ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Is “New Conservatism” Really Progressivism? .........................4Critics Can’t Decide if Facebook Does Too Much or Too Little ......................9CEI Events and Public Appearances ......10CEI Summit 2020 .....................12Losing the Ex-Im Bank Battle Could Lead to a Victory in the War Against It ...........13The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ........14Media Mentions ......................15End Notes ...........................16

COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE VOL. 33, NO. 1 | WINTER 2020

FEATURED ARTICLES

BY TREY KOVACS

The Cost of Ending Independent Work

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A Republican Proposal to Feed the Country to the Swamp

BY WAYNE CREWS

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rogressives dream of making the District of Columbia into a state, but now a pair of Republican senators have the same vision reflected through a funhouse mirror. The Helping Infrastructure Restore the Economy (HIRE) Act (S. 2672) would effectively trans-form10 states into D.C. by moving at least 90 percent of jobs from 10 executive depart-ments out of Washington and into “economi-cally distressed regions” across the country.The bill’s sponsors, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, would send the Agriculture and Education departments to their own home states. Eight other federal departments and most nondepartment agencies would also be dispersed throughout the land, often to places intended to suit their functions—for example, the Transportation Department would be sent to Michigan to be near the auto industry.Imagine the clamoring this would ignite among the states for the dozens of agencies on the move. Within each state, every hamlet will vie to host at least a branch, like the post offices that linger on in the Internet age.Sen. Hawley is right that “Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars fund federal agencies that are mainly located in the D.C. bubble,” and that most people “lack equal access to those jobs.” But since when did Republicans accept the idea that the federal government ought to be a job creator? The GOP insisted for decades that many New Deal agencies and subsequent government bodies should never have been created in the first place, and that their red tape and interference is a dominant cause of economic inefficiency. Consider the department Hawley wants to bring home. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that nearly 40 percent of U.S. farm income in 2019 will come from “trade aid, disaster assistance, the farm bill and insurance indemnities”—much of which is largess from the Agriculture Department that keeps farmers dependent and uncompetitive.One might expect such a plan from Democrats, who are quick to name federal spending as the solution to every problem. Republicans are supposed to understand the unseen mechanics of redistribution, aware that taxpayer money paid to govern-ment employees in their states is taken from taxpayers nationwide, a drag on the entire country’s economy.

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BY MARIO LOYOLA

Stop the Ethanol Madness

(continued on page 3)

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BY MATTHEW ADAMS

Congress Can Fix Legal Marijuana Business Banking Problem

 

Insights from the Road

by Kent Lassman

I

n the past few years, I’ve traveled all over the United States to advocate for the rule of law and free markets. At times it can be grueling. Because I have so much to draw me back home—an active family life at the top of the list—my trips are always condensed with as little time on the road as pos-sible, even if that means very early or overnight travel. International travel adds an entire layer of complexity.Recently, I was in Taiwan as a part of a delega-tion of free-market trade experts. Key insight of day one: An American delegation of free trade advo-cates is distressingly small in the current political environment—a reminder of why CEI’s work is more valuable than ever.My colleagues Iain Murray and Ryan Young recently wrote a fantastic paper, “Traders of the Lost Ark,” making a moral and economic case for free trade. I highly recommend it. After 25 consecutive hours of travel, I found my way to a hotel in downtown Taipei without any appointments for almost five hours. Of course, I had left Dulles airport on Saturday evening and it was now early Monday morning, but I was free to get settled before rejoining the group for lunch. I decided to take a run to a nearby park that features a red clay path around the perimeter and various sidewalks throughout. In addition to being the clos-est to the hotel, Daan Park was featured in a “Best Places to Run in Taiwan” article I had found before leaving home.After 4.6 extremely humid miles, I had all the exercise I could handle. Despite the urban setting, I crossed paths with at least a half a dozen egrets (small white herons). The remainder of the morning was focused on light reading before a briefing from a deputy minister on the relationship with China and an extended meeting with a legislator from the majority DPP party.Key insight of day two: While not every aspect of life in Taiwan is dominated by the relationship with the People’s Republic of China, every policy conversation will come around to the topic quickly. There is a shared history, common culture (at least until Mao pursued historical destruction through the Cultural Revolution), proximity, and overwhelm-ing political tension. The defining feature of the dominant political parties is their relative postures toward Beijing.A related and unsurprising observation from the day is how closely the Taiwanese are monitoring the volatile situation in Hong Kong. It led the local news, was on the front page of the newspaper, and was brought up in our meetings. Some made the assertion that the Hong Kong protests are putting much more pressure on the political leadership in Beijing than anyone in the West can see.That is encouraging. People standing up to defend their freedoms, even at great personal cost, is always inspiring, and a strong reminder of the freedoms we enjoy in America. It is also a reminder of how much we have to lose, and the importance of constant vigilance and advocacy for freedom. At CEI, it is a duty we take seriously. And as the example of the brave protesters in Hong Kong shows, the freedom to pursue it is something we should never take for granted.

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Publisher

Kent Lassman

Editor

Ivan Osorio

Associate Editor

Richard MorrisonThe CEI Planet is produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-market public interest group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government.

CEI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia and is classified by the IRS as a 501 (c)(3) charity. CEI relies upon contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals for its support. Articles may be reprinted provided they are attributed to CEI.

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CEI.ORG COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

 

It will be impossible to prune the bureaucracy once its seeds are spread to every state. And the new federal jobs in each state wouldn’t likely go to locals. One main criterion for a relocation site is “a low rate of educa-tion,” so expect a stream of college-educated professionals to move to the South and Midwest to claim the positions.The HIRE Act pays lip service to the ideal of cutting government by directing the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ascertain whether each agency slated for relocation “should be abolished or merged with another Executive agency, rather than being relocated.” But conservatives have been led up this road before. President Trump kicked off his presidency with an “executive branch restructuring” proj-ect to be overseen by the OMB. How many agencies did that eliminate?Republicans used to seethe when Democrats tried to move federal offices. In the early 1990s, House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich fumed that Sen. Robert Byrd’s campaign to transfer certain national intelligence facilities to West Virginia was a “pure abuse of power.”Now Sen. Blackburn cheerily says in a statement: “Federal jobs provide economic stability and encourage regional growth. When the FBI moved the Criminal Justice Information Services Center to Clarksburg, WV, the stable stream of revenue from those jobs boosted the local economy and helped it grow.”Sen. Hawley’s role in this cam-paign is particularly vexing. He has become a famous critic of Big Tech, but the federal bureaucracy is already vastly larger and more intrusive than the software companies he disparages and targets through legislation.Would legislators from the “lucky” chosen states ever have the gumption to slash funding from agencies that employ thousands of their constituents? The HIRE Act would remake large swaths of America in Washington’s image. The bill’s supposed decentral-ization would be anything but.A better bill to restructure the government would freeze hiring for federal jobs. Such an effort would cut agencies’ spending and streamline their functions. In contrast, the HIRE Act would create “Swamp 2.0”: just as deep and many times as wide.

Wayne Crews

(wayne.crews@cei.org)

 is Vice Presient for Policy at CEI. A version of this article was originally published in

The Wall Street Journal

.

The Swamp,

continued 

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Republicans are supposed to understand the unseen mechanics of redistribution, aware that taxpayer money paid to government employees in their states is taken from taxpayers nationwide.

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