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Biology really is destiny

By Marta Mossburg | 24 April 2012
First Published in The Baltimore Sun

We live in fascinating times. On the one hand, it is OK to detail the most intimate aspects of a woman's reproductive health in congressional testimony and to demand "free" birth control pills from employers and/or the government. It is also OK to label those who object to such public displays of personal choice and state-sponsored free love as leading a "war on women."

On the other hand, it is also OK for those who hew to the same ideology as that above to condemn a woman who chooses to raise her children for a living as someone who "never worked a day in her life."

Is this what the fight for equality has morphed into — the right to eliminate the repercussions of biology on someone else's dime and mock those who choose (what once was not a choice) to raise children?

It is as if being a fully realized woman in today's society hinges on the ability to have sex without consequences and children with outsourced child care — and as if our wombs are a mere accident of evolution, with no valid claims on our identity or life choices.

This lie is easy enough to believe prior to children and when you are not pregnant and the possibility of being so is just theory. Perhaps that is why it was so easy for Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke to go before Congress and discuss her and her friends' reproductive lives as if she were arguing the merits of arugula over tater tots in school lunches.

But as a mother who just gave birth to her third child, biology's pull on my personhood is tangible and dictates most parts of my life. For starters, I am exhausted all of the time. I'd love to take naps, but our boys and dogs need exercise and have no concept of personal space or deadlines, and our baby girl needs constant care. And then there is the reaction I elicited from those outside my family up until the Sunday before last: I was not a person, but a pregnant woman. Doors were opened, chairs pulled out, glasses of water brought without asking wherever I went. I appreciated those gestures and accepted them as a privilege in that stage of my life. I also very much appreciate the love and care our nanny gives to our children, and I could not work without her. But it will be a long time before my children are not omnipresent in my thoughts and in my handbag in the form of diapers, snacks, pacifiers and toy cars.

The odd thing is that even for those of us who believe that biology dictates destiny in no small part, and that raising children full-time is a valid life choice, it is still awkward to ask a new acquaintance if she "works outside the home." I would never ask a man that question. And why it should be embarrassing to ask a woman is still a partial mystery to me. I've asked a broad spectrum of friends with different political views how they feel about that issue to gauge whether I was alone in thinking that, and they all said they felt the same way — and didn't know why.

I think it is in part the result of a long acculturation process for those of us who grew up in middle-class homes where college was a given and success defined by the amount of money earned — most often by the father. Whereas men rarely have to make the choice between parenting and working, women do all the time, creating a state of constant cognitive dissonance where one's true desires (either to stay at home or to work full time outside the home) are in conflict with societal or familial expectations and the vision you had for your life as a younger woman.

Legislating free birth control doesn't eliminate this conflict. Neither does making fun of women who raise children full time, as Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen did of Ann Romney recently with her "never worked a day in her life" quip on CNN.

What they do is to try to artificially create clarity where none exists. That is a regular, exceedingly common response to uncertainty — as Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman writes in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" — but can lead to bad decisions.

That such tyrannical pronouncements about the proper role for women so often come from women is one of the ironies of our times.

Marta H. Mossburg is a fellow at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Her column appears regularly in The Baltimore Sun. Her email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Debate over women's work ignores the complications of child-rearing and the maternal instinct

'Doomsday,' 'balance' and truth

By Marta Mossburg | 11 April 2012
First Published in The Frederick News Post

As Daniel Kahneman writes in his intriguing 2011 book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow," people like easy answers. We also think more favorably about items and ideas based on the number of times they are repeated, with more mentions translating to a higher opinion. Facts, in other words, often play a minor supporting role in our decision-making process.

Because of those natural tendencies, rhetoric -- and the ability to get the media to pick up a particular phrase and repeat it -- plays a huge role in why certain ideas and policies win and others fail.

Democrats in Maryland implicitly understand this and are great at delivering phrases that reverberate for weeks and sometimes months and years. Think Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's use of "doomsday" to describe a state budget balanced without tax increases. Google "Mike Miller 'doomsday' Maryland" and 677,000 responses pop up. (Remember, he introduced that description only about a month ago.) And think of Gov. Martin O'Malley's use of the word "balance" in almost every speech to describe his approach to taxes, the environment and other issues. A Google search of "O'Malley 'balance' Maryland" retrieves 1.75 million responses.

Can you think of a significant state Republican catchphrase? They often say, "It's a spending problem, not a revenue problem." Google "'spending problem, not a revenue problem' Maryland" and it garners 26,800 responses. This makes sense. A sentence is harder to quote than a word or a short phrase. Combined with the fact that Republicans often repeat Democrats' descriptions, the net effect is that they unwittingly validate their opponents' arguments.

Facts are on Republicans' side. According to newly released census data, tax collections in Maryland in the fourth quarter of 2011 are up 53 percent since the same time period in 2000. Nationally, tax collections are up 43 percent in the same time period. So, both here in Maryland and throughout the U.S., state governments are raking in money despite a massive recession. The problem is that in Maryland and many other states legislators repeatedly choose to spend more than the taxes collected.

Republicans love to dismiss the "liberal media" as the reason this message does not get out. Ironically, however, everyone seems to believe that description of journalists -- in part because numerous reports show reporters lean left. But I wonder if it doesn't have to do more with the fact that the phrase is easy to repeat and has been used millions of times in the press and in everyday conversations -- and as a result, has become true in people's minds irrespective of the studies behind it and whether it makes sense in a particular situation.

If the minority party -- and conservatives in general -- ever hope to change hearts and minds in this state, they need to stop blaming outside forces and rethink how to package their ideas as much as about the ideas themselves. Only then will a fiscally prudent world view have a chance of being heard.

Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. She lives in Baltimore. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Questions Aplenty For DHCD Deal

By Marta Mossburg | 02 December 2011
First Published in The Daily Record

The stink emanating from the planned move of the Department of Housing and Community Development from Anne Arundel County to Prince George’s County rivals rot exposed from corruption trials this year of politicians from the agency’s future home.
Financial concerns are one component of the stench. Abandoning the agency’s current headquarters — owned by taxpayers — in Crownsville for a new $170 million development in New Carrollton will cost about $3 million per year in rent, not counting any state financing for the developer. Even more important, the state is broke and legislators likely will raise taxes next year to cover core expenses.

But money and economics are not the only issues.

A fox is guarding the henhouse at the SEC

23 November 2009
First Published in The Washington Examiner

Not everyone opposes giving government sweeping new powers like those being considered over health care and the finance industry. But everyone should care that those in power are competent, apply the law fairly and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards.

Much evidence points to the fact that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro does not meet those standards.

Arrogance in Annapolis

By Marta Mossburg | 21 March 2012
First Published in The Frederick News Post

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller laments the fact that legislators will likely reject higher gas taxes this session.

"We're one of the wealthiest states in the union and we can certainly afford a gas tax -- if it is feasible. Right now, it does not appear to be feasible, but at some point in time in the near future it's going to have to be feasible so we can move our state forward," he said.

Miller blames high gasoline prices for stalling legislative action and hopes they will go down by fall to make it possible to raise taxes in a special session.

Let's leave aside what he can and can't do this spring for a moment and focus on his first statement.

Maryland may have one of the highest percentages of millionaires in the nation, but outside of Montgomery, Howard and a few pockets in other counties, people here are not rich.

Thirteen of Maryland's 24 jurisdictions have median household incomes way below the state's $70,647. A sampling: Allegany County: $37,747; Garrett County: $45,760; Dorchester County: $45,151; Kent County: $50,141; Somerset County: $42,443; and Baltimore: $39,386.

Those incomes leave families with nothing left over at the end of the month after paying for the basics in a state with one of the highest costs of living. And a growing number of people in the state have even less. Poverty in Maryland is at its highest rate in about 20 years at 10.8 percent, according to the most recent Census data. And in Baltimore, about 25 percent of people live in poverty.

Should people who fall into these income groups be asked to make yet another "shared sacrifice" come fall despite a complete lack of fiscal restraint in Annapolis that has pushed the budget to new highs regardless of state income?

What is worse is that the gas tax would follow increases in a range of taxes likely to pass this legislative session hitting rich and poor alike, including those on income and water use. The other issue is that more than half of transportation dollars in the state flow to mass transit, which only a minuscule fraction of people use. So, those who can barely afford the gas they need to go to work will be asked to pay more to subsidize transportation they will never use. How is that fair?

Legislators could have resolved transportation funding years ago by spending money raised through the gas tax only on roads instead of siphoning it to pay for transit projects and to plug holes in the general fund.

We face a transportation funding problem because of legislators' abusing the public trust, not because of a lack of money. To then justify raising the gas tax under the lie that Marylanders are rich shows how out of touch and arrogant Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has become after decades in office.

Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. She lives in Baltimore. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller laments the fact that legislators will likely reject higher gas taxes this session.

"We're one of the wealthiest states in the union and we can certainly afford a gas tax -- if it is feasible. Right now, it does not appear to be feasible, but at some point in time in the near future it's going to have to be feasible so we can move our state forward," he said.

O’Malley’s March to Washington

By Marta Mossburg | 23 January 2012
First Published in The National Review

The late, great Baltimore radio-talk-show host Ron Smith used to call him Father O’Malley and play religious music on air by way of introduction.

It is an apt description of Maryland governor and former Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley, who moonlights as the buff frontman for the rock band O’Malley’s March, who speaks and writes in reverent tones about everything from septic systems to slot machines, from reducing crime in Baltimore to gay marriage.

Worshippers Looking for a Prophet

By Marta Mossburg | 23 July 2010
First Published in The Wall Street Journal

For members of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court is not just a matter of law or politics. It is a spiritual imperative for the disillusioned Obama acolytes suffering from post-election politician syndrome.

They need a replacement for the "deep cynicism" decimating the hope Barack Obama generated in supporters prior to the 2008 presidential election, according to one of Berkeley-based NSP's three leaders, Rabbi Michael Lerner.

The pacifists for open borders, with a penchant for emitting 'sacred hollers' in a group setting, are culled mainly from liberal Protestant and Jewish congregations. Members are not required to have any particular religious beliefs. What adherents are asked to do is "to take time out each day to look at this incredible universe, say: Wow! Fantastic! Amazing!"—and chart their path to heaven through politics.

One of NSP's most sacred causes is the Global Marshall Plan. Introduced in Congress this year, the resolution is styled as "a commitment to peace, social justice and the ecological sanity of our planet."

Spiritual Progressives could be dismissed as yet another consortium of disgruntled ex-hippies, if it weren't for the fact that their leaders do not inhabit the current fringe. Mr. Lerner was a former health-care adviser to Hillary Clinton and edits a magazine, Tikkun, which President Barack Obama used to read in his community-organizing days.

Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat representing Minnesota's 5th district, and Heather Booth, a community organizer and force behind ACORN, are prominent members. Ms. Booth led the AFL-CIO's health-care campaign in 2008 and was training director of the Democratic National Committee.

They and the 400 or so attendees at a June NSP Washington Strategy Development Conference for Liberals and Progressives (many wearing Birkenstocks with socks, elastic-waist pants and No-Nuke T-shirts) rallied to the refrain that they were done waiting for politicians to save them and would work to transform the law instead. Their goal: Convert the U.S. legal system to one based on empathy—for each person, depending on their circumstances—from one based on a rule of law that values equal protection for all. In this brave new world, Judge Kagan is to be their Beatrice.

Gary Peller, a Constitutional law professor at Georgetown University who spoke at the conference, set a tone with his denunciation of neutrality before the law as a "sham ideology." To prove his point, Mr. Peller cited a 1977 Supreme Court case that ultimately allowed Nazis the right to march in Skokie, Ill., home to many Jews.

"There can't be free speech for everyone if you have taken away the right of Holocaust survivors to come out that day…unless you think it must come at the cost of severe emotional distress." For that reason, he said, any just legal system must look at the effect of law on people.

Also at the conference was Peter Gabel, a long-time law professor at the now-defunct New College of California School of Law. He decried what he described as a legal system where a good friend could be dissuaded from applying to law school because she could not master the logic questions on the LSAT. Our legal system, he said, should "emphasize not merely winning and losing," but a "moral resolution of a conflict, that produces recognition and connection."

Such are the reasons why Spiritual Progressives support Ms. Kagan as a Supreme Court Justice. Along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, Mr. Gabel told conference-goers, she "will stand up for the human concern." It's all about, "Putting your heart into it—that's the way to exert pressure on the court," he added. The reason: "You will never out-argue [Justice Antonin] Scalia."

Mr. Gabel's matter-of-fact-delivery gave no hint that he saw the irony in promoting a Supreme Court justice because she will use her heart rather than her head—using the same reason men argued that women should not be able to vote at the turn of the last century.

Whether their hope in Ms. Kagan is justified has yet to be proven. The former Harvard Law dean gave vague answers to questions in her Senate confirmation hearings and has virtually no record of jurisprudence to analyze. If anything, her silence about her political views, about previous Supreme Court decisions and about the culture of the current court, with a vagueness of the sort she argued against in a law-review article, reveals the capability for situational ethics so hated in Mr. Obama by progressives.

Yet there is a long list of justices leaving a trail of disappointing decisions to onetime backers, including the man Ms. Kagan would replace, Justice John Paul Stevens. The Gerald Ford-appointee supported affirmative action, abortion rights and a strong federal government at the expense of states' rights.

That means that NSP supporters may have to look elsewhere for inspiration in a year or two if Ms. Kagan is confirmed as expected.

As the Rev. Raymond Bell, senior pastor of First Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church in Washington, and one of the few African Americans who attended the conference, said, "We've always hoped that the government would do something. … We're used to our hopes not being fulfilled. We're not new in this game. Maybe it's new to white people."

General Assembly elevates the trivial, neglects pension reform

By Marta Mossburg | 10 April 2012
First Published in The Baltimore Sun

Marta Mossburg writes that much more needs to be done to make Maryland's retirement system solvent

State legislators often prioritize important legislation the way kindergartners rank vegetables among the food groups.

They focus on media-friendly social legislation instead of structural reform requiring time and effort to understand and craft. Why, for example, did they pass gay marriage and a law regulating how long a child must face rearward in a car seat but not figure out the budget until the absolute last minute? And why didn't they spend time this year on how to pay the pensions of the 373,000 people in the state retirement system?

A big part of the problem is that very few of those in each chamber have owned a business — or more basically, understand math — as evidenced by budgets that continually outpace state revenue. It is a major problem that keeps getting worse, with tax policy looking each year more like an escalating game of Whac-A-Mole.

Electing representatives with more apt job experience is necessary but does not eliminate the need to address pressing financial issues like the management of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. A few get it. Del. Andrew Serafini, a Washington County Republican, is one of them. Mr. Serafini, a financial adviser, knows that if the pension system does not achieve the returns it sets for itself, taxpayers will be on the hook for shortfalls. Paying for those will make this year's alleged "doomsday" budget look like a lavish Vegas buffet for social programs and state agencies.

And we have a lot to worry about. For years, legislators have been underfunding the pension system and relying on rates of return that 401(k) holders and the state's own books show to be delusional. Barring needed reforms, properly funding the pension system would require new tax brackets for everyone — not just millionaires — in Maryland, as the system is less than 65 percent funded.

There are some bright spots. Reform passed last year requires state employees to work longer and contribute more for their benefits, a step legislatures around the country are taking to ensure the solvency of their state plans.

But a lot more needs to be done to make the system solvent for the long run. A method of funding retiree benefits that makes it legal to shortchange the system must be terminated.

Mr. Serafini pinpoints another issue ripe for change: investment management. He proposed outsourcing the duties of the chief investment officer (CIO) to a consultant. It makes sense. As he said, "Clearly, we don't have the skill set to manage some of these complex and intricate strategies. Our pay system is not consistent with the industry. It may be consistent with other states, but it means that we always will be the farm system for the big leagues or the place for those that cannot make it to the big leagues." The state's former CIO, Mansco Perry III, is a case in point. Under his leadership, the fund lost billions while he earned "performance" and "effectiveness" bonuses.

On top of that, the pension board is mainly filled with career bureaucrats and union officials with limited financial expertise, making it very unlikely they have the ability to really question pension allocation strategies, particular investments and fees. It shows. Maryland's performance is in the middle of the pack in relation to its peers and trailed overall markets. For example, over the past 10 years, Jeff Hooke of the Maryland Tax Education Foundation has shown, the state's investment performance lags its peers by about 1 percent annually, which translates to $3 billion in lost revenue over that period at the state's $37 billion fund. The state's performance is also significantly lower than large mutual funds, including the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund and the John Hancock Strategic Income Fund.

Mr. Hooke, an investment banker, recommends indexing the portfolio to save money on Wall Street fees, ($1.5 billion over 10 years) and to guarantee an average investment return. But the real issue is performance.

State employees and retirees, who are banking on a steady stream of income in their later years, and taxpayers, who are responsible for their benefits, deserve a real debate about the best way to manage the money important to millions of lives. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue but a generational one. Our children shouldn't pay for false promises of today's politicians.

Marta H. Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute and a fellow at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Her column appears regularly in The Baltimore Sun. Her email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Marta Mossburg writes that much more needs to be done to make Maryland's retirement system solvent

State legislators often prioritize important legislation the way kindergartners rank vegetables among the food groups.

ACORN lawsuit may be legal nightmare for filmmakers, distributor

02 October 2009
First Published in The Washington Examiner

ACORN's disrespect for the law is clear. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles showed why in their series of undercover films. The videos document how employees of the community organizer in offices across the country were willing to help the pair, dressed as a pimp and prostitute, import underage girls from El Salvador for a brothel and subvert tax laws.

Biology really is destiny

'Doomsday,' 'balance' and truth

Questions Aplenty For DHCD Deal

A fox is guarding the henhouse at the SEC

Arrogance in Annapolis

O’Malley’s March to Washington

Worshippers Looking for a Prophet

General Assembly elevates the trivial, neglects pension reform

ACORN lawsuit may be legal nightmare for filmmakers, distributor

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