Politicians’ ‘achievements’ at the expense of taxpayers

OPINION:

A few days ago, Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, overseer of the financial meltdown in 2007 and author of our current quantitative easing death spiral, won the Nobel Prize in economics for … wait for it … his academic and practical work on how bank failures can cause mayhem in the larger economy.

For the last several months, Team Biden and their friends have been talking about their “achievements” that almost exclusively involve legislation (the American Rescue Plan, the overgrown highway bill and the Inflation Reduction Act) that transfers cash from one set of citizens to another set of citizens — after, of course, the federal government takes its cut.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, there is a lovely trail that bisects the county, mostly alongside streams. It is popular with runners and bicyclists and nature enthusiasts. It is also, unfortunately, named after Gerald Connolly, who was chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors when the trail was pieced together (and is now the congressman from the area).

What do these things have in common?

In each instance, the protagonists in question — Messrs. Bernanke, Biden, Connolly — used taxpayer money to aggrandize themselves. Worse, in each instance, they tried to pass off their efforts as legitimate efforts to serve the public rather than as the more mundane and corrupt business of political payoffs to political allies.

It’s bad enough that we have to pay for the vanity projects and political payoffs of politicians; listening to them tell us how it was all for our own good makes it much worse. Having them tout these things as “achievements” is borderline intolerable.

The truly terrible feature is, of course, that the problem is bipartisan. Mr. Bernanke, a nominal Republican when he was appointed to the Federal Reserve, could not have cared less about the foreclosures that tore through the economy in 2006 and early 2007 — no one he knew was being foreclosed on. President Biden, a Democrat, doesn’t care about the economic wreckage caused by his terrible policies — inflation is, apparently, a problem for the little people.

Mr. Connolly, a small-time operator who identifies as a Democrat, just wanted his name on something.

It is small wonder that Republican voters have de facto abandoned the party over the last 15 years — first through the tea party, then through Donald Trump. It is small wonder that traditional Democrats have also become unmoored from their attachment to party. Some venality and indifference is expected, even accepted. But at a certain point, voters decide that they have had enough.

Let’s hope that the Nobel Prize given to Mr. Bernanke was worth the weak economy over the last 15 years and the (unlamented) destruction of the Bush political dynasty. Let’s hope that all the “achievements” advertised by Team Biden actually mean something to actual citizens at some point. Let’s hope that some future Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will rename the cross-county trail. Maybe, in a fit of honesty, they will call it “The Best Trail We Could Buy With Your Money.”

In the meantime, the soon-to-be Republican majority in Congress could take a small step toward reducing the silliest sort of corruption by precluding the naming of federal buildings, ships, post offices, etc., for any living current or former officeholder. It is not much, but it would be a clear statement against the interest of the ruling class, which would be refreshing.

• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated Podcast.” He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.