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The political con - true today as it was in 1992

Ockham

Noblesse oblige
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I found this article at my mothers house she cut out in the Fall of 1992. A letter written to the Trentonian newspaper where a Mr. Nicholas Lipcsey lays down some truth on the New Jersey readers. What he says was true then (right before Clinton won the White House) as it is now, a few months before the 2010 mid-term elections.

It's worth the time to read it.

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 we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, 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, 425 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court Justices - 545 human beings out of 235 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 Congress. in 1913, Congress delegated its constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank. NO matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Don't you see now the con game that is played on the people by politicians? 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.

Read the rest here.

Trentonian 1994.pdf
 
One hundred senators, 425 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court Justices - 545 human beings out of 235 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
a crock of ****. and either a deliberate lie or an example of egregious ignorance.

ours is almost certainly the most complex social organism the world has ever seen. we have political, economic and legal systems based upon competition. how the hell do you expect that there will ever be more than a few winners? so, blame the ones WE put into position? if you are not careful in hiring the plumber you are at least as much to blame for the flooded basement as the plumber.

we do not elect people to pursue 'moral' objects. we elect people to put money in our pockets. if we could ever manage to change our wants perhaps we would get better results.

geo.
 
What's ignorant about it?

Complexity? Irrelevant. Competition? Irrelevant. Morality? Irrelevant.

Nothing you said changes the fact that fixes congress puts forth are **** ups congress made in the first place. If congress wanted to fix Social Security they would. If they want to defund the wars - they would. If the President wanted to put a 2011 budget out, he would have. What's eluding you here?
 
Well, considering how flawed the system is, how would you make it better? How can we force our representatives to more accurately operate in our best interests?

To fault human beings for imperfection is useless. It is nearly impossible to create perfect legislation that will never need modifications. Even our most hallowed legislation, the constitution, has been amended 26 times (not sure the exact number, but its around here). This is part of the reason why one of our founding fathers proposed that no law should be allowed to be in effect longer than 19 years without re-evaluation.

I agree that our current politics do not set up a great environment for actually resolving issues. Maybe the public should be able to tell congress what they need to work on. Such as your boss would tell you at work. The american public says draft a bill resolving the deficiencies with Social Security. We want to see a first draft finished within 3 months, which we will debate for 2 months, then make amendments, followed by another debate. We want a final bill completed within 6 months. Something like that. That is an over-simplification, but, why can't we direct our officials to do things, or why can't the executive branch more effectively command the use of the legislative branches time (with constraints obviously).
 
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