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Sunday, April 10, 2011

An interesting post I found on Yahoo about the recall elections in Wisconsin

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? John Boehner. 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.

5 comments:

Anonymous98507 said...

And greater parts of that responsibility belong to the obstructionists-- in this case, Chief Obstructionist Boehner and his Obstructionist cohorts!

As for the Reese article itself: this is one of the updated versions (this one uses Boehner's name; previous one used Pelosi's name) of the original which was published in 1985. (See Snopes and similar sources.)

sidrat38 said...

I figured it was probably somethinglike that, Anon..

It's way too well written

sidrat38 said...

Yeah, Reese is an interesting character...

The article itself, though, does have some salient points

Anonymous98507 said...

Oh, nothing I noted takes away from the good points Reese made.

Anonymous98507 said...

Because Donald Trump brought it up again, the question posed today by CNN's Jack Cafferty: "Is President Obama's birth certificate still a legitimate issue?" The answers were mostly in the vein of no-way-Jose. :-)

Some of the answers:
.................
"April 11th, 2011 1:31 pm ET
Myra Moore:
Is Obama's birth certificate still a legitimate issue? No, it is not and I am so ashamed of Donald Trump. Although I never thought of him as superiorly intelligent, I did think he had more on the ball than this. It grieves me that a man who has been rated as having great class could demote himself to such a simple minded level. To be a real competitor and possible a winner on any level, one should have more meaningful topics about issues in which concern us all. I am sure the government and the Clintons tried to uncover everything they could during the 2008 election. The birth certificate is legitimate and let's move on.

Grow up Donald. I must admit I do not think you are serious, but hey if it gives your show the Apprentice more ratings, I guess you will try it."

.................
"April 11th, 2011 1:58 pm ET
Conor in Chicago:
You have to have a pretty serious lack of confidence in this nation's institutions if you think Obama could get to the Presidency having not been born in this country. I think it tells you just how completely divorced from reality a good half of all Republicans are in this country. Divorced from reality. We need to stop being nice about this."

.................
"April 11th, 2011 3:09 pm ET
Paul, Parry Sound, Ontario:
If it was ever a legitimate issue, Hilary Clinton's researchers would have uncovered it in 2008. Donald Trump and others are flogging a horse that is so beyond dead, it's glue."

.................