Another item in my email caught my attention. Penned by now-retired journalist Charley Reese (and confirmed by Snopes.com), this is one of several versions, written (supposedly) at his retirement in 2001. I think it’s rather naive. I think he’s trying to correct a system through shame, which, to me, seems like a futile effort. It’s better to understand the limitations of the system – and representative democracies have limitations, just like any other – and then work around them.
Notice the lead-in, which I take to be someone’s attempt make the reader respect the effort more. If you do so, the inevitable lesson is that the current form of government is bad. But you decide for yourself.
A very interesting column.. COMPLETELY NEUTRAL Be sure to Read the Poem at the end.
Charley Reese’s final column for the Orlando Sentinel… He has been a journalist for 49 years. He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN.
Be sure to read the Tax List at the end.
This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It’s a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!
545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Sure. Differing priorities, compromises good & bad, a few wars, some justified and some not. The insinuation is that this should be easy to fix; the problem is that the budget of the United States is not analogous to a household budget.
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
Inflation is not under direct government control. Sometimes when they want it they don’t get it, such as the recent recession. (Note: I did not expect Charlie to know about the great Recession.)
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 equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
A dubious remark concerning a non-unitary entity, an entity deliberately made non-unitary for non-financial reasons.
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.
And, knowing I’m completely rhetorical here, why did they do that? Going through a brief history leading up to its creation, it appears to me that permitting several hundred amateurs to pull the levers of financial policy was madness. A decentralized central bank lets the experts – as much as we deride them, they are the most learned in the subject – be the guardians of monetary policy.
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.
This is ridiculously naive. From horse-trading to out and out extortion, the members of Congress can easily be vulnerable individuals in a host of ways.
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.
Not that I ever noticed. Even forty years ago, a campaign often saw many revelations that I wish had not be relevated. To suggest they cooperate strains the boundaries of credulity.
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 now? He is the leader of the majority party. He 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.
Not honest. It requires a 2/3 majority in each chamber. How often does a party, often a fractious entity, have that much of a majority? Wash, lather, repeat: Unitary Fallacy.
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 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.
Not much of an imagination. Various crimes, bigotry, pollution – these are all the government’s fault? The balance of the paragraph once again buys into the unitary fallacy, as do the following assertions. Most, I believe, are the result of 500+ individuals with 500+ priority lists, some compatible, some not, wrestling over how to best run a huge country.
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.
Or perhaps because it has to be in the red to build a better country for our children. Don’t make the damn-fool assumption that a government’s budget must run in the black just because a family’s should.
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 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!
Yeah? Good luck with that. Remember the old chestnut about draining swamps? Send me an alligator.
What you do with this article now that you have read it… is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren’t so true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:
Now we get to someone else, I think, who can’t stand the thought that the advantages of living in a civilized country with the barbarians somewhere else might actually cost him a nickel. Not that I approve of the tax system – it’s convoluted and rude. But that’s not this fellow’s point, whoever he is – he’s working the reader into an anti-government frenzy without ever thinking of all the positives that come with government, from health to defense to basic research to laws to law enforcement … and the list goes on.
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he’s fed.Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid…Put these words
Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me
to my doom…’When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit TaxWell Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most
prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the
world,and Mom, if agreed, stayed home to raise the kids.
Actually, we were a second banana republic who had the good fortune of tremendous natural resources, something closer to a meritocracy than most countries had, and competition that it was trashing itself in Europe. Even though we were in World War I, we didn’t suffer the kind of losses our competition – on both sides – was suffering.
What in the heck happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’
People doing their best, mostly. Even the current crop; they’re just so under-talented that they can’t do much but pout at Obama.
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!! YOU can help it get
there!!!GO AHEAD. . . BE AN AMERICAN!!!
Ah, yes, patriotism – that last refuge of a scoundrel. – Samuel Johnson
