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Posted on 10/09/2008 8:10:27 PM PDT by surfer
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 the 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 can not 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.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
With the lowest congressional rating in history it is too bad that we can't force all members of the Senate and House to be up for re-election - we could sweep them out and kick them to the curb.
Let's take our country back - we have been hi-jacked by the far left loon squad!
Good read!
kick ‘em all out ping
excellent post! thanks!
Reese has always made good sense when discussing domestic politics. Hopefully you will not be badly flamed for posting his article - he may not even be known by people not following syndicated columnists for more than a decade or so.
While it seems to me the democrats did get most of the fannie/freddie payoffs, Reese is right. This is a duopoly party problem.
Unfortunately, will centralized control of our print and tv media in the hands of a very few large corporations, this message is not going to be widely disseminated.
The answer is decentralization (federalism if you prefer). But real decentralization will never work without the credible threat of secession.
I kind’a think term limits would tend to solve many of Americas political woes. Just a thought from the sidelines. ;-)
Lots of truth in this...
We’re down to about our last chance to do this... Won’t get many more without a real fight.
To the point of stupidity. No way am I throwing Scott Garrett out!
“They cooperate in this common con regardless of party”
That is an understatement. The way it is these days, the so-called opposition between the Parties is just so much theater put on for the unwashed.
We should reorganize into smaller republics.
so the conservatives will vote out the republicans and the liberals will just tolerate their barney franks. result: lots more barney franks.
and I am sure the libs in San Fran are saying the same thing you are.
The point is this. Congress has the control to make everything happen. We need to throw all of them out so we can start over and bring in ALL NEW and for one reason - so we can review everything that has been done and prosecute those that are scum and we can hold all accountable.
We need massive change or this is only going to get worse.
Think about Obama-Pelosi-Dodd-Frank...Nov 5th we will wake up to a real red dawn.
Articles like this are great for venting but that is all they are good for. I like my Senators and Congressman. I am not about to vote them out. If we all did that we would have a Congress and Senate trying to sort out a gigantic mess unaided by any experience whatsoever. Yeah what we need now is 545 trainees running the country. The article is emotionally satisfying but come on....it’s silly.
Great post surfer. Reese, I believe, has hit the nail squarely on the head. And although term limits may initially be a good idea, I would regret losing a good statesman just because we’ve imposed an expiration date.
Anyway, we’ve already got recall power given to us in the Constitution, most folks are just too pre-occupied with junk on the tube or the recent “American Idol” election. And our gutless electorate surely won’t fix anything because, as far as they are concerned, nothing is wrong. God help us if obamalamadingdong gets the nod.
I generally agree. But I don’t think any formal reorganizing into separate republics needs to happen. All that is needed is the acknowledged right of secession. Nature will take care of the rest.
The left loons in San Fran are saying the same thing you are.
That’s the problem it is always someone else. The problem is ALL of them - that is the point.
Quite frankly 545 trainees would do a better job than we are getting. Are you not watching the stock market?
We will see 6000 before the end of the year people’s investments are erased.
Why are we in this mess? Our elected officials have created and enabled this massive meltdown.
I agree Dodd, Frank, etc are in the center of this mess however it is the pork, lobbyists and all the paid votes and anyone that is part of the beltway crowd needs to go.
Time to start thinking about tar and feathering again.
If this performance occurred in a business and it happened to survive the management team would be replaced.
Well, maybe except for Scott Garrett....
Yes, Charlie, you do have a way of simplifying the view of it all -
Let’s just put one person in charge of it all, right Charlie!
And there’s only one person to do this, isn’t there Charlie...just like a short time ago he helped to simplify things for his cousin, a Communist, in Kenya by helping him doing in the oppposition and get elected...
You think, Charlie, that we might be a little suspicious of you since you proclaim regularly you are a Democrat?! You think that we might have been bothered a little by your going into spasms in your frothing ravings against Bush, Cheney, the Iraq war, Israel, the Jews,....
Especially the Jews...but we know Charlie, that you don’t really have anything against the Jews...
It’s just that you have told us so often of your trips to the Middle East years ago and how peace-loving the Arabs really are - and how all the trouble there is created by well, the Jews...but really the news corporations here and the capitalistic society here...
But, Charlie, weren’t you employed at a news corporation, a little newspaper in Florida for a long time as a reporter/columnist??
Didn’t that corporation, small as it was, and those little advertisments that helped to keep business going in your town also provide meat and potatoes for you and your family??
Gosh, Charlie, I’m sorry to bring that up. You have always had things so simplifed and nice. And there I went and had to mess it all up...
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