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Ed Brindley -> Who Is Responsible? (4/25/2008 11:16:45 AM)
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A good friend of mine sent me this email. While I don't usually pass these things on, and I certainly don't usually post them here, this piece raises a basic issue that we probably need to address as a society. Maybe it is time to kick many of the bums out!
Hope the following plants seeds for thought.
Subject: FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
> 545 People
> By Charlie Reese -- (I did not confirm this source)
>
> 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 545 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
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