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, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, 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 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 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 , 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.
They vote their own pay raises for themselves because they want it that way.
There are no unsolvable 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!
What you do with this article now that you have read it is up to
you, though you appear to have several choices.
1. You can send this to everyone in your address book, and hope 'they' do something about it.
2. You can agree to vote against everyone that is currently in
office, knowing that the process will take several years.
3. You can decide to 'run for office' yourself and agree to do the job properly.
4. Lastly, you can sit back and do nothing, or re-elect the current bunch.
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
