Over Simplification?

I have a few friends that like to email stuff from time to time. I’ll tease them a bit here because they often like to blind carbon copy (bcc) everyone and don’t often coordinate their efforts. This means I get the same email two or three times from the people that I know.

But some of them are good and informative. Here is one that I got recently. It was apparently written by a guy named Charley Reese. I have not been able to confirm this, though it seems plausible given Reese’s background.


BY CHARLEY 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, 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 single 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.

A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common confidence conspiracy 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 G.W. Bush ALONE 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 Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto.

REPLACE THE SCOUNDRELS

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 cannot think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise 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 is because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it is because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.

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 exist 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.

It’s an interesting synopsis and to a large extent it’s right on the money. But alas, it may be just an over simplification of the way things work. In any organization, business, or government you have a few people that control and represent (if they choose) the people of that entity. In our case, this comes down to 545 people representing about 330 MILLION people. That’s 0.00017% of the population that tries to appease the rest of us and run the country.

And let’s face it, we know they don’t all get along or believe in the same things just as the 330 million citizens don’t. We also didn’t get here overnight. Some of the laws, codes, and practices are things that were put on the book in previous administrations that may have been good for the time, but are no longer applicable.

We also have a very difficult time changing things once they are put into place. So while it would be easy to take the above writing and simply say “fix it” it would be much harder to execute if you could even get the 545 people to agree on anything.

The one thing that is absolutely true about this article is that it is those 545 people that are responsible for where we are going and have the authority and opportunity to change things. But they are not alone. They are not solely responsible for the actions of the rest of us in the U.S. Not all problems are a direct result of the government being involved or not involved as the case may be. As a citizen you bear some of that responsibility. By your actions or inactions you also allow situations to develop and arise and then what do you do? Blame it solely on the 545 people in office?

But please don't misunderstand me, I pretty much agree with what he has to say.