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 can not 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 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.

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!

Time For some Campaignin'

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Americans Showing Their Clout!

Oil hits 7-week low on demand worries, dollar gain
Email this Story


Jul 29, 4:10 PM (ET)

By STEVENSON JACOBS

(AP) Graphic shows the price of crude oil; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76.2 mm Full Image

NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices tumbled more than $2 a barrel Tuesday,
finishing at their lowest level in seven weeks as a stronger dollar and
beliefs that record prices are eroding the world's thirst for energy
sparked another dramatic sell-off.

The drop - which surpassed $4 a barrel at one point during the day -
was a throwback to oil's nosedive over the past two weeks and
outweighed supply concerns touched off by a militant attack Monday on
two Nigerian crude pipelines. It was oil's seventh decline in the last
10 sessions.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $2.54 to settle at
$122.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest
settlement price for a front-month contract since June 10. Earlier,
prices fell to $120.42, also the lowest level since June 10. Oil has
now fallen more than $25 from its trading high of $147.27, reached July
11.

More concerns that crude's run-up over the past year has pushed prices
to unsustainable levels fed Tuesday's decline. The U.S. Transportation
Department said Monday that U.S. drivers logged 9.6 billion fewer
vehicle miles in May - or 3.7 percent - compared to the same period
last year, the biggest drop ever for the historically busy summer
driving month.