Idealistic Thinking
The following excerpts are from an article written by Charlie Reese, formerly of the The Orlando Sentinel in Florida.
“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.
“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 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.
“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.
“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. 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.
“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!”
*****This is a very simplistic solution. If every voters followed this advice in November, we would end up with a Republican controlled Congress and Obama wouldn’t be able to implement the changes that our country desperately needs. This kind of idealistic thinking enables shrewd political operatives to negate the efforts of progressive members of Congress from making our democracy work for 300 million Americans.
“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.
“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 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.
“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.
“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. 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.
“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!”
*****This is a very simplistic solution. If every voters followed this advice in November, we would end up with a Republican controlled Congress and Obama wouldn’t be able to implement the changes that our country desperately needs. This kind of idealistic thinking enables shrewd political operatives to negate the efforts of progressive members of Congress from making our democracy work for 300 million Americans.
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:06 AM
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