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Boredom at Commerce

(Page 3 of 3)

Surprisingly, for an administration that views American society through the neo-Marxist prism of race, sex, and class, the White House has not played up Locke's Chinese ancestry in any significant or patronizing way as liberals often do. In fact, President Obama has emphasized the role that Locke, a free trader, played in promoting trade with Asia, Mexico, and Europe. The administration said that Locke's trade missions abroad as Washington governor helped to more than double the state's exports to China to more than $5 billion annually.

The White House also credits Locke with personally negotiating a Washington State-Canada treaty after negotiations between the U.S. State Department and Canada on protecting wild salmon runs collapsed.

Still awake? Let's keep going then.

He's somewhat liberal, but not in an in-your-face way, and has a mixed record on taxes. He has supported some tax increases but showed some cojones by defying the left and not backing tax hikes during the economic slowdown in 2001 and daring to cut spending on some programs.

As governor, some observers credit him with increasing the efficiency of state agencies, reducing welfare rolls, and boosting public education. While he was governor, Governing magazine ranked Washington among the four best-managed states in the nation.

I witnessed Locke in action in 1999 and 2000 while he served on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce (ACEC) chaired by then-Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, and somehow managed to stay awake.

I saw in person that when it really matters, Locke can be counted on to toe the liberal line. Even after the compelling anti-tax presentation by Competitive Enterprise Institute founder Fred L. Smith Jr., Locke was not swayed.

Locke voted for higher taxes. He voted against a recommendation to Congress, approved 10 to 8, to repeal the 3% federal excise tax on telecommunications services, to permanently prohibit states and localities from taxing Internet access fees, and to extend the Internet taxation moratorium.

But unlike then-Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk (now U.S. Trade Representative), who as an ACEC member shamelessly pushed the Big Government agenda, the soporific Locke wasn't obnoxious about it. People barely knew he was there.

Now that the Obama White House has backed away from its ill-considered threat to seize control of the Census, a cynic might say it's not like it really matters who runs Commerce.

Except perhaps for its economic statistics-gathering agency and the fact that it oversees the Census Bureau and some foreign exports, it's not like the Department of Commerce, with its cavernous headquarters at 14th Street and Constitution, actually does anything useful.

Here's a simple illustration of just how unimportant the department is in the federal scheme of things.

Commerce would get $13.8 billion in the Obama administration's proposed 2010 budget. That's a rounding error in the $3.6 trillion-plus federal budget – which is, of course, over and above all the trillions of dollars already committed to bailouts. The Commerce appropriation is less than 0.4% of the U.S. government's total proposed budget. In case you missed that, that's four-tenths of 1%.

Another measure of the job's importance in the eyes of the Obama administration: as of early this morning, the White House website's scoreboard of nominations didn't even list Locke as the Commerce nominee.

Page:   1 23

Letter to the Editor

Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy.

Comments

Robert Rosencrans| 3.25.09 @ 6:25AM

Operational Rule 17 in Washington: If you can't find a tax cheat, someone about to be indicted or people with low standards, find someone boring to take the public's mind off the fact you really don't know what you are doing.

Pingback| 3.25.09 @ 7:52AM

Boredom at Commerce - Spectator.org-Local Area Search links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Locke was confirmed by voice vote in the Senate Tuesday. The fact that the former governor of Washington state is boring might be the … Read more of this article click here –> census - Live Search News This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 5:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or

Bill Bailey| 3.25.09 @ 9:24AM

Is Locke a liberal wolf in sheep's clothing?

Dustoff| 3.25.09 @ 10:41AM

Locke.

Didn't do zip in WA state. Boeing HQ left for another city because of his in-actions.

Raoul Ortega| 3.25.09 @ 10:52AM

Actually, Boeing left the Upper Left Washington because Locke & co had the attitude that their HQ was stuck in Seattle and any talk of moving were just idle threats. Oops.

Melvin| 3.25.09 @ 11:08AM

Being a former resident of the Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon used to be nice place to live.
But thanks to Bill Gates choosing Washington for the Microsoft Operation every Left Wing nut-job, fruitcake, environmental terrorist, anarchist, sexual deviant, pervert, and freaks who openly participate in bestiality have ruined what was a pretty good place to live.
I try to keep tabs on the old home place because I still have family there, and they told me that one, Left Wing genius suggested putting diapers with carbon activated filters to put on livestock and wild animals such as bears, deer, and elk to cut down on flatulence.
The first I would do is stand beside this genius and give him the diaper and tell him, "You go put the diaper on Mr. Bear.
Come to think of it, that wouldn't be such a bad idea because Lefties are like Lemmings because they would line up like sheep volunteering to put diapers on bears. At least the bears would have no shortage of fresh meat.

Dustoff| 3.25.09 @ 12:18PM

Melvin

What part of WA.
I live in a small town called Mukilteo.

B. L. Bloom| 3.25.09 @ 11:33PM

I am already bored with Locke.

Pingback| 4.13.09 @ 7:20AM

Statistical Voodoo Practitioner Tapped for Census Post « NewsReal Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…troubling selection that contradicts the administration’s assurances that the census process would not be used to advance an ulterior political agenda.” During his confirmation hearing, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke testified that “It is my understanding that there are no plans to use any type of statistical sampling with respect to population count.” Perhaps Locke was telling the truth. Maybe the Obama…

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