Fifty years of failure is enough. It is time; We the people can impose “Term Limits” through our power of having the privilege to VOTE! Former Defense Secretary Dom Rumsfeld was not just criticized for his handling of the Iraq War, leading Democrats, including Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, called for his resignation. Members of Congress, including some Republicans, also called for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Both of these individuals have served relatively limited terms, and their transgressions have been arguably few.
Now consider a U.S. Congress with a 50-year record of failure in virtually every area for which it is responsible, and many for which it is NOT! It is time for the members of CONGRESS to RESIGN. Congress has had plenty of time to deal with immigration, energy, defense and many other issues in which they play a central role. They have failed miserably. They have ventured into areas for which they have no legitimate responsibility such as education and health care, expanding both their list of failures, and their encroachment on areas reserved for the states. In fact, they have expanded the federal role to virtually every aspect of American life, littering their power hungry path with failure after failure. It is no wonder that major polls place confidence in Congress at a historical LOW of 23-25%.
What Congress HAS done is as obscene as what they haven’t. The have created a virtual wall between them and “us,”erecting a royal façade for themselves. They dine lavishly, fly first class or on private jets, travel the world with their friends, family and cronies. They feast on both public and private money, creating breaks and opportunities for their friends and themselves, becoming rich not for what they accomplish, but from the power of their office – their public trust. Not content to become wealthy through deal making with special interests, they have increased their compensation and perks to loftly levels and set up a lucrative retirement system, while letting SOCIAL SECURITY go broke. Some promised to serve limited terms, but reneged when the pull of power seduced them into permanence. Congress created a system which preserved the strangle hold on the two major parties while ensuring the re-election of its members ad infinitum; impervious to challenge, they designed a system based on money and power, not ideas and accomplishment.
THE AUTHORITY
By what authority should the “mere” people of the country presume to demand the resignation of Congress? A simple document entitled the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Then whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principals and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Why not the President? Some should ask, why just the Congress? Why not the President? First, the President is limited to two terms in office. Deficiencies are self-limiting. Congress has never seen fit to impose such a restriction on itself. Second, while the presidency is the most powerful individual office in the world, the Congress is the most powerful branch of government, Congress has the authority to declare war(though it has frequently abdicated this power), the sole authority to fund government programs, and the sole authority to remove those in power, including the president, Supreme Court justices and themselves. Third, Congress has shown itself to be the dispensable in terms of replacement. Are there not hundreds, even thousands, of individuals possessing the intellect, character and common sense to perform equally or better to the dismal congressional record of the past 50 years?
The FAILURES (partial list)
BUDGET, TAXES and the ECONOMY
The federal budget is in the range of $3 Trillion. This number, incomprehensible to most, is the result of increased spending year after year for one new program after another. It is also the result of a federal government run amok, doing things for which it was not designed, for which it has no constitutional authority and which it does not do well. It is compounded by EGO, and re-election motivated efforts by every legislator to add earmarks and other special spending for their state or district. The tax system to collect the obscene largesse is even more obscene, running 17,000 pages and 5.5 million words understandable to NO ONE. Worse, it has become a system not for tax collection, but for social engineering, rewards and punishments, and invasive to the privacy of citizens.
CIVIL RIGHTS
The concept of civil rights was explained simply and elegantly in the Declaration of Independence and codified by the Constitution. It has since been perverted into politically-correct, all-inclusive lunacy, forbidding discrimination (i.e. by choice) on the basis of sex, religion, age, race, color (whateverthat is), national origin (including illegal residence), sexual preference (a ridiculous term on its face), including transsexual, transgender, and cross-dressing behaviors. Have these people gone nuts or what?
CRIME
NATIONAL Crime at the national level is a joke. Every major city in the country is infested with gangs and thoroughly as they are with rats. Drug trafficking and other organized crime is rampant. Cities can’t even deal with graffiti! Now the matter is complicated by the growth of international terrorists– both illegally entering, and openly invited as students, war refugees and others on approved visas.
EDUCATION
Though the federal government has no legitimate place in education, it continues to meddle on a grand scale. Various federal education acts setting rules and compliance, federal funding and grants, and most recently, the idiotic “no child left behind” disaster. There is a reason education was left to the states and communities in the first place—it works! Federal bureaucracy is the ruination of education and it needs to be ended—totally.
ENERGY
While the production, sale and distribution of energy is largely a matter of private enterprise, the government has a role in assuring a national energy policy to meet the nations needs at a reasonable cost and without reliance on foreign, especially terrorist oriented, interests. Has it done any of this? NO. Meanwhile, mega mergers of large energy companies have been allowed, we have not allowed utilization of our own vast oil and coal resources, and shut down the nuclear industry. Now, just how many pinheads does it take to power a windmill?
FOREIGN POLICY
War and Peace - Since and including Viet Nam, Congress has been derelict in its conduct of war. It has stated no objectives to be attained, but instead empowered presidents to act with reckless abandon, offering only “Monday morning quarterbacking!” To commit to war, there must be: clear and sufficient reason, specific objectives to measure progress and conclusion, use of technological superiority and overwhelming force, declaration of victory on achievement of objectives. Congress has not required any of these, though authorizing military actions all over the globe. Meanwhile, we do nothing while Iran and Korea develop nuclear capabilities.
Diplomacy - Our basic method of diplomacy has been to secure peace by buying friends, giving billions to one corrupt government after another. That’s worked well. While taking criticism from our European allies, we continue to pay for their defense with U. S. bases and troops. The UN is a joke, the IMF and the World Bank are equally corrupt and worthless, while NATO is an anachronism of WW II. We are busy with “nation building” for others while our own nation is falling apart.
Trade - Where is the “pro” in the “quid pro quo?” We give everything and get nothing. Our manufacturing capacity has been lost, we buy more than we can sell—much from China, and we prop up Mexico even as their citizens freely invade our borders. Not content with the screw-ups of NAFTA, we are busy crafting the same for Central America in CAFTA! The Bush administration is so intent on a new world order, they are pushing for a North American Union similar to the failed EU. (see www.spp.gov.)
Health Care - Health care used to work in this country. Enter the federal government, together with insurance companies and HMOs, and the system is a wreck. What’s the answer? More federal intervention, of course. WRONG! Get the feds out of health care, focus on health care rather than insurance requirements and let the private system work. For those that fall through the cracks, and let the states deal with the issue without meddling from the federal bureaucracy. Allow insurance to function as it should, protect against catastrophic loss, not paying for birth control pills or Viagra.
Homeland Security - The Chicago fire and the SF earthquake on 1906 were gigantic disasters. Both cities were rebuilt without FEMA or Homeland Security. Not Katrina! Nope, we are so busy creating victims, we have taken away self-determination and local initiative. If the federal government existed as it does now 150 years ago, the pioneers would still be crossing the Mississippi... on federal funded rafts. Meanwhile, we are allowing thousands of terrorists to populate our schools, overstay visas and inviting them to take up residence as refugees from the war torn Middle East. New-flash: the Middle East has always been war torn, and likely always will be. Keep them out of this country.
Illegal Immigration and Borders - Suffice it to say that the American people have far greater sense than the Congress and their clear and powerful message was heard, thus defeating a disastrous Kennedy-Bush amnesty program! The borders are STILL FRIKKIN’ Leaking in illegal immigrants like a bottomless bucket.
Preservation of Citizenship and Culture - Our normal immigration is a failure as well. New entrants are not the immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those people came here to embrace the culture of America: its values, western culture, language, religious philosophy, work ethic, spirit of opportunity and independence. To them the Constitution was a work of art. Since then, we have encouraged (thanks to Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration programs) millions to come here in cultural DISHARMONY, altering our own language, customs, and philosophy to that of the country from which they came. We’ve always had “Little Italy’s”, but the Italians didn’t attempt to conquer the Southwest for Rome! Vietnamese, Hmongs, Africans, Columbians, Haitians, Cubans, Mexicans, and now Iraqis and Muslims from around the world. We are no longer a melting pot but a bowl of incompatible mixed 3rd World vegetables. All thanks to Congress. Not content, Congress is defying the vast majority of Americans to break down the culture of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Infrastructure and transportation - With huge amounts consumed for expenditures such as social services, there is little available to deal with the boring but necessary matter of dams, bridges and highways. As always, Congress will wait until there is a disaster and then act. Innovation, such as high-speed trains and other transit systems to connect major cities? Forget it—they’re to busy beating up on “talk radio.”
Legal issues - Tort Reform? Most of Congress is made up of attorneys. All of Congress is financed by them; not going to happen. Victims? They can be invented by Congress. Can anyone explain why families of those killed in the 9/11 bombings received $4 million apiece, while your cousin who was killed in a carcrash got nothing? How about the widow of a combat veteran killed in action? Congress makes a specialty of rewarding high visibility victims. Everyone else can suck eggs. We could go on. If someone likes, they can email me a list of the accomplishments of the federal government and the Congress over the past 50 years, and I’ll apologize.
WHO SHOULD RESIGN - The longest “serving” 20 members of the U.S. Senate have a combined tenure of 608 years. 608 YEARS? That represents not 608 years of reasoned experience and dedicated public service. No, it is 608 years of failure, inaction, incompetence and self-serving. I would recommend as a start that members of theSenate with 3 terms or more (18 years) resign immediately. That would include 29 senators or 29% ofthe Senate (13-R, 15-D, 1-I) including Harry Reid. I would recommend that members of the house with 5 or more terms (10 years) resign. That would include 209 members or 48% of the House (89-R, 120-D). This would give the country a chance to attract in a special election some fresh ideas from people committed to doing what 50 years of these people has not: to return this country to greatness. If they fail, we go after them and the rest. These people are not going to step down voluntarily, of course. They should, but they won’t. There will be a way, but that proposal will have to wait for another day. But this much is certain: they DO need to leave NOW!
Join the country to clean these government houses out of the corruption. In the next three major elections forget party politics. Register to vote and then vote. When you do vote; vote in the new face no matter what party and get the old face out of that seat which that person has made a throne out of. We the people still have the power to vote. We had better take this privilege seriously because if we don’t use it these corrupt fools will eventually take the right to vote away from us. They have infringed on everything else. Join the countries only way to clean up our house. Vote out the old and vote in the new.
