How Much Is Congress Worth?

Their politics may differ. But both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement have laid claim to representing the interests of the middle class, whose economic frustrations helped spur the groups' establishment and growth.

So which side's congressional lawmakers come closest to embodying that wide swath of the U.S. population? Or, in Occupy terms, which side is closer to the 99 percent?

Neither the members of the House Tea Party Caucus nor those of the House Progressive Caucus -- whose views most closely align with the Occupy Wall Street movement -- are remotely middle class, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics of congressional personal financial disclosure forms covering 2010, the most recently available data. - Tea Party House Members Even Wealthier Than Other GOP Lawmakers

Super-Committee missed the Telephone Booth

If you ever looked up incompetent in the dictionary, it might show a picture of Congress.  If there are too many for the group photo, then it might as well be the 12 members of the “Super” Committee, who were appointed to fix the deficit crisis.  Yet they were unable to find anything that they could cut because apparently there is nothing to cut in government.

The vast majority of Congress is made up of buffoons who were failures in life.  They couldn’t even do a good job as a lawyer, which is probably the easiest white-collar job in the world so long as you can read and write coherently, and yet they were able to sell enough snake oil to enough gullible voters.

I know there are complex, partisan issues at play here.  On the side, you have Republicans who will not cut foreign policy spending, which totals about 1 trillion.  Likewise, you have Democrats who will not cut welfare spending, which totals around 1 trillion as well.

Now I know math is a difficult subject for the average blog reader, given the comments I have seen in the past, but please stick with me.  Our government takes in about 2.1 trillion in tax revenues this year.  They spend well over 3 trillion, where they borrow the difference to make up for the lack of revenue.  What this means, is that over 1/3 of the United States Federal government’s budget is not paid for and added to the total Federal government debt, which is now approaching 15 trillion.

This means that in order to balance the budget and get a hold of the deficit in the immediate short term, they have to make cuts.   The sad fact is, even if everything but foreign policy spending and moocher benefits were cut completely out of the budget, there would still be a deficit, piling on to a debt that cannot be repaid.

Meanwhile, both parties will state that certain things are off the table in terms of spending.  Then they to the dumb masses about how they have capped or cut spending when they do nothing of the sort.

I knew full well that the Super-Committee would fail because I know these people and their motivations.  If you are a Congressperson, your first instinct is to kick the can down the road on the really important stuff and make as much money as you can in the short while you have the power to do so.

Fixing the Federal budget and getting it balanced is not a difficult task.  There have been countless proposals all over the Internet, many of them detailed enough to resolve the issue.  But instead of trying something, anything, Congress just keeps the status quo and goes on like nothing will ever change.

But big changes are coming and I do not mean the elections.  The whole financial system that they bank on (literally) is going to collapse.  Already bankster agents are being openly appointed to positions of power in Europe, with the hopes of preventing it, but people like Mario Monti should be wary of what happened to Benito Mussolini.  The fact is, what they are doing is not sustainable any longer.

However, I do have a solution for Congress: appoint me head of all legislative actions and I will come up with a budget plan in two short weeks, provided I am compensated for my efforts.  I will ensure that the budget is balanced and that the interests of the American people are met while at the same time reversing the course of the growing debt.

I also would like to add that while I am above average, I am also highly motivated in that I do not wish to live that cesspool known as Washington, D.C. longer than I have too.  I have experience in managing budgets for organizations in the past, albeit on a voluntary basis.

As an added bonus, I’ll add that my budget proposal will be so good, Congress and the President won’t have to vote it.  They can basically give me a blank check to rework it however I want to.   As an added bonus, you can make me the scapegoat, provided I get my own private island in the Caribbean to live on for the rest of my life, should that be necessary.

If you don’t like my offer, that’s OK.  But you have admit it is better than what you have been doing all this time.

Do We Need a Permanent Legislature?

Why is Congress in session right now?  I mean, I know that they are taking care of important matters, especially with their out of control budget, but I mean in the general sense.  Why do they meet every year to pass new laws, new regulations, and plan new budgets?

The last part I can understand.  Having served in leadership capacities in the past, though not in an official governmental position, I completely understand the need to properly plan a budget.  It’s probably one of the most important things that you would have to deal with.

However, most of what Congress discusses isn’t really related to budget matters exactly.  Most of the time, they are talking about policies and programs that are in place or will be in place given a majority vote.

The basic function of Congress, of any legislative branch, is to pass laws.  But honestly, how many laws does any sovereign entity really need?  If we take the libertarian stance, for example, and say that only laws should be passed are ones where a person takes another person’s life, liberty, or property through force or fraud.  This limits the laws passed to a select few.  Sure there are plenty of variations, but it would not be very large.

For example, there are two kinds of murder: murder as a deliberate act and murder through negligence or accident, which is also known as manslaughter.  In both cases, you’ve just covered the ‘life’ part of the equation there.  So you really only need two laws and two punishments when it comes to murder and manslaughter.  Kidnapping violates the ‘liberty’ part.  Vandalism and theft deal with the ‘property’ part.  In all cases, you can see how there would be little need for more than maybe 20 laws passed to deal with the various injustices dealt against other people.

Accordingly, only the same number of punishments need to be prescribed in all cases.  And those punishments should fit the crime, where restitution is made for the losses inflicted.  In manslaughter, for example, instead of sending someone to jail, perhaps they are forced to compensate the victim’s families for the financial loss causes by the untimely death.  For theft, the victim is compensated for the amount stolen plus extra.  Unfortunately, the court can only deal in financial matters since other measurements, such as emotional stress, are subjective.

In any case, this hardly makes the case for a permanent legislature to be established.  They would only need to meet to work out the budget and just let the machinations of the system work.

In the state I live in, Virginia, the state assembly only meets for a few months out of the year, as far as I can tell.  They debate, they pass bills, and then they leave and go on their merry way.  While there is always bound to be some form of tyranny or another being passed, it probably happens a lot less since they don’t have as much time.  If we were to follow the Constitution, the Tenth Amendment states that the State governments have many powers, while the Federal government is limited by what the Constitution says.  And yet, my state legislatures don’t see a need to meet for longer than a few months.

Currently, we have over 10,000 Federal laws on the books with many more onerous regulations being created every day by unaccountable bureaucrats.  These bureaucrats have been given a blank check to basically create rules out of thin air by the language of existing laws.  If the United States Congress were to meet only on one month out of the year, I doubt that so many laws would have been passed that made all of us criminals.  And yet, here we are with laws and rules that nobody can completely know.  The human brain has its limits after all.

I once heard that Thomas Jefferson said at some point that as long as Congress is in session, our life, liberty, and property are in jeopardy.  And while it may not be true (I’m not sure if it was Jefferson actually), it certainly holds some value.  As long as we keep on allowing those tyrants to operate in the Capitol without time constraints, save the elections, we will continue to see tyranny and oppression being passed by highly motivated moral busybodies, regardless of party affiliation.

Congress In Pocket Of Wall Street

Congress passed a bill October 12th with very little resistance that would allow foreclosure and other documents to be accepted among multiple states. Wall Street has spent more than $250 million dollars this year lobbying Congress, how much does Wall Street influence Capitol Hill? With money changing hands easily and policy following, it seems Congress is in the pocket of these high powered companies.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: "Read the Constitution"

The Judge explains why Congress needs to understand and follow the U.S. Constitution.




ReadTheUSConstitution.org

The "No Lame Duck" Petition

Rumors are swirling in Washington, D.C. about a potential “Lame Duck” session that could be held right after the November elections and before the new Congress is sworn-in. If liberals are thrown out of power in Congress this election cycle, the pressure will be that much greater and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will pull out all the stops as a last gasp to enact their socialist agenda. Specifically, the far left will be doing whatever they can to:

1. Pass the Cap and Trade Energy Tax Hike!
2. Slap American Taxpayers with another “Stimulus” Bailout Scheme!
3. Pile on More Tax Hikes to Fund their Socialist Agenda!



No Lame Duck

James Traficant, the Anti-Congressman

Former Congressman James Traficant, who was expelled from the House after he was convicted of racketeering and bribery, has been released from prison after serving seven years.

I remember him fondly from my C-SPAN watching in those years when he still represented Ohio in Congress. His crazy hair, anti-fashion plate sartorial taste, and anti-government populism were always compelling to me. He still has many fans and supporters, some of whom are looking for him to become a talk radio host. Whatever he does, I wish him well, for he is far less of a crook than most of the parasites in Washington, D.C.

In the video below, from 2002, Traficant said: "You go ahead and expel me, but you ran this place for fifty years, Democrats, and you made the IRS, the FBI and the Justice Department so strong, our people are afraid to death of them."

No wonder the rotten, crooked rats in Congress didn't like him.

Demorats Push Through Destroy the Economy Bill

The ruling political party, acting much like the rubber-stamp legislative body in some fascist/socialist dictatorship, rammed through an unread (that's right, members of Congress are allowed to vote yes for something they haven't even read, is that responsible governing?) 1500 page "cap and trade" bill.

The bill mandates a cut of 17% in so-called greenhouse gases by 2020 and a whopping 83% cut by 2050. All carbon emissions will now carry a literal price-tag, increasing costs across the economy and adding what amounts to another regressive tax on the poorest among us (don't ya just love "compassionate" liberals), but the DemoRATS don't care about ordinary people (in spite of their lies), no it's all about more Federal control of our lives by the ruling class.

Also notice how statists (like religionists) think that something can be commanded into existence on a whim, by a mandate that they pulled out of their ass. The bill "mandates that 20 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources and increased energy efficiency by 2020." That's right, wave a magic wand called a bill and it will happen because Messiah Obama has ordered it so.

Get ready for more poverty followed by more laws to "solve" the new crisis that government created in the first place.

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