Here is a copy of an email I received earlier today, pretty much lays blame where blame is due, I agree with every word of it.
A very interesting column.. COMPLETELY NEUTRAL
Charley Reese's final column for the Orlando Sentinel...
He has been a journalist for 49 years.
He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN.
This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!
545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do 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 equates to 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 now? He is the leader of the majority party. He 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 Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
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!
Originally Posted by Yerassman
Actually here's how the problem stacked up.
The 16th Amendment overrode the Constitutional prohibition on certain taxes -- before things like Tariffs and other collections funded the government. Of course, it was a much smaller government back then. Big-time "Progressives" were really on board with this, because it proves to be a nearly unlimited source of the means of confiscation of wealth.
The 17th Amendment to the Constitution laid waste to the grand design of the Virginia Compromise. The SENATE was designed to represent the States, specifically the State Legislatures, and to be their voice in the Congress. If a Senator didn't perform the will of the Legislature, they could be REPLACED by that body in favor of one who will. Often they were already elected members of that State body. Once popular vote was forced through for Senators, it left the views of the State government unheard in Federal circles. The argument that the people should decide who represents them is a red herring. They already have representation by the House of Representatives, and of course they ELECT their State Legislatures. With the States unable to get together and overrule Congress, they became feckless, merely tax collecting and distributing branches of the Federal Overlord Masters.
The FINAL blow was the creation of the Federal Reserve. Destruction of the money supply denominated in gold and silver was a long standing aim, because it gave the Federal Reserve control of the currency, without anything tangible to back it. Fiat currency..which can be worthless on a whim. They aren't accountable to anybody, and they aren't elected by anyone. They could tomorrow flood the markets with $2 TRILLION and drive the value of the dollar down to unprecedented levels.....wait...they've already done that! There are an increasing number of dollars in circulation, but without an increase in productivity, you will see prices start to rise at a faster rate, as competition kicks in. When GDP goes up....inflation will flare with a vengeance.
The coming double dip recession, will hold off inflation...but it won't last forever. The only way the debt will be manageable will be to walk away from it, or to triple the number of dollars available....which would translate to be a nice 30% annual inflation rate over a 10 year or so period. So the "debt" will only be a 1/3rd of the size, but your retirement assets will be as well....and oil....how about $15 a gallon gas? Becauase at today's values, a barrel would be over $300.
That would be "Hope and Change"
