“Cuz that’s where the money is.” Such was the response when
Willy Sutton, the scrupulously honest bank robber of the 1920-30’s, was asked
why he robbed banks.
Before the reader draws the usual aphorism from his holster
– “honesty is the best policy” – he should be advised that Willie denied having
said the quip for which he is most famous. He robbed banks, Mr. Sutton said,
because it was exhilarating: “I was more alive when I was inside a bank,
robbing it, than at any other time in my life!”
It turns out that the most famous line in bank robbing
history was inserted into an after-interview story by a reporter who thought
the quip would be good copy. He was right. Reporters In those days took such
liberties – not like today. It is true, however, that Willie gave his name to a
law, Sutton’s Law, which holds that in diagnosing crime, one should always
consider the obvious.
Now then, what has Willie Sutton and bank robbery to do with
politics? Oh… lots and lots …
Politicians are most alive when they are doing politics.
Many years ago, a reporter who slid from journalism into politics, a common
occurrence, was asked why she enjoyed the obvious stress so much. Said she,
“Politics is better than sex.” Delicacy and good manners forbids mention of the
lady’s name -- this is, after all, a political column and not a public brawl
between Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz for the Republican Party
nomination for President -- but I could not help thinking at the time, “What’s her
sex life like?”
In politics, and sometimes in reporting, copy is goosed
because goosing sells. Proof is everywhere, but most spectacularly these days
in the utterances of Mr. Trump who, evidently, intends to goose his way into
the White House. Once there, no one – not
even “The Donald,” who is not your Daddy’s conservative and may not even be
your Daddy’s Republican – knows precisely
what he will do to “Make America Great Again.” No doubt he will have fun doing
it because politics, when practiced rightly, is better than sex. So we’ve been
told.
Will there be new taxes – the pols prefer to call them
“revenue enhancers” or “budget investments” – in Governor Dannel Malloy’s
no-tax budget? There will indeed: How is it possible to add $100 billion to the
budget over a thirty year period, the price of Mr. Malloy’s infrastructure
repair program, without raising taxes? And will these taxes be levied on Connecticut’s vanishing millionaires,
who presently contribute about 40 percent of the state’s income tax revenue? Mr.
Malloy, swooning, says – No, no, no. He is now attempting to convince
progressives in Connecticut’s Democrat dominated General Assembly that we do
not want Connecticut’s herd of Gold Coast hedge fund millionaires to bolt to
Boston. Then too, taxes levied on financial operations are notoriously uneven,
up one fiscal year, down the next. Past best-practice has shown that
revenue-hungry politicians who want a reliable stream of financing tend to
prefer broad-based taxes or, as they are sometimes called, middle class taxes.
Now that elections are just around the corner, the blame
game will be in full flower. Republicans, routed from the budget negotiating
table by Mr. Malloy and his cohort in the General Assembly, will be arguing
that Democrats are wholly responsible for Connecticut’s downward plunge and
perpetual red ink. Having arrived at a fork in the road, Democrats had taken
the easy low-road by refusing to confront real spending drivers such as union
contracts and bloated state employee benefit packages. Moreover, Mr. Malloy,
who repeatedly has vowed not to impose further taxes upon Connecticut's middle
class big government “investors,” simply is no longer trustworthy. His Damascus Road experience is a welcome sign of repentance, but there is no reason, if past practice is a
guide in such matters, to regard repentance as a token of changed behavior.
However much Mr. Malloy – and, to a lesser degree President Pro Tem of the Senate Martin Looney and Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey -- may show they have gotten religion, the likelihood is they will return to
their ruinous ways once state elections have been tucked into bed.
For their part, Democrats will be blaming Republicans for
having refused honestly to confront serious problems, increasingly a
thread-bare argument.
Across the state, the general public is in a
throw-the-bums-out mood, which is why out-of-the-box politicians like Mr. Trump
are doing so well on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump’s programs may be thin
gruel, but his attack on do-nothing incumbent so called “establishment” Republicans
and the near suicidal policies of progressive Democrats strike the heart’s
bells. Here in Connecticut as well, the overburdened middle class and the lower
class, immured for years in debilitating welfare coffins, are dangerously
restive. And Sutton’s law – always consider the obvious – is also a practical
rule in determining the drift of voting preferences.
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