Grand Rapids, MI -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/26/2013 -- Financial advisor Dennis Tubbergen can usually be found helping his own clients. When he has a few free minutes he is busy writing his daily blog, his weekly newsletter Moving Markets or interviewing his next guest expert for his weekly radio show.

Tubbergen's next guest is Jeffrey Albert Tucker, the executive editor of Laissez Faire Books. Tucker is past editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and past editor for the Institute's website, Mises.org.

Tucker is also an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and a faculty member at Acton University. He is the author of It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes and Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Status Quo.

Tubbergen, who is an author, radio show host, and CEO of PLP Advisors, LLC, spends a lot of time giving his opinions on the economy in his online financial blog. On March 19, 2013 his blog was titled U.S. Senate May Privatize in Drastic Cost Cutting Move?

"Wow, things in Washington, D.C. must be getting tough," began Tubbergen. "Evidently, budgets are getting so tight that senators may lose their taxpayer-subsidized barbershop and be forced to get haircuts the same way that their constitutents do. I'm not making this up!"

Tubbergen quotes below from an article that ran March 15, 2013 in The Weekly Standard.

The barbershop of the U.S. Senate has run deficits of approximately $350,000 a year for each of the last 15 years. So Senate sergeant-at-arms Terry Gainer has decided to try out a new model, one that has looked rather unfashionable during the Obama era: privatization.

Gainer has tried to trim Senate Hair Care Services for the past few years. Now the political climate troubling everyone else on Capitol Hill is allowing him to move faster than he anticipated towards privatizing it completely.

"I've accelerated my goal to get there through leveraging sequestration," Gainer explains. "The only real way we're going to change this thing around without pricing ourselves out of the market is by reducing the number of fulltime employees."

The sequestration's required spending cuts provide convenient cover. Gainer is offering early retirement to all eligible employees, hoping to replace them with independent contractors. Four employees have already accepted the offer, and they plan to retire in the next 60 days. Gainer likens these "buyouts" to those that corporations often make. He has no timeline for complete privatization, but is determined to see it through.

If previous efforts to end taxpayer funding of the Senate barbershop are any guide, it will take much longer than one might expect. According to a report from the Office of the Sergeant at Arms, Senator Paul Douglas (D-Ill.) spoke out against the federally funded barbershop back in 1951, suggesting that taxpayers need not pick up the tab for their legislators' haircuts. Arizona Seantor Carl Hayden quickly rejected Douglas's efforts, arguing that the barbershop was an important institution passed down from the great statesmen who came before them.

"Prior to reading this article, I had no idea that a taxpayer-subsidized barbershop existed for U.S. senators," explained Tubbergen. "The article points out that U.S. taxpayers have shelled out more than $5.25 million to keep the barbershop operating over the past 15 years!"

According to Tubbergen, the House of Representatives privatized its barbershop in 1995. Prior to that time, the House Barbershop was losing $50,000 a year.

"Does it strike anyone else as ridiculous that both the House and the Senate need their own barbershops?" asked Tubbergen. "Does it strike anyone else as ridiculous that keeping a barbershop open for the Senate to provide senators and their staff members $20 haircuts at a cost of $350,000 per year is even dumber?"

To read the blog in its entirety go to http://www.dennistubbergen.com and select his March 19, 2013 entry.

Tubbergen’s syndicated radio show can be heard on metro Michigan stations WTKG 1230 AM and WOOD Newsradio1300 AM and 106.9 FM.

About Dennis Tubbergen
Dennis Tubbergen has been in the financial industry for over 25 years and has his corporate offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tubbergen is CEO of PLP Advisors, LLC and has an online blog that can be read at www.dennistubbergen.com. To view Tubbergen’s latest Moving Markets? newsletter, go to www.moving-markets.com.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the writer and not necessarily those of USA Wealth Management, LLC. This update may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements as to future events that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those that were forecasted. Therefore, no forecast should be construed as a guarantee. Prior to making any investment decision, individuals should consult a professional to determine the risks, costs, benefits and fees associated with a particular investment. Information obtained from third party resources is believed to be reliable but the accuracy cannot be guaranteed.