy in using sneaky and indirect methods to get what they want. In recent years, two of the Left’s favored tools with which to push their radical agenda are retirement funds and restrictions on financial institutions. Both avenues are being pursued currently as ways to limit Second Amendment rights.Retirement funds, especially those into which members of favored liberal interest groups have paid dues for many years, control hundreds of billions of dollars, which can and are being invested to directly support liberal causes. Also, and more cleverly, Democrats have seized on the fact that individuals who manage these vast pools of money can in turn pressure financial institutions, including credit card companies, to do their bidding. And, when individuals wielding that power over public employee pension funds are government officials, such as New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, their wishes can be especially persuasive.Gun control has become a primary arena in which the Left is using control of large employee pension funds to push its political agenda. Their...
