I will be absent from this area for the next 12 days. I wanted something to share with all of you and found this. This may help a little bit when you are deciding how to vote.
Subject: FW: 545 People
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, 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 anelite 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 tobureaucrats, 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.
