Did you ever wonder how Congress, which is mostly made up of lawyers, knows so much about so many complex subjects?  I used to wonder until I finally came to the obvious conclusion that it doesn’t. They’ve made a mess of almost everything they’ve set out to fix. Perhaps they should stick to the duties set out in the Constitution and leave micromanagement of things they know nothing about to those who do.

Congress recently mandated that automobile manufacturers must produce cars that get 35 MPG by 2020. This was part of the last “energy bill” they passed. They didn’t say how the manufacturers were supposed to reach this number, only that they must comply. Could you imagine the founding fathers mandating that horse breeders produce horses that must be able to travel a certain number of miles per feed bag of oats? Certainly not. That was never intended to be the job of Congress.

Linda Chavez wrote recently in Townhall.com, “In 2007, the cost of a gallon of milk increased 26 percent; eggs went up 40 percent; and a loaf of white bread went from $1.05 to $1.28 from 2006 to 2008. Steep increases in the price of oil have contributed to these higher costs, but the federal government has played a pernicious role as well. By mandating that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol they blend with gasoline, the government has not only artificially increased the cost of corn, which is what most U.S. ethanol is made of, but has driven up the cost of other grains as well. Inflated corn prices encourage farmers to divert more acreage to corn, which means they plant less soy and wheat, which, in turn, drives the prices of those commodities up as well. The aggregate price of wheat, corn, soy oil and soy meal in the U.S. will be $61.7 billion higher in the 2007/2008 crop year than it was in 2005/2006…..Corn-based ethanol is inefficient as a fuel for automobiles, reducing vehicle gas mileage by 20-30 percent in vehicles using E85, the highest ethanol content fuel. Fewer miles-per-gallon of gas essentially eliminates any savings achieved, even by mixing ethanol with gasoline in the lower 9 percent ethanol blends required in all U.S. gasoline today. And of course, it also takes energy to produce ethanol -- for farming and distilling the corn and transporting the final product to the pump -- and much of that energy will come from carbon-based fuels.”

Members of Congress are hardly experts in this field so they relied on the Ethanol lobby that was trying to influence Congress and get more subsidies (hand outs). Another by-product of their mandate is a shortage of staple foods around the world.

Another Congressional mandate is the conversion from analog to digital television.  I have a small hand-held TV that I’ve had about ten years. I use it in my pickup when out storm spotting, to look at TV weather radar. After next February it will become useless and I’ll have to buy a digital set.  While DTV (digital television) may provide a better picture and sound, it will cost many people a lot of money either for new TV sets or converter boxes. It may be a good move overall, but I don’t think it’s the function of Congress to decree what kind of television people must watch. 

We are supposed to be a market driven capitalist system. As such, I don’t think Congress should spend its time coming up with laws that regulate and order around industries that they know nothing about. Safety regulations are okay and so are rules that prevent out and out fraud. But telling the CEO how much money he can make is really none of Congress’ business. The same goes for corporate profit. It isn’t the job of Congress to punish successful enterprises. 

I don’t want to leave anyone out who is due for a share of the blame. None of these laws would have been enacted without the signature of the president. There are more than a few of these measures that wouldn’t be a problem had the president used his veto pen. From what’s being offered on the election menu, don’t look for things to get better any time soon.