555 people ..... by Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

If both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

If all the politicians are against high taxes,WHY do we have high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does. 
[[[ the KEY word here is PROPOSE ]]]

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 555 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

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.  No matter what gifts the rich donor gives, no matter how may retreats and bar-b-ques and wine-tasting parties are involved, the Supreme Court Judge determines if he is impartial.

I am now excluding the President because he/she has no legislative power. The POTUS can make suggestions, can beg, can coddle and can offer compromise, but alone the Office of the President has no actual power to make laws, including tax laws. The Congress does that and the SCOTUS backs up the Congress.

Best you not forget that.

So, these 554 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 coconut balls of a Speaker Boehner, who stands up and criticizes 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? For the time being {at least} it is  John Boehner.

He is the leader of the majority party. He and his 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.

I can't think of a single domesticproblem that is not traceable directly to those 554 people. When youfully grasp the plain truth that 554 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 554 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; or to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; or 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 554 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 backbone to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

.....

ME: Overly-simplistic, but this short op-ed should make us all stop and think. My favorite part is this:

" . . . the special interests and lobbyists have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a
senator, a congressman, or a Supreme Court Judge (or his wife) to do one damn 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. And WE have the power to reject them.

We ARE the 99%.  We'd best not forget this.

things so impossible

The following post has been taken from a post made on Blogspot long, long ago, back on February 7, 2008, in regards to so-called “Super Tuesday” 2008. 

The blog entry reads:  “I have a commitment to (and a belief in) the American Dream (or more precisely, the Dream that is America) that is so profound that it is difficult for me to talk of it without getting choked up.

It’s not the dream of a chicken in every pot, nor the dream of two cars in the driveway.

Rather, it is the Dream of many peoples coming together to achieve something larger, and leave something better for those that follow. This is the true soul of America, and embodied in our Nation's Motto: E Pluribus Unum — Out of Many One.

We may celebrate the Declaration of Independence, but our true character and what we should aspire to live by is best captured in the preamble to our Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We the People does not refer to the 51% of the 64% who vote that agree with us, but it refers to all that we are and all that we will be. Not Red States or Blue States, but the United States. Not the welfare of those that vote for us or give us donations, but the general Welfare. Not a southern strategy or swift boating a military hero, but to form a more perfect Union.

The past 20 years have been a long dark night for those of us that believe in We the People. The lessons and successes of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove (shamefully applied by both parties) have put our nation on a path to Balkanization, and manipulated the American Dream into a micro-targeted nightmare. More frighteningly, over the past decade the tactics of division have moved beyond partisan politics to an Orwellian exploitation of fear, and set the last great superpower on a path that could easily spiral to neo-facism.

While we face many challenges and dangers in this world, I believe the greatest threat to what we are is to forget who we are. When we fracture ourselves and "win" by causing someone else to "lose", we spiral ever deeper into the zero-sum night.

We stepped back from the same precipice in the 1890s (greed) and 1950s (fear). Each time, the moment was right to elevate a leader and a voice that rejected the politics of division and the policy of the ends justify the means, and reminded us that we are at our best when we grow the pie, not when we fight over the scraps; that our manifest destiny is born of our shared values and dreams, not conflicting fears and greed.

I have been waiting for that leader and that voice for the past 20 years. While I have done my best to live the example of the greater good — of people coming together to accomplish more than they thought possible — I had nearly lost hope.

I believe that leader is Barack Obama.

Even if he falls short of the ideals he has set forth, there is still a glow on the horizon, waking those who believe more in the Dream than they fear the darkness. As that glow grows into full light, we are indeed the people we have been waiting for.”

Following is a portion of a speech given by then Senator Obama that night ~~~

“You see, the challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night. It will not be resolved on even a Super Duper Tuesday. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who've been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.

We are the hope of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake with doubt that tells him he cannot give his children the same opportunities that someone gave him. Yes, he can.

We are the hope of the woman who hears that her city will not be rebuilt, that she cannot somehow claim the life that was swept away in a terrible storm. Yes, she can.

We are the hope of the future, the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided, that we cannot come together, that we cannot remake this world as it should be.

We know that we have seen something happen over the last several weeks, over the past several months. We know that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored — that will not be deterred, that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation — repair this world, make this time different than all the rest. Yes, we can.

Let's go to work.”

We ARE the 99%.  Let's get to work. WE are the ones we have been waiting for.