A Honey of a Problem That Congress Can’t Solve

Foreign honey producers, read this China, are threatening the domestic US honey producers. The honey industry claims that China is dumping honey into the US market. The industry convinced Congress that China was dumping honey on us and decided to extricate the US from this threat by imposing a tariff on Chinese honey imports. So a decade ago the tariffs went into effect and “Ta-Da” the problem was solved. Well, not really solved but resolved in the manner that Congress usually fixes things. The problem moved and the threat remains. China and other exporting opportunists just routed the honey via other countries and sent it to America through these backdoor routes. But not to worry, Congress and government agencies supported US honey industry representatives to extend restrictions to nations engaging in this deception. Of course where there is money to be made there is a way; and China adapts to regain their revenues.

So the back and forth of block and evade continues with Congress’ supportive ineptitude in full swing.

But why doesn’t Congress take a different, an innovative, an effective, and an intelligent approach to dealing with this problem?

Is it because there is no better way to deal with the dumping problem? No, their effort to continue to react and improve their monitoring and curtailment of dumping is an implicit admission that they already believe there is a more effective way to stop the honey. So why then don’t our big, bold representatives shelve the century old approach for something that would not only solve the problem, but would provide an unassailable preventative method for Chinese or any countries’ dumping? The reason is simple, there is no one in Congress that can think outside the box (or perhaps even think inside the box).

What we have here ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbor, fellow citizens is the phenomenon of ‘elected intelligence’: the presumption by our representatives that because they won their respective election that that win was evidence and assurance that they were adequately intelligent to deal with any issue. Some even come to believe that they are more intelligent than anyone else. I think we can all agree that they are simply just more intelligent than their constituency, which apparently is no strong recommendation for solving national issues.

If Congress really wanted to solve the problem rather than secure some contributions from special interest groups they would seek out someone who could show them how to deal with the problem instead of just dealing with the symptoms. They will still be faced with the test of intelligence problem, to recognize a better solution they have to be smart enough to recognize a better solution when it’s given to them. Their current endeavors do not promote much confidence in their ability to do even this.

Perhaps they could pay China to have someone over there tell them how to solve the problem. Although I am not sure anyone in China has seen the solution, since they should have proffered it already if they had.