U.S. Debt Explained in Simple Terms
I don’t understand most of the jargon and double-speak that politicians use to describe the U.S. economy. Maybe you do. But I ran across a recent magazine article with a simple way to understand the debt facing this country. This illustration quoted by commentator Richard McCormick, takes the current U.S. debt in its simplest terms, removes eight zeros off of the ends of amounts and illustrates them as a household budget. Amazing!
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts: $385
Think there’s a problem here? Folks, this has got to stop. This country is headed for financial disaster. November is coming and you have an opportunity to make a difference in your, your children’s and your grandchildren’s future.
Source: “NASF Report”, Products Finishing, Volume 76, February 2012, page 13.
Support the REINS Act
Whatever happened to all the “transparency in government” that we were promised? The answer is that there’s been even less of it and even more back room deals going on than ever.
It’s taken almost a year, but this week, the House will vote on H.R. 10 (a.k.a the REINS Act). This piece of legislation will make it clear that Congress alone makes the laws in this country. Currently federal agencies and their bureaucrats have sidestepped the traditional Congressional role of lawmaking on numerous occasions to foist their agendas on the land. This law would return common sense, accountability and transparency into federal agency rule-making process.
In my opinion, no matter how screwed up Congress may be, nobody in the federal government should be allowed to make a law that does not have congressional and presidential support. At the very least, there’d be accountability for the voters to deal with. Opencongress.org has a great summary of this proposed law.
Please take a moment now to urge your Congressperson to support this legislation. The link above at opencongress.org has a form to do that or you can click this link at the AFP Action Center for another.
545 people
There seems to be a lot of attention given these days to the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates and the effort to unseat President Obama. While I’m the first to want a new Chief Executive, it bothers me that the election of a new president is treated as the single most important thing facing us this coming year. We Americans are not very bright when it comes to our own legislative process.
It is true that the President proposes things that ultimately make their way into the law of the land and that may seem tremendously significant. But at the end of the day, nobody in the White House has the power to turn propsals into legislation. Does the average American understand that? The citizens of this great country are in fact ignorant of where the power really resides in Washington. I believe the John Q. Public gives far too much credit and places way to much focus on the office of the President, almost as if he were King and could wave his scepter and either implement any law he wants or abolish one that he doesn’t.
AMERICA, please WAKE UP to reality.
I’m all for getting rid of Obama and will vote for virtually anyone else that runs against him. But, if you think you can really effect CHANGE to the mess that this country is in by electing a different President and letting him operate on your behalf, you my friend, are totally clueless!!
So rather than me try to explain our political process I’d like to use an excerpt from someone more proficient at writing than I, a real professional journalist. Mr Charley Reese is a former columnist for the Orlando Sentinel and is very well known for several related columns that he wrote during his time there between 1985 and 2001. It is the last of these, and also his very last column for the Sentinel penned on July 29, 2001, that is quoted below.
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, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, 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.
100 senators, 435 in the House, 1 President, and 9 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.
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 543 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? John Boehner. 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.
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.
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 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!
Which by the way is what the founding fathers had in mind for us to be able to do. So please, JUST DO IT!
Vote the bums out!
Over a year ago, I wrote a post on a different blog entitled, “The 545 people responsible for all of America’s woes.” (Check it out if you haven’t already.) The article that I referred to in that post is just as relevant today as it was in 2009 and as it was when Mr. Charley Reese penned it back in 1985.
Next Tuesday, November 2, is accountability day. The day to hold a big chunk of those 545 people responsible for absolute chaos that our political and economic systems are in right now. And finally you and I get to vote on their individual futures.
Are you ready to send a very clear message to those in Washington who only know how to operate in their own best interests? Then next Tuesday is your chance. And if you’d like to hear it, I have one simple piece of wisdom for you on how to deal with those career politicians and bureaucrats that have well insulated their lives from the mess that they’ve created of our lives.
VOTE THE BUMS OUT!!
They’ve shown us by their actions who they really care about. This is our one chance for two years to start with a clean slate. Make your vote count.
A leader for Missouri’s 78th congressional district
Today I’m blogging about a candidate running for Missouri State Representative of the 78th District. His name is Glen Lindemann and he’s from Florissant. He’s a conservative and the Republican candidate trying to unseat the incumbent progressive democrat in the race (name omitted). If his name doesn’t sound familiar, there’s a reason for that. He’s never held political office before. And unlike most current politicians, Mr. Lindemann hasn’t spent his career learning how to exploit the politcal process to make a living. All he’s done in addition to being a U.S. postal worker for 26 years is give another 33 years of his life protecting you and me by serving in the U.S. Army. Thank you Glen for your service.
Hard work and dedication has marks his life and he’s proved that he’s not afraid of hard work to fight for what he believes in. Numerous injuries and unfortunate accidents provide him with some physical challenges, but in spite of those things, he’s out there shaking hands and meeting people sharing his ideas on how to make our area better and prosperous.
I got the great opportunity to meet and speak with Mr. Lindemann on Saturday as he stumped in our neighborhood. In the fifteen minutes or so that we got to talk, I can see that he is a concerned citizen that once again is walking the walk before talking the talk. I admire his commitment to personally make a difference in our screwed-up government and wholeheartedly endorse him. I am humbled by his work ethic and frankly he inspires me to want to do the same.
Glen’s battle will not be easy though. Because of his political “outsider” status, he doesn’t have the same warchest that his opponent does. But like other challenges in his life, it’s not dampening his spirit. If you can contribute anything to his campaign, time, talent or treasure, I’m sure that it would be appreciated. If you’d like to contact Glen or find out more about to help him and the crusade to bring common sense back to government, check out his web site.
Election time provides new blogging material
Ah, the beautiful fall colors, the gorgeous change of the season and the very welcome drop in daytime temperatures can only signal one thing. That’s right — November and Election Day are right around the corner! With a little over three weeks until this year’s Election Day, I’ll turn to things political and I really do enjoy that. So while I’ve not posted a whole lot lately, you can count on a number of new ones over the coming days.
This is a chance to share with friends and family on a subject that doesn’t usually excite everyone. But we all know that we must be educated voters so that we can do our part to cause change. And the current state of politics is in real need of change.
I apologize if you don’t enjoy politics, but don’t despair because there are a lot of interesting stories and it all only lasts a few weeks. So now I have to get going on those stories. Stay tuned.
