Friday, September 17, 2010

Easy Compared to What?


According to the newsletter email I received today from my U.S. Congressman, today is the 223RD anniversary of the affirmation and signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. That's something worthy of celebration in my opinion.

Yippee!

And, now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

My Congressman included the following paragraph in the newsletter:

On this Constitution Day, we must again reaffirm our understanding of the founding principles, which include a restrained federal government and state sovereignty. Indeed, the Constitution established a limited, representative government that respects and protects individual liberties and freedoms.

It occurs to me that we have anything but a "restrained federal government" or a "limited, representative government that respects and protects individual liberties and freedoms." We haven't for a long time. 

Restraint? I seem to recall House Minority Leader Boehner mentioning something about rolling back spending levels to 2004 or 2006 levels. That went over well. You would have thought he had three heads and banana sticking out of every bodily orifice the way people were looking at him. The lack of support from his own party was deafening all the way down here in Texas. Seems that thought weren't too popular in our "progressive spend everyone else's money on every conceivable pet project" Congress. Which, to be fair, has been going on far longer than the current crop of thieves have been in office. 

Try listening in on the arguments (if you have a strong stomach) about extending the "Bush tax cuts". Our beloved horse thieves can't seem to agree whether or not to extend the "Bush Tax Cuts". Seems we can't afford to borrow money from foreign nations to finance a tax cut if I heard the quote from Princess Nancy correctly. Hey, Ms. Pelosi, how about you get your hand out of everyone's pocket and cut some programs?
How about a limited government? Try Googling the number of federal government agencies siphoning money out of the budget year after year? I couldn't find a solid number; however, I did find the listing of federal agencies and departments on the USA.gov website. I tried to upload a screen shot of a small sampling of the over 473 federal agencies and departments I counted in the list NOT including state, local and territorial governments, but it appears that I still have some technological deficiencies to overcome. "

I love the tag line: "Government Made Easy". Oh really? Compared to what?

Do we really need a federal African Development Foundation? That sounds like it should be a private non-profit organization to me. How much money do we waste (I mean spend) on that every year? Or how much do we spend on the Agency for International Development? How about we let taxpayers keep that money and develop our own nation?

And just where in the Constitution does it authorize Congress or the Executive branch to create an Agricultural Marketing Service? Is that an advertising agency or a public relations firm? 

I think the perfect celebration for Constitution day would be to dump the entire Federal Register in the trash can, fire every single government employee and disband every single federal agency and department (with the exception of the military). Do it on a Friday. Today, in fact. Everyone gets the weekend to come up with a Constitutional justification for their job, agency or department. If, on Monday morning, they cannot cite chapter and verse of which article and section in the Constitution gives them the right to exist (or be on the government payroll)…bye-bye…don't let the door hit you on the butt. Good luck in the private sector. 

Ditto for the Federal Register. If a law cannot be reconciled to the Constitution for Authority…off with its head…I mean off the books. 

The Constitution was a great idea. We have managed to screw it by bogging it down with the weight of generations of ignorance and greed. It's time we cleaned up our mess.

3 comments:

  1. "Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, -- entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; -- freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, -- these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation".
    Thomas Jefferson:

    Do you think that he is spinning in his grave with what is going on these days???? LOL

    I took the test. Seems I'm a bit more liberal than I thought my score was 123.....LOL

    great post K.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Daddy, Great quote. Yes, he and the other patriots are going to be royally pissed when they find out what's been happening.

    On your score, I think anything to the right of average is a good start.

    Brigid, I take that as high praise.

    ReplyDelete

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