The Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign rally cry was all about creating The Great Society. Within days of his ascendancy to office he told us about his “War on Poverty.” The census bureau says in 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent. There were 46.5 million people in poverty.

I have stopped going to the Town Hall meetings sponsored by my congressman. For him they are a great way of showing his constituency that he is really interested in the people he represents. I was at his last meeting that was held at the local high school. I learned nothing. Pocket sized booklets of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were free for the taking. These gimmicks have enabled him to be re-elected eight times.
The Declaration of Independence was the creation of the wealthy in 1776. The most famous signatory is John Hancock. Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/. It is the wealthy that made this country grow and succeed.

However it is the middle class that made this country an inspiration for the rest of the world. Thus far the 21st century has brought about that groups decline in significant numbers. If this country is to continue to be a beacon the government must take all action necessary to ensure those in the middle continue to thrive. As of this date the current congress has failed to “insure domestic Tranquility” and “promote the general Welfare” as directed in the preamble to the Constitution.

Recent evidence of a lack of effort to “promote the general Welfare” is the absence of legislation that would protect jobs and encourage hiring. Who cares? Not the mostly well-to-do members of Congress. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25% in 2013. And you thought the representatives were representing you. They are not! They represent their best interests. That would be the money men who contribute to re-election campaigns.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.7% in December. Sounds good. It’s all about smoke and mirrors. The BLS wrote in its latest report in January wrote, “The number of unemployed persons declined by 490,000 to 10.4 million,” but the bureau reported that only 74,000 jobs had been created. How can this be? Simple. More people stopped looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate is a feel good number that does not tell us the real employment situation.

This situation reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984. Lies and double talk. Two and Two could be Five. Especially if the government says so. Town Hall meetings and the unemployment rate are two of the many government efforts to make you believe that our elected representatives are making America a great success story.

Don’t you believe it!

It takes more than the ballot box to change a 317 million population nation. Demonstrations and marches are needed. How many will be willing to participate? Not enough to make the changes. And so we march along as the peasants (the federal government hates that word) doing the bidding of our masters.

Majority Should Rule

Although the rule allowing a filibuster in the United States Senate was created in 1789, the first Senate filibuster occurred in 1837. Clearly the intent is to stop the Senate from conducting its business. Since 1917, the minority has enjoyed the right to unlimited debate on legislation and nominations until the majority can amass a super-majority. In recent years, that has meant 60 votes.

One senator can impact the wishes of the majority. It is clearly an undemocratic procedure.

There continues to be a debate about the rights of the minority in a democracy. It revolves around the argument that even minorities have rights. While that may have some validity, the opportunity to vote should not be denied. The results of any election, whether in an elected body or the total electorate should determine a course of action. Flibusters deny that opportunity.

I celebrate the Senate’s vote (52-48) to change the filibuster rule to change proceedings so that only a simple majority was required to clear the way for a final vote on all appointments except Supreme Court nominations.

In California there are regulations that require a two-thirds majority to change tax laws. That too is undemocratic. Thus we have tax laws that are almost impossible to change.

This rule change should not only apply to all senate business, it should apply to all elections and all representative bodies. “Majority rule” is what democracy is all about.

Destroying the United States

The Tea Party wing of the GOP is at it again. Their primary mission is lower taxes at any cost. They have no regard for the consequences of their desire to reduce the taxation.

Tea Party Patriots are now promoting the Repeal 16 Coalition. It is a proposal to repeal the 16^th amendment to the Constitution. That amendment came into effect in 1913. The amendment gave Congress the power to impose income taxes.

The amendment states:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Cornell University explanation:

Congress has power under Article I, Section 8 to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare. Under the 16th Amendment, Congress can collect taxes on incomes that are derived from any source. As long as Congress has the power to regulate a particular activity that it wishes to tax, it can use the tax as a regulating device rather than in order to raise revenue. Even if Congress lacks the power to regulate a particular activity, the tax will be upheld if it has the “dominant intent” of raising revenue. In other words, even if a tax might have a substantial regulatory effect, if it raises revenue, it will be considered valid.

The requirements to amend the Constitution (as defined in Article V):

two-thirds of both houses or two-thirds of the several states and ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states.

This is a tough barrier to amendments and is obviously the reason there have been only 27 amendments and ten were immediately passed as the “Bill of Rights.”

This proposed repeal has little chance of passage. That there is a group of people who would propose this amendment sends a message of the length the Tea Party will go to reach their objective.

Is their real objective to destroy the United States?

The United States Existence is Based Upon Compromise

I have reduced my listening to the never ending debate over the government shut down and the debt ceiling limit. Both of our political parties are to blame.

The president won’t negotiate and the Republicans won’t “surrender”. That makes the nation the loser.

The price that will be paid will be higher interest rates. All Americans will be paying higher taxes as a consequence.

While dancing along the edge of a financial cliff the political parties are putting our nation at risk. It is a game of Russian Roulette.

I am sorry to say that Americans are to blame. We have encouraged the congressional behaviour we are witnessing.

Respect for a form of government that is over 200 years old is appropriate.

From Encyclopedia Britannica

The Great Compromise, as it came to be known, created a bicameral legislature with a Senate, in which all states would be equally represented, and a House of Representatives, in which representation would be apportioned on the basis of a state’s free population plus three-fifths of its slave population. (The inclusion of the slave population was known separately as the three-fifths compromise.) A further compromise on slavery prohibited Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808 (Article I, Section 9). After all the disagreements were bridged, the new Constitution was submitted for ratification to the 13 states on September 28, 1787.

Tea Party Vision for the United States

There is no end to Tea Party demands. With each win they go on to make more demands. That is the behavior of an extortionist. Their real intent is to reduce the United States Federal government to a very limited bureaucracy that cedes most functions to the individual states. The result will be the end of the United States as a consequential power in the world. They appear to be winning.

America’s enemies couldn’t be happier.

From the National Tea Party Federation

The Tea Party movement’s objectives:

Fiscal Responsibility
Constitutionally Limited Government
Free Markets

So Fiscal Responsibility means no borrowing at all. That would reduce the federal budget. The debt ceiling is currently $16.4 Trillion. In August of 2011 the ceiling was $15.2 Trillion. Current deficit spending amounts to about 1/3 of the money spent each year. What does that mean in terms of impact on society? Reports say that the current government shutdown has resulted in reducing the government payroll by 15%. That number does not include planned layoffs of contractors who say they will begin layoffs next week at Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Helicopter and the thousands of smaller businesses that supply government with a variety of goods.

Constitutionally Limited Government means limiting the federal government to only those responsibilities specifically defined in the Constitution. Translate that to mean no subsidies for any business or industry, no welfare grants or other aid to any business or individual, no agriculture department, no FAA, no FTC, no FDA, no SEC, no government departments for any function that is part of the 21^st century. Medicare, Social Security, and other social programs would have to be eliminated. Of course the individual states could run those programs.

Free Markets really means no government interference with any private enterprise even if that means monopolies. Drug manufacturers could make and sell anything they want regardless of its effectiveness or safety. Food inspections would not occur because they would interfere with free markets.

Would these programs reduce the impact of the United States in the world? I say the United States would be reduced in every way in the 21^st century. Our impact – well we would not have any impact.

Do Gooders Folly

California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has followed at least 11 other states approving a law that will issue driving privileges to illegal aliens. The theory is that those people will now be able to legally drive and that means passing a driving test and obtaining auto insurance. Everyone will be safer. What could be wrong with that? If those aliens did all that the streets and highways would be safer.

The Los Angeles Times says “An estimated 1.4 million immigrants are expected to apply for the special permits, to be available in late 2014 or early 2015.”

The flaw in this plan is that I, as an illegal alien, fear being apprehended and deported and will not willingly give my real address to anyone except my closest friends and relatives. Thus I am not willing to divulge my address to the Department of Motor Vehicles. I would rather drive my car carefully but illegally.

Don’t Like Your Government – Just Secede

Modoc County Board of Supervisors voted to join Siskiyou County in their effort to withdraw from the State of California.

…a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, … Thomas Jefferson

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy

The above two quotes appear on the Jefferson State web page.

The fault in this scheme is that every area that finds itself in the minority has the right to succeed. This was settled in the Civil War. States have no right to secede. Areas of individual states should function with the same expectation.

Article IV, Section. 3 – U.S. Constitution
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

Upstate New York has thrives despite its cultural differences with NYC and that surrounding suburban spread.

So while parts of Northern California and Southern Oregon want to form a new state so do parts of Idaho and Montana want the same thing. Just this past week rural northern Colorado reached the same conclusion. The only state cut from another state is West Virginia and that was the result of the Civil War.

Democracy works when we accept the idea of majority rule. It does not work when we split apart. Wait a minute. Tell that to the Congress.