Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.In 1985 he wrote a great article about why we are in the mess we're in.
Or should I say "we were in."
Actually, we are still in the same mess for the same reasons.
You can read the original article HERE.
What I want to do is to ask some questions inspired by the article. I challenge our liberal and/or "moderate" friends to answer these questions.
1. In this country, who is responsible for proposing the federal budget, you and I or the President?
2. Who has the Constitutional authority to appropriate the money we spend, you and I or the members of the House of Representatives?
3. Who writes the tax code, you and I or the members of Congress?
4. Who sets fiscal policy, you and I or the members of Congress?
5. Who controls monetary policy, you and I or the Federal Reserve Bank?
6. Who created the Federal Reserve Bank, you and I or members of Congress?
7. If there is one President, nine Supreme Court justices and 435 members of congress, how many people are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country? (The Federal Reserve Bank, remember, was created by Congress in 1913, so we won't add its members into the count.)
8. Do members of Congress have to accept money from all of the special interest groups and lobbyists with whom they are involved?
9. Who is responsible for the way a Congressperson votes, the special interests and lobbyists, or he/she himself/herself?
10. What document reflects the thinking of the originators of the American Experiment and serves as the supreme law of the land?
11. To whom does the Constitution give authority for originating and approving appropriations and taxes, you and I or Congress?
12. What group can pass any budget they want, you and me or members of Congress?
13. Can the President force Congress to accept his budget proposal?
14. Can you think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people?
15. If Congress wants the tax codes to be fair, why do they continue to allow the tax code to be unfair?
16. If the budget is in the red, why does Congress continue to allow it to be in the red?
17. If Congress has an elite retirement plan that allows them retirement money no matter how long they serve and for the rest of their lives, while citizens receive only a dog biscuit called Social Security, why don't they change that?
18. If Congress thinks everybody should have health care, why aren't they talking about everybody having a plan just like theirs?
19 Why do they deserve a health plan that good anyway? Are they so important that they should receive elitist treatment? Did the original Congress persons receive that kind of treatment?
20. Why do we let these 545 people shift the blame for the nation's problems 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?
21. Why do we let them con us 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?
22. If both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
23. If all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
24. Who should be held accountable by the people for the various messes we are in as a country, you and I or members of Congress?
25. What are YOU going to do about it?
8 comments:
Joe,
At a certain point, after a series of abuses and usurpations such as we have seen recently, the individual voter comes to share some of the responsibility if he/she does not do something (like vote thoughtfully) to end the abuses.
As for the economy these 545 people have limited power. Some things are the result of forces acting from beyond our borders. There are natural cycles in the economy such as expansion and contraction of the national economy and inflation and deflation that are inevitable. Though sometimes these 545 people make the situation worse or do not meliorate it as much as they could because they take their loyalty to the lobbyists and special interests more seriously than their oath of office.
These minor quibbles aside, I think the article from the Orlando Sentinel Star is great and cuts to the heart of the matter. I suspect I will post the whole article on my blog because it deserves as much attention as possible.
Chris M: Indeed there are certain forces that are at play, but we, the voters, bear a goodly part of the blame for continuing to allow these miscreants to throw a monkey wrench into the deal whenever and however they can.
Here's a little more info about Charlie Reese's article. Originally titled “545 People Responsible for Country’s Problems” it was published in September of 1985.
Original article: Google.com Newspapers
Transcript: InformationClearinghouse.info
If you agree with the point of that article, then please read Walter Williams' article "Political Monopoly Power" and read the 15 Questions & Answers on Thirty-Thousand.org's home page.
545 is an oligarchy. 6,110 is a representative democracy.
J. E. Quidam: WOW! That's some good information.
Folks, click on JE's links and check them out. You'll learn some things.
Your questions are far beyond the reach of any Lib's cranial capacity.
This may resonate better with them:
If a tree-hugging Lib falls in the woods, does he make a sound?
PCC: Yes. He cries in horror as the tree he was hugging drops dead. He can't imagine such a thing.
Of course, no one will hear him...or care.
"provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees."
This last line I think says it all. Since politics is about the majority, especially with the constitution pretty much being trashed, the majority of Americans clearly do not have the gumption to manage their employees. I think the main reason for this is the fairy land they live in where the "majority" ascribe to the 535 the god like attributes of assuring that they not have to worry about anything in life, and that, at the great price of nothing. But it ain't free, this wonderful security is coming at the price of liberty which in the end will exact the price of hell to pay.
Read. Speak. Write. Vote. Repeat until situation improves - drastically.
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