Projecting Palmer: Oversight and Government Reform

Our AL06 Representative-elect Palmer requested and was assigned to three committees: Budget; Oversight & Government Reform; and Science, Space & Technology.

The Alabama Political Reporter reported on Palmer's statement about his committee assignments as follows:

Palmer said in his statement that throughout the campaign, he has emphasized the need to rein in the out-of-control federal regulatory bureaucracies. Palmer cited working to get the nation's fiscal house in order and the opportunities to advance technology as a key part of the economic needs of the 6th Congressional District. Palmer said that he believes that each of these committees will afford the opportunity to address these issues.

Representative-elect Palmer said that regulations cost the U.S. economy almost $1.9 trillion in 2013 which amounts to almost $15,000 per household. Palmer said, "This is an enormous hidden tax imposed on every American family. Our budget is more than an endless list of numbers, it demonstrates how our country is or is not properly governing itself. We need to offer the next generation a brighter future, therefore we must stop spending money we do not have, concentrate on job growth and expand economic interests.”

The foregoing can be taken in light of the mission statement of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which says:

We exist to secure two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent. And second, Americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. Our duty on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to protect these rights.
Our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers, because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government. We will work tirelessly, in partnership with citizen-watchdogs, to deliver the facts to the American people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy.

To my knowledge, Representative-elect Palmer has not answered my question of whether or not Congress is broke (see Just answer the question, Gary Palmer), but there is a suggestion he is at least saying the Washington DC governmental bureaucracy is not working properly and he wants to dedicate himself, as a member of Congress, to trying to make it work better for the American people.

Well, ok, if the Washington DC governmental bureaucracy is not working properly, the chief culprit for that state of affairs would have to be Congress, and Congress needs to be blamed, and Congress needs to report on this to the American people, including giving an explanation of why Congress has not done its job properly and what needs to be done about it.

I think  Rep.-elect Palmer is accurate in saying that "throughout the campaign, he has emphasized the need to rein in the out-of-control federal regulatory bureaucracies  ."

But what did Rep.-elect Palmer say in the campaign, and what does he say now, about why Congress has let the federal regulatory bureaucracies get out of control?

If he said anything about this in the campaign, it was that wrong headed Democrats are to blame for the federal regulatory bureaucracies being out of control, and the solution for the country was to elect more Republicans to Congress and vote Democrats out of Congress.

In the campaign, I was explicit and adamant that it was the entire political class in Washington DC, Republicans and Democrats alike, that was to blame for the federal regulatory bureaucracies being out of control.

In trying to make that case, I asked questions about what average Democrats, average Republicans and independents want. See, e.,g.,  AL.com questions and answers and the question discussed there which was was given to Rep. DeMarco about the EPA killing small business. Throughout the campaign, I tried to say that average Democrats, average Republicans and independents want the same things to a great extent.

Applying that to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee mission statement quoted above, the mission statement does not differentiate between Republicans and Democrats, and it refers to "Americans" having a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent, and "Americans" deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them.

So, the question goes back to Rep.-elect Palmer: Why don't Americans "know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent", and why don't Americans have " an efficient, effective government that works for them"?

I will continue this discussion in a separate entry which will take as an instructive and illustative matter that the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform took up in July set out in this House staff report: ObamaCare’s Taxpayer Bailout of Health Insurers and the White House’s Involvement to Increase Bailout Size

[Update: See continued discussion at Unworthy OGR oversight of health insurers' bailout.]