Senator Reel

Senator Reel

American Aristocracy

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree"

                                                                                         Thomas Jefferson

 

Congressional approval ratings are embarrassingly low. They are so bad it hurts to acknowledge them. Their rating is so low I doubt if any of them even voted favorably for own quorums. President Bush's rating was consistently about three times higher than that of Congress. To get whipped that bad by George W., takes some doing.

There is a reason. The people have lost confidence in their ability to work cohesively for our Nation. The cultural war between Liberals and Conservatives has morphed into an unending struggle for political power. Although the two sides never cease to call for "Bi-Partisanship", vote after vote after vote gets counted right down the party lines - with almost no variation! When it comes to dealing with the problems of the people they cannot seem to work together. Endless finger pointing and name calling across both sides of the aisle mark most issues. Ideas from either side are immediately opposed and devalued, alternative plans extolled and finally the decision will be to allocate money and form a committee to study the problem. In the meantime, things get worse and nothing gets done. 

 For the moment, perhaps the real arguments should not be about increasing or cutting taxes or whether government should be large or small - it should be focused on whether or not we have government representation that we can trust to serve the best interest of the people. Are the leaders we keep electing there to serve the people or themselves?

 The biggest scam in American history has been the development of our political aristocracy - most notably our elected representatives in Washington, D.C... These ‘perfumed princes and princesses' of government are ensconced atop of our society feeding from the public trough unaffected by the economic peaks and valleys their constituents have to cope with daily.

 When the price of gasoline skyrocketed recently most of the Country had to scramble to adjust or in some cases, just survive. But the boys and girls in Washington never felt the tiniest squeeze because they don't have to worry about such things. When the price of a gallon of gas got up to almost five dollars it didn't cramp their style a bit - why?

 Because our Federal Politicians, regardless of party affiliation, get their fuel bills paid for by the taxpayers. In fact, all of their transportation costs are paid by, you guessed it, the taxpayers. All of their printing and mailing is paid for (consider the advantage this gives incumbents in an election!). Their food and entertainment is paid for. They have no office overhead like private businesses - their rent, office supplies, utilities, gifts, and even their staffs are paid by the taxpayers. But that isn't enough for our ruling class. They have even voted themselves a per Diem on top of their salaries. That is a nice little daily cash bonus in case they have to do a little extra entertaining. If not, they get to pocket it anyway!

 So while the rest of our Country is in a severe recession fighting to stave off another full-on depression, they eat out every night in expensive restaurants and ride around in limos talking on cell phones paid for by working Americans with real jobs. They are so busy enjoying themselves that most of the tasks the rest of us have to deal with daily are managed for them by their Aides. It is not uncommon for top Aides to command six figure salaries - and some members of the legislative branch have over a hundred Aides on the public payroll.  They have Aides on top of Aides paid for by you to do their bidding. Think about what your life would be like if all the tedious, mundane and unpleasant tasks were handled for you by an entourage of assistants paid for by someone else.

You have heard them time after time warn us about the danger of our Social Security system collapsing. They wag their fingers and tell us Social Security is nearly bankrupt and may not be around for the next generation. A few claim its demise may come as soon as the next decade. Some blame it on the "Baby Boomers". But do not be fooled by all of their hand wringing. Their pretense of concern for us is just a smoke screen to hide their shenanigans.

 They have been pretty diligent at taking SSI out of everybody's paychecks for well over half a century yet they claim the fund is almost bankrupt. How did that happen? Are you ready? They borrowed it! This is absolutely true. Our political aristocracy actually borrowed your retirement (future) to fund their current pet projects and buy votes. Of course they claim it was necessary to change the law all by them selves so they could take our money. They insist they did it all for us - (and if you buy that I have a couple of bridges I'd like to sell you).

 The truth is, our government collects over two hundred million dollars more per year than it pays out in Social Security checks, yet we are told the system is going bankrupt. The only reason Social Security is in trouble is because our stalwart legislators have continually spent every penney of surplus. The outrageous thing is they continue to spend every extra cent of even as they tell us the system is approaching collapse. The idea that perhaps they should stop spending our retirement on their personal pork doesn't seem to have occurred to them. You see, to them, the Social Security surplus is a congressional ‘check guarantee' to underwrite their personal re-elections.

 The looming crisis they keep warning about is not as much about you losing your retirement as it is about them losing their cash cow. In three to five years, the changing demographics of our Nation will finally reverse the annual Social Security surplus and begin a deficit. For the first time the aging of our workforce will result in the system taking in less than it pays out. This means there will be no more surpluses available for congress to borrow. To our politicians - that is the real crisis - no more free money at the expense of your retirement. When whatever surpluses that still exist flip into deficits the payouts may cease altogether - leaving your generation holding the bag with no Social Security assistance. They have mortgaged your future to pay their bills.

 The truly amazing thing is, that our political leadership stand there with a straight face and tell us they feel our pain. Although I am not sure how - since they have created their own private retirement plan separate from Social Security. No kidding, they have their own pension plan . Just for them- a much more generous plan than ours and guess who pays for it - us!

 In fact, you and I have to work and contribute for many years to get a small monthly Social Security check when we retire, but our legislators qualify for a juicy pension after serving one term! That's right, it takes the rest of us years to get a small check, but all they have to do is get elected once for one short term and Voila! -  They can live in comfort for the rest of their lives. And of course they have built in periodic raises. Guess which of the retirement plans has increased more over the years? (Hint: not Social Security).

 Their exclusive plan is so generous that many of our former elected officials are making more from their pensions than they ever earned while in office. How they justify this double standard is beyond me. And to add insult to injury they have the hubris to collect Social Security in addition to their fat cat, taxpayer-funded pension! So they are covered if Social Security fails, but they are perfectly content to collect it on top of their pension if it doesn't.

 Don't bother trying to stick the blame on one political party. It doesn't matter which party they hail from. They all indulge themselves at our expense. When and if they decide themselves, to depend on Social Security like the rest of us and abolish their golden plan, I will begin to believe they are sincere. If that miracle ever does happen you can bet they will find a way to fix Social Security and make sure the money is there pronto.

Do you see where this is going?

 They don't face the same pressures the rest of us face. They have created an elitist culture of entitlement with layer upon layer of security and endless perks. Whether the economy is up or down they are so detached and insulated from the pressures of real life that they never feel it. They just go on TV and act like they feel it. They tell us so, but it is not true. They live in luxury regardless of what the rest of America is going through.

 Ross Perot was absolutely right when he said tax dollars are to Washington politicians what coke is to crackheads - no matter how much they get, it will never be enough. Look at their record. Each year our faithless leaders figure out more new ways to tax the American worker. That is what they do best. In fact, virtually all of their time is spent creating new taxes and they have become quite adept at it.

 From the moment you wake in the morning until you lay down to sleep at night you are working for the government. Most people are aware that the average American worker pays four to five months of their yearly wages to the government in income tax, but that is only a small part of their "contribution". You are taxed nonstop on virtually everything you do. As soon as you flip the first light switch or flush the first toilet or hop in your car the tax meter starts spinning. Not only do we pay taxes on utilities, we pay taxes when we buy staples like food, clothing, gasoline, appliances, tools, airline tickets, CDs, DVDs - even telephone and cable bills! The list goes on and on and on and on. You can bet that if something is not being taxed they are working on it. Even now they are trying to come up with a way to tax the internet!

 It doesn't stop there, either. They tax some dollars more than once. If you invest your after-tax dollars and make a profit they take part of that, too. They love it when people work hard and save all their lives to leave an inheritance for their family - because they tax that and sweep a portion into the government coffers. No matter that the taxpayer has diligently put aside funds for their family's future. Congress always wants "their" share. Even after you retire and begin to collect Social security they take their bite by taxing that. The truly tragic thing is they believe your tax dollars really belong to them and regardless of your life circumstances they expect you and every other American worker to cough it up.

 Our political junkies need their fix so bad they will stop at almost nothing to get it. Consider for a moment how they have empowered the IRS to destroy your life if you do not (or cannot) comply. Even though most Americans fear an audit by the IRS more than being mugged, our politicians apparently do not. Charlie Rangel, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, was recently busted for not paying taxes on one of his rental properties. Now, you would think that as Chairman of the chief tax-writing committee in Washington, D.C., that he would know the law -but, evidently not. He pled ignorance. No big deal though, when the IRS confronted Mr. Rangel with his bill for several years of unpaid taxes he simply agreed to a payment of $10,000 - no penalties or interest - just the single payment of $10,000 -pretty sweet deal, huh?

 All Americans should share the same rights and benefits under the law regardless of wealth or status, but how do you think you would have fared in the same situation?  No doubt the process would have been significantly less simple, more time consuming and much more costly (and stressful). There should be no difference in how Citizens are treated by the ruthless pit bulls of the IRS, whether or not, they are members of our elitist Legislature, but once again our politicos seem to consider a separate standard their right.

 Contrary to their long winded posturing, the primary concern of these hypocrites is not the welfare of their constituents - it is getting re-elected and keeping on the gravy train of taxpayer money. Let me emphasize that last point - Our current crop of politicians are less concerned with the quality of your life than they are getting themselves re-elected. Getting re-elected becomes their life purpose as soon as they get elected. They start getting used to the taxpayer-subsidized-good-life and are not about to give it up. The fact is, our politicians spend more time trying to get re-elected than anything else.

 We have some legislators, right now, that have been in office as long as fifty years! A half century! Once they get in and get a taste of it, they don't ever want to leave. They get on as many committees as they can, get cozy with the lobbyists, cultivate relationships with the press and start getting fat on the public dole. They tout their connections and their long ‘experience' as ‘insiders' as the reason for their necessary perpetual re-election, when in fact, it is just for this reason they need to be sent home to make way for new, fresh and innovative newcomers - real working Americans.

 Beware: Our "Citizen government" - you know, the one created by our Founding Fathers - "of the people, by the people, for the people" has been usurped and transformed into a permanent paradise for "professional" politicians. Most of these posers get a job right out of college working on a campaign staff or as an Aide. Then they run for local public office, then State office and work their way up to the Federal level without ever having had a real job. They spend their entire adult lives living off the public dole. No wonder they act as though the working people are their own personal golden geese. They have never learned any better. The only paymaster they have ever known is the American worker. Any time they want anything all they have to do is raise taxes and take a little more of your hard earned money. And if they are afraid you might not like it, they will simply convene a vote in the middle of the night when working people are asleep and it will be a done deal by the time you hear about it in the morning.

 There is only one solution to this problem.  The political system in place today must be replaced. The only way to really change it is to send the professional politicians home. We have to clean house and get rid of the lot of them - regardless of their political affiliation - and replace them with American citizens who have had real experience in the working world.

 When our Founding Fathers created our democratic republic they designed the government to consist of Citizens who went to Washington D.C. to serve temporary terms of office. That was the whole idea of having defined terms for elected officials instead of lifetime appointments. It is the reason why Congressmen are elected for two years and Senators for six, Presidents for four and so on. Limited terms mandate regular elections ‘open to the people'. Citizen politicians are supposed to ‘serve' a limited amount of time - not stay permanently accumulating wealth by taxing working people.

 Unfortunately our State and local governments are typically just smaller versions of the Federal model. Many State politicians are just Federal politicians in training. Taxing and spending is all they know. Right now the State of California is operating without a State budget because the parasites in Sacramento refuse to understand that they can no longer spend more than the State takes in. The Governor is refusing to sign a budget unless the spending is correlated to what the State actually takes in. The politicos refuse to cut spending they want to raise taxes. The overtaxed workers there are fighting tax increases so the legislators want to place an additional financial burden on their (your?) future by borrowing money so they can continue to spend like drunken sailors by encumbering future generations (you). All they can think about is spending more and more. Even as more and more businesses close their doors, more jobs are lost and - for the first time ever - more working people leaving the State versus those coming. What is Sacramento's response? Higher taxes and increased regulation.

 Today's political parasites can't control their addiction to our money. They have to have it to buy power and influence. But what do they do for us, really? You cannot turn on the news without being subjected to news conferences with politicians endlessly pushing their bills and resolutions that do nothing for us. (Try to name the last piece of legislature passed that actually improved your life - Can't do it, huh?) Our politicians sure seem busy doing a big bunch of nothing, but where are they when we really need them?

 Take the Gasoline crisis last year - the price of oil went to $200 per barrel and prices at the pumps were getting close to five dollars. Everybody was screaming about the impact on the economy. The airlines, trucking and automotive industries were reeling, heating oil was up, food prices were increasing and consumers couldn't afford to fill their tanks. Our political leaders immediately vaulted in front of the cameras to point the finger and blame speculators, the Saudis, Big Oil, Wall Street and anybody else they could think of. They were "outraged" and said it was "unacceptable" (political code meaning: "I want you to think I am upset, but I am not going to do anything but talk about it"). They convened committees and appropriated millions of dollars to "study" the problem, but again nothing got done.

 Our politicians were helpless, but we were not. The people handled the crisis by themselves. We drove less and bought less gas. More important at the peak of the crisis, the people began to call for domestic drilling. As we, "the people", modified our consumption and demanded the development of our own domestic oil and gas deposits something incredible happened - Sphincters started tightening all over the Middle East and the price of oil began to plummet. It dropped over 70% in four months! Let me repeat that - the price of oil dropped over 70% in four months! The price of a barrel of oil dropped to less than fifty dollars and prices at the pumps dropped to less than two dollars without any intervention whatsoever from our government. While the professional politicians posed for the TV cameras and burned tax dollars "studying" the problem - the people fixed it!

 Right on the heels of the gasoline crisis, our Nation has experienced a financial meltdown rivaling anything that has occurred in the past. What did the boys and girls in Washington do about it? First, the ‘Chicken Littles' ran around screaming that the sky was falling and that we were all going to die. Then they threw together giant "bailouts" in 2008 and 2009 of over a trillion dollars (by borrowing against our future - again)! They sold it to the American people as necessary to avoid a catastrophic blow to the national economy. We were told it had to be done to "ease the credit crunch" and get money flowing "back to the people". So they got together and appropriated an obscene amount of capital and gave it to their buddies - the banks and big business. The "bailout" money sold as relief for "the people" was instantly used to pay off bank debt and acquire assets from their weaker competitors. In other words, they used the "bailout" money to strengthen their own financial positions!

 What happened to the ‘benefits' for working Americans? How much of the "bailout" money reached you? Have you noticed an increased availability of credit? Has it been easier for you to obtain financing? Has your personal financial situation been impacted positively in any way as a result of the "bailouts"? Probably not, but the big campaign contributors got theirs. After all, our feckless politicians had to save their friends in order to be able to keep filling their campaign coffers for the next election.

 After the "bailouts" failed we began to hear about the "Stimulus Package". We were told if it didn't pass our future was in danger, the economy would go down in flames without it - It was our only hope (again). The problem was the ‘devil was in the details'. The first "stimulus" attempt died when the details of the Legislative "pork" (selected spending that taxes us all, but benefits only the constituents of specific Legislators) became public knowledge. In our time of economic crisis your intrepid leaders had blatantly taken advantage by rushing to stuff the bill with spending calculated to make them selves look good to the voters in their individual districts. It had been done on such a scale that it had to be scrapped and a new version pitched.

Now we have been presented a new "Stimulus" package as a way to put Americans back to work. We have been sold another pile of rubbish claiming the Government is going to "Create jobs".  No ‘biggie'. Apparently it does not seem to matter that the Government cannot create jobs - especially by taxing working citizens. In fact, what was actually in the "Stimulus Package" (1075 pages) was irrelevant to our political aristocracy. The finished bill was posted at 11 pm the evening prior to the vote. In other words - Nobody in the Senate or the House had time to read it before the vote, but they passed it anyway! Although both parties purported to represent the ‘people', the passing of this bill was not for us - it was for their own political expediency. They didn't even seem to care what was in it. They just wanted the cash.

 Even after passing the new Stimulus Package nobody seems overly optimistic. The stock market responded by taking a dive. Even Vice President Joe Biden only gives it a seventy per cent chance of working. The truth is most financial professionals have low expectations for its success. Now the money is gone and we have to pay it back, but where did it go? Who did it help? How did it impact your life?

 I like the way Walter Williams, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, put it: 

 "In stimulus package language, if Congress taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another, who pays the tax, who is unstimulated. A visual representation of the stimulus package is: Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new President proposes for the economy".

 Their newest scam is the "Omnibus" bill as another ‘stimulus' attempt. This time they aren't even trying to hide the pork. This time they are defending it as their Congressional prerogative. Chuck "Money" Schumer even had the gall to defend this practice by saying Americans don't really care about the pork! Your political representatives are so detached from the reality of your life that they call press conferences to tell you how they are going to stick it to you.

 Unfortunately, robbing Peter to pay Paul, encumbering future generations with huge debts, borrowing away our Social Security and living high on our tax dollars have become institutionalized among our political elite. Isn't it ironic that although they seem pathologically impotent to solve the problems facing their constituents, they always seem to be able to take care of themselves and their friends?

 Fortunately, American politicians have not always behaved this way (at least on this scale). The Founding Fathers all had real jobs. They actually worked for a living. They went to Washington, served their terms and then went back home to their real jobs and let someone else serve. That is how our government is supposed to work - "of the people, by the people, for the people" - real working Americans taking time out of their busy lives to act as public servants. There was never any intention of creating a political aristocracy of professional politicians whose fat lifetime income is derived from taxpayer dollars. If our Founding Fathers were around today they would bitch-slap these current Capitol Hill posers out into the street.

 You want change? Get rid of the professional politicians.

 What was mentioned here is just the tip of the iceberg. If this abuse of taxpayer dollars by our political "leaders" is news to you,  I suggest you start checking it out for yourself. There is so much more. The Washington elite have structured freebies, perks and protections for themselves at our expense for decades and show no sign of slowing down. Believe me; they have perks on top of perks on top of perks and more planned for the future.

 You want change? Get rid of the professional politicians.

 It is up to you and your generation to end this cycle of ever increasing abuse. Keep re-electing the same representatives and you can only expect more of the same. As long as this trend continues the only genuine change your generation can depend on is more hand-wringing, fear-mongering, regulation and higher taxation.

 You really want change? Get rid of the professional politicians - all of them! How? Vote the incumbents out. Demand term limits. Elect a new kind of politician. Get representatives in there who have real world experience - men and women who know what it is like to work for a living at a real job - people who do not plan to stay forever. Representatives that want to serve the people - not themselves. That will be a real change.

 

  

P.s.

 

You gotta love Will Rogers:

 

"The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets".

 

(What would he say today?)

 

About the Author

B D Fenton is a freelance writer hiding out in San Juan Capistrano, Californis

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