The good old days - just not that good or that simple

A friend sent me a copy of the following email that has probably circled the planet several times - aided by TeaNuts and Libertarians along the way.

Read this slowly, let it sink in, VOTE in November

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. please read the entire article.

The article below is completely neutral, not anti republican or democrat. 

Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel has hit the nail directly on the head,  defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. 

It’s a short but good read.  Worth the time.  Worth remembering! 

 545 vs. 300,000,000 

EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE.  READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE. 

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years. 

545 PEOPLE — By Charlie Reese 

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. 

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? 

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do 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, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 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 the Congress.  In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. 

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.  They have no legal authority.  They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.  The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes. 

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. 

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.  No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits…. .  The   president can only propose a budget.  He cannot force the Congress to accept it. 

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.  Who is the speaker of the House?  Nancy Pelosi.  She is the leader of the majority party.  She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.  If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. 

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 

545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility.  I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. 

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair. 

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red … 

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way. 

There are no insoluble government problems. 

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.  Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. 

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. 

They, and they alone, have the power.. 

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. 

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess! 

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper. 

What you do with this article now that you have read it………  Is up to you. 

Sales Tax School Tax Liquor Tax Luxury Tax Excise Taxes Property Tax Cigarette Tax Medicare Tax 

Inventory Tax Real Estate Tax Well Permit Tax Fuel Permit Tax Inheritance Tax Road Usage Tax 

CDL license Tax Dog License Tax State Income Tax Food License Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Gross Receipts Tax Social Security Tax Service Charge Tax Fishing License Tax Federal Income Tax 

Building Permit Tax IRS Interest Charges Hunting License Tax Marriage License Tax Corporate Income Tax 

Personal Property Tax  Accounts Receivable Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax Workers Compensation Tax 

Watercraft Registration Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Telephone Federal Excise Tax  Telephone State and Local Tax 

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) 

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge TaxTelephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)

Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes 

Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax 

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. 

We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. 

What in the hell happened?  Can you spell ‘politicians? ’ I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!! 

YOU can help it get there!!! 

GO AHEAD - - - BE AN AMERICAN!!! 

PS.

If you do the right thing and pass this on - which is entirely up to you - 

please do the right thing and highlight and delete any addresses you receive with it.  

Thank You 

Like so many things, this is a simplistic view of the past by a simpleton. Charlie Reese is an idiot - who apparently ‘died’ intellectually before he learned how to research anything or think things through.

Here’s what this ‘thinking’ doesn’t consider in an America of 100 years ago:

Is the writer suggesting that without taxes that didn’t exist 100 years ago that we would return to the same level of so-called prosperity - that of the ‘Gilded Age’ of Robber Barons when children worked in mines and women were dying in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911?  The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which fought for better and safer working conditions for sweatshop workers in that industry.

When the infant mortality rate in 1900 was 165 in 1,000 (it was 6.22 in 1,000 in 2009)? But that earlier rate was in an America without burdensome federal agencies like the United States Dept of Health and Human Services (created in 1923) that educated people in how to survive and be healthier from infancy to old age, and created standards that give us the health and lifespan we know today.

When adults were still dying of largely preventable disease - such as influenza pandemics that killed tens of thousands in the United States? The worst pandemic in 1918 wiped out entire Alaskan villages and killed between 500,000 and 676,000 persons in an America without so many taxes and government agencies to help prevent it or help those affected by it.

When the literacy rate was nowhere near what it is today?

When the average adult lived to be the ripe old age of 47?

When most adults didn’t have more than a third grade education - if that?

The average income was $438 dollars per year - which I calculate to be $11,010.66 adjusted for inflation.

Let’s take a look at a few of those taxes mentioned - that weren’t in existence 100 years ago - and think about them briefly in light of today and a few obvious facts.

Property taxes pay for schools in most communities. Since few average folks attended school 100 years ago - with the exception of the wealthy - funding schools wasn’t an issue. Moving from a largely agricultural society where your future was on the family farm to an industrial society required education. Industry was a major proponent of regular school attendance.

Medicare Tax: We didn’t have Medicare until 1965 and the elderly prior to that were sort of up shit creek if they got sick and didn’t have money to buy medical care. Would you go back to that?

Cigarette Taxes: They go toward paying for the high costs of smoking related illness imposed on society by those who smoke of their own ‘free’ will. Unfortunately, it’s not free - for society. The costs of smoking raise the health costs, and health insurance premiums for all of us. Those cigarette taxes also go toward educating the young not to smoke. Not a bad idea.

Gasoline Taxes: Since there was no federal interstate highway system prior to the Eisenhower administration, and not too many cars 100 years ago, we didn’t need gasoline taxes that pay for a lot of the construction and maintenance of those same highways. We could get rid of it and go back to toll roads owned by corporations. Then you could go back to driving on a hodge-podge of roads - all of differing quality or lack of quality, paying a different rate for each - which could change by the mile. Not a great idea for transcontinental trucking, for example. That would probably put truckers out of business. Oh, those same taxes also go toward making driving a hell of a lot safer today through education and mandating silly things like seat belts.

Excise taxes: Which excise tax would the writer do away with? Many of the ‘sin’ taxes are excise taxes … taxes on alcohol and tobacco. See argument under Cigarette Taxes.

Hunting Tax (fee, actually), Marriage Tax (fee, actually): There are a lot of these fees in every country and community. Uh, somebody has to pay for the agency that oversees hunting (and wildlife, and the management of natural resources for future generations), and Marriages have to be ensured to be legally binding … you would rather not find out that your new spouse had other current spouses, I think. Unless you’re a fundamentalist mormon idiot.

Watercraft Registration fees, Utility Vehicle Registration Fees, and many similar fees go toward paying for the man/woman power to ensure that watercraft and utility vehicles are maintained, sea/road worthy and not a danger to others … and come under Public Safety. Surely Public Safety is a good thing worthy of funding. Watercraft Registration Fees also go toward ensuring that the damn invasive mussel species don’t get into Lake Tahoe’s pristine waters. The fees help hire people to make sure this doesn’t happen. Fees if this nature also have to pay for educating the idiots out there to not make life harder for the rest of us.

Taxes, dear reader, are the cost we pay for living in a civilized society - to steal a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

If Reese’s 545 people are responsible for all of our problems - then what is his answer? To get rid of them?

Empty out Congress and replace them with what? Lobbyists? Robber Barons?

Tell your kid - sick and dying with ecoli bacteria from infected meat from an uninspected fast food joint that we don’t need government or government oversight. Tell that kid it will be alright because industry can police itself just fine. Oh, and hope that you can afford a good doctor, because without government there will be no enforced standards to ensure that your doctor or the hospital deliver safe care and services. The ‘free market’ and the invisible hand will ensure that needles and other disposable medical items aren’t used twice to save money.

Tell your grandkids that although Lake Tahoe used to be famous for it’s astounding clarity, business made a heck of a lot of money building - unregulated - around the Lake Tahoe basin, and it’s just too damn bad that the resultant water pollution (runoff from construction sites that ran unregulated into the Lake’s waters) is just the price you pay for making a living. Lake Tahoe real estate prices will plunge, never to recover, due to the murky, dead waters of the polluted Lake and the dead beetle infested forests that burned years before.

I get really tired of Libertarians and just plain idiots like Charlie Reese, Ron and Rand Paul et al that think today and the almighty dollar are the only things that matter.

Maybe the real answer is robust campaign finance reform, so that we can take our government back from the money interests that have it hostage, and hold it accountable.

-maven