This takes just a minute to read. It is a short essay by Charlie Reese a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper. It is quite a message to think about as we head to the voting booths this year. 545 People by Charlie Reese Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, The Federal Reserve Bank does. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of 300+ million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300+ million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way. There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
Agreed! Problem is, we voters(the bosses), have a problem. When one employee is as bad as the next, our vote really doesn't mean much in the overall scheme of things. The entire system needs to be revamped and there is no painless way to do that.
Great article. If the combined social effect , the net cost of bad law were actually common knowledge, you would think something would change-i can only guess, that people just don't care, just to ignorant and are happy to be ripped off, have livelihoods and business's destroyed because of a committee of untouchable officials trotting out the same old shit that didn't work last time. Crime problem? =increase sentences. If prison itself is a deterrent, why are the jails always full? Pollution, health care, transport, anything?=increase tax, to "tackle" the issue. Governments worldwide seem to believe, that effectively punishing its citizens for things largely caused by the sheer gutlessness of officials, pandering to the lowest common denominator via sound bite obfuscation are slowly and surely digging there own graves, and dragging there countries down with them.
What is amazing is that we keep trying. Imo, we can be experts in two areas simultantenously. You can be an expert in your own area of responsibility and the area of gov't (pick any two, doesn't matter). While one may be an expert on environment and gov't and are rational in their own terms the results may be detrimental for business. Point being the sum is chaos.
Excellent Commentary, Gnome .......................................................................................................... Gnome offered....... This takes just a minute to read. It is a short essay by Charlie Reese a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper. It is quite a message to think about as we head to the voting booths this year. 545 People by Charlie Reese Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, The Federal Reserve Bank does. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of 300+ million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300+ million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way. There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. ................................................................................................ So the question is....how to resolve the problem.... As I have mentioned before.....The 300 million people will only take control when the current system is eliminated and substituted by another..... So the question becomes .....to what other system ... The other system should be one that... Creates and accomplishes true objectives set by the population.... Elections are no longer necessary, because they serve no purpose.....Elections are just advertising games.....and making the 300 million feel like they are in a Democracy.... The most qualified people for the jobs get the jobs... Tax money is the name of the game......The IRS has to be eliminated and replaced by a national sales tax.... The sales tax is then divided in proportion to the revenues on a state by state basis..... Each state becomes an internet government center for its own cities and towns..... For the national items such as the military....each state contributes prorata.... Internet Government State by State.... The time has come.....
All of these posts make excellent points. But to me, the key is MONEY. Money drives the entire political machine. It's not the best candidate that gets elected.....it's the one with the most money to spend! That then affects the entire system. Did anyone notice that back in January during the primaries, that the press was not very interested in what the candidates were saying, but were more interested in how much money they were able to raise! Those were their headlines. Money wins elections. That's where special interests, lobbyists and campaign contributions come in. Once elected, all contributors must be considered.......especially if you want to get elected again. A good candidate with $10 million will most likely lose to a poor candidate with $50 million to spend. Some candidates don't even have to raise that money......they just write a check from their own account. That's unfortunate. I doubt that's what our forefathers had in mind back in 1776.
I would add - its not just domestic crisis engineered by Congress. The Executive and Intelligence arms have a long history of funding, shepherding and hyping foreign Boogie Men to scare up Wars and Conflict. Our foreign policy is largely dictated by the Military-Industrial-Financial interests that own Big Media and Congress. Everything is one gigantic wealth and power transfer scheme. Every "crisis" - foreign or domestic - is meant to transfer wealth and power from the Taxpayer, to Government and their Special Interest Whores to "combat" the false threats they lobby or scheme into existence. War on Crime. War on Poverty. War on Drugs. War on Terror. Gun Violence. Social Security. Socialized Health Care. Global Warming. Avian Flu. West Nile Virus. INCOME TAX. The Housing Crisis. Banking Crisis. White "Al Queda". All exaggerated threats hyped to ridiculous proportions to herd taxpayer wealth and power into Government and Corporate hands. The Defrauding of America. Sold down the river... This is a very old game and something thats been around for Millennia. People are waking up, but it might be too late. We're definitely in the 11th hour. If we're lucky, America has 4 years (max) before another major "Event" goes "under the radar". Every person on this thread will get to witness Martial Law in America, first hand...