Let us whisper in your ears AND don’t ignore us…

As elected officials, the people in this country rely on you to take care of government affairs, to make sure the framework and guarantees set up by our Constitution are strictly adhered to.  Make no mistake, over 300 million people have entrusted you with this honor because our personal lives are complicated, our problems many and we cannot micromanage something on this scale.  Our votes placed you in the unique position to make this country healthy by your honesty and hard work or destroy it by your incompetence and/or greed. 

Shamefully, for over 200 years, the majority of you and your predecessors have chosen the latter.  Passing rules for what is legal and what is not, Congress has created an oligopolistic system to skim billions of taxpayer dollars under the guise of salaries, office expenses, staff requirements, etc., etc., etc.  Your greedy, backdoor, legislative conniveries are unconscionable and continue to funnel rivers of money into your expanding coffers, the pockets of your benefactors and lobbyists willing to pay the price to buy your vote…

What you call necessary, legislative, line item, budgetary expenses, we call theft on a grand scale perpetrated by a good-ole-boy system that severely punishes newcomers who don’t play according to the rules.  When voters demand accountability, you simply ignore us…now, your years of business as usual has brought America to the brink of disaster. 

Thomas Jefferson left us with a little advice.  He said, “If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”  After 200+ years, we have trusted too greatly. 

He further said, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”  Look where we are today.  History has repeated itself many, many times and is doing so again. 

His solution… “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”  “Every generation needs a new revolution.”

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress…Our elected representatives…

1.  You need to get off your self-serving backsides and remember who put you there and why.  WORK TOGETHER!!!! 

2.  Make sure EVERYONE IS TAXED EQUALLY!!!!

3.  Start by cleaning your own house before insisting on slicing chunks away from the people in this country who are struggling to make ends meet! Adhere to the Constitution and its law.  

4.  And finally… Don’t think the sleeping beast cannot be prodded out of its slumber.  That rumbling you hear is growing exponentially… We are not of one color, one faith, one gender or one political persuasion. Our tenets are as different as the part of the country we live in.   We are patriotic Americans, who, if awakened, will serve you up as our first meals, replacing you with others willing to honor our Constitution.  How we choose to do that is up to you…

A Solution to Last...

One of my dear friends and I are always having discussions about religion, politics, families and life.  Because of our opposite views when it comes to political parties, she has always joked that her vote cancels mine out in every election.  That statement is pretty much a fact, but at least we vote and care enough to serve our nation through our democratic process.

In the past year or so, although our political views still have a wide gap between them, the opinions we maintain of our elected representatives are pretty much the same...the majority of them are more interested in the benefits of the position than they are the responsibilities of serving this country.  America is bleeding out and it's business as usual in Washington because they are insulated from the realities of life for most of us.

The people have made it clear we need EVERYONE in our government to work together to come up with a viable plan to pull our nation out of its economic spiral into the financial maelstrom we have sailed into.  That means looking at the facts and stopping all the rhetoric.  (a) (b) (c) (d)

WE CANNOT BALANCE THE BUDGET!  STOP TRYING TO MAKE POLITICAL KUDOS WITH BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENTS THAT LITERALLY WATER DOWN THE STRENGTH OF OUR CONSTITUTION!   An excerpt from this July 6, 2011 article from the American Thinker (e) agrees with this line of thinking:

"Currently, Washington Republicans are mulling over two versions of a Balanced Budget Amendment.  One, sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch and John Cornyn..." and another by "...Sen. Mike Lee would be similar...

"Both versions, however, are fundamentally flawed and therefore utterly unacceptable...

"Firstly, and most worryingly, both proposed amendments would effectively undo all the limitations on the federal government currently listed in the Constitution...the principle of enumerated prerogatives, the nondelegation doctrine, and the 9^th and 10^th Amendments.  Both versions would effectively mean that the federal government will be allowed to meddle with, legislate on, and spend money on anything, as long as its total annual spending doesn't exceed 18% or 20% of GDP (whose estimates it could falsify to justify higher spending)."

Getting America back on track will require a multi-faceted approach.  There are many thoughts in the wind, but a plan must be adopted and put into play.  For instance:
1.  Yearly audits conducted by non-government firms could identify unnecessary line items to be illiminated, hidden earmarks, waste in the government's operations and duplicated efforts between departments. 
2.  Madatory eliminations and reductions in Congressional staff, salaries and benefits could be implemented and the 'retired' staffing guidelines illiminated completely.
3.  Capping Congressional salaries to be equal or less than the average annual teacher's income in the U.S. would assure elected representatives are not overcompensated and forced to live within as strict budget.
4.  Anyone wishing to lobby the U.S. Congress could be required to pay a Lobbyist Membership into the federal coffer and be limited to specific locations and times to conduct business.

These corrections and more are 'short term' fixes but could reduce the budget by billions of dollars yearly. 

The 'biggies', medicare, medicaid, social security and defense, will require MAJOR COOPERATION between everyone in Washington to construct a LONG TERM plan to repair them.  A first step could be considering the argument of unconstitutional departments in our federal government.  If these were reviewed, could they be closed down? 

      "The Departments of Education, Agriculture, HUD, Transportation, and Commerce are patently unconstitutional, as is the EPA, the SBA, the DHHS, all three big entitlement programs, subsidies for anything (including agriculture), the Davis-Bacon Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the  War on Drugs, the cap-and-tax scheme, CAFE standards, renewable energy standards, ethanol production obligations, executive regulations of the economy, and all congressional and presidential drilling bans and drilling moratoriums.  The Constitution does not authorize any of these things; all of the issues they pertain to are reserved by the 10^th Amendment to the states and the people." (e)

Whatever the politicians do, needs to happen quickly and with the Constitution and the whole country in mind.  Partisan politics has no place in this process.  A plan needs to be longterm with failsafes to prevent future meltdowns like we have experienced over the last 75 years.

Do we have the people in D.C. to accomplish this?  I fear the worse but hope for the opposite.  So far all my efforts to contact them and urge them to make positive changes have fallen on deaf ears, i.e., my blog.

a:  http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/04/news/economy/reducing_debt/

b:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/where_the_budget_deficit_actua_1.html
c:  http://www.federalbudget.com/taxnews.html
d:  http://www.federalbudget.com/
e:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/why_the_balanced_budget_amendm.html

A Challenge to the American Public...Look For the Truth in the Political World

Today, I sent the following letter to President Obama*.  I feel he is basicly a good person thrown into the catastrophic rubble left over from the eight year nightmare created by the radical politics from the Bush years (a) in office.  ("Of 415 historians who expressed a view of President Bush’s administration to this point as a success or failure, 338 classified it as a failure..." ) (b) Now, the Republicans and Tea Party groups, in their attempts to regain the White House, are starting to lie, twist facts, lay the blame for our morbid state of affairs on the current administration plus convince voters we are suffering from a break down in our moral fiber. 

Who are they kidding?  They are fear mongers!  We live in a diverse country and are, for the most part, basicly good people with a myriad of different tenets struggling to raise our families the best we can whether that family has a mother and a father, a single parent, foster parent, grand parent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister or parents of the same gender.  However, Republicans and Tea Party press releases want voters to think without their Political parties moral fixes steeped in Christian morality, America is doomed.   

Sadly, a lot of people are stupid or naive enough to be taken in by these tools of the twisted political system.  Until we get off our duffs and realize these are just ploys of self-centered individuals determined to snag the lucrative jobs held by elected officials, nothing will change significantly for the better.  Voters have to start sending people to Congress who will put the good of our whole country in front of special interests.  I believe President Obama is a step in the right direction therefore, I faxed him this letter:

"To My Honorable President:

Some of my earliest memories are standing in front of an old black and white TV each night as it went off the air. My Dad’s eyes would fill with tears as our family stood there saluting our flag and singing the National Anthem together. His stories of being an orderly on the U.S.A.H.S. Marigold, the hospital ship that sailed into Tokyo Bay long before the fleet arrived to accept Japan’s formal surrender, still are vivid in my mind. Because his job was caring for the physically maimed and psychological casualties of World War II, he made sure we knew the price our freedoms cost and instilled his unshakeable patriotism forever into our being.

I am compelled to send you this letter because of those values and, also, as a plea to honor the sacrifices made by so many throughout our great history to preserve our Constitutional guarantees. The movie, ’Dave’, keeps flashing through my mind. An everyday man cast unwittingly into the role of President and thrown into the devious world of cutthroat politics in Washington is able to slightly open the door to positive change in his short time there. A fairy tale...true, but one based on hope.

I believe you could be our ‘Dave’ and start turning things around where the wealthy have become our rulers and most elected officials cater to their benefactors and special interests. Although, in no way are you an everyday man, your meager beginnings exposed you to many of the obstacles we are facing in our current, hard knocks world, a debacle where the dog-eat-dog political climate is having devastating effects on the middle class and poorer Americans.

My husband and I accept our responsibility to make our own way, but see millionaires, billionaires and hugely profitable companies, some who should have been prosecuted, fined and jailed, manipulating the system to receive mammoth amounts of assistance from our government. How can we condone these actions when we couldn’t even qualify for the Making Homes Affordable program even though our next disability check doesn’t arrive till July 27th and we only have $130 to our name? Something is definitely wrong.

We need our elected officials to work together, cut out the excesses and quit squabbling over social agendas that should be left in the churches. The waste in the Congressional Budget alone is criminal! Please...don’t let Washington politics destroy what we, the people, are so willing to die for. Use your influence and help us, please..."
a:  http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-18/politics/poll.bush.presidency_1_approval-rating-poll-greatest-presidents?_s=PM:POLITICS
b:  http://www.hnn.us/articles/5019.html


     
*During the past few months, I have been attempting to get my elected officials to do something about the 'Making Homes Affordable' program guidelines.  Although Congressional hearings determined very little of the money made available to persons in need of this assistance were given out through this initiative, neither Congressman Kenny Marchant, Senator John Cornyn or Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison did anything to correct the problems or even bothered calling me back personally.  Hutchison's office didn't even bother responding at all.  They are all part of a system that insulates themselves from their voters except in election years.  We have to make changes and rebuild the Washington establishment where it serves the Constitution and not special interests.   

Know the Truth About Your Country This Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is coming up.  I challenge everyone to research the truth behind our Constitution (d), our pledge (a), the 9th Amendment (b) and the importance of the separation of church and state (c).  We are a diverse country and keeping EVERYONE's rights in mind is the only way we will stay that way.  Rivers of blood has been shed throughout our history to insure that each person can freely worship the way they want and still fight side by side like brothers.  Let's celebrate that fact this holiday...

a:  http://www.oldtimeislands.org/pledge/pledge.htm
b:  http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/9th-amendment.html
c:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States
d:  http://www.usconstitution.net/constnot.html