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 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? 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

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

Mortgage Primer 101

President Obama has just released his latest plan to keep people in their homes. I have a flash for his cast at Treasury.
PEOPLE WANT TO SELL THEIR HOMES! We went down this road of 0% down 125% financing thanks to Bill Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. We had to close the housing gap! There were people out there who could not afford to buy a house! Of course more affluent people used the plan to buy a $730,000 dollar home when they could only afford maybe a modest little $600,000 dollar home.
The point is that three or four years down the road, they still have no equity and are still upside down on the mortgage. They are upside down because they took that extra 25% and paid off credit card debt or other personal debt or maybe added a pool to their new digs that they couldn’t afford in the first place.
Now, in order to sell, they have to find someone willing to take on that extra mortgage amount. Even if we were in the housing market of the last decade, the homes value would not have appreciated enough to make up that 25%. We do not need a plan to re-write these mortgages and “keep people in their homes”. We need a plan to bring liquidity and mobility back in the market. That will only happen if we return to the basic premise that equity builds value. Let’s get the intellectuals and social engineers out of business.

Geithner's choice for deputy secretary withdraws

International Herald Tribune - ?12 hours ago? AP WASHINGTON: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's top pick to be his deputy has withdrawn from consideration. Annette Nazareth, a former senior staffer and commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, withdrew after several interviews ...

At the SEC, Nazareth was a driving force in urging a merger of the NASD, an industry-funded regulator of U.S. brokerages, with most of the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm. The SEC approved the consolidation, which formed the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in July 2007. That group has come under fire on Capitol Hill for not spotting the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly masterminded by Bernard Madoff.

Before becoming a commissioner in 2005, Nazareth was the staff member in charge of overseeing brokerage firms, market surveillance and stock exchanges. She led the division in 2004 when it designed a program to monitor whether Wall Street’s biggest securities firms had adequate capital and liquidity.
SEC Inspector General David Kotz faulted the program in a September report, saying the SEC failed to respond to “numerous, potential red flags” at Bear Stearns Cos., which collapsed a year ago. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bust in September.

Prior to joining the Commission staff, Ms. Nazareth held several positions in the financial services industry. As a Managing Director of Smith Barney from 1997 to 1998, she was deputy head of the capital markets legal group. As a Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel of Lehman Brothers, Ms. Nazareth was the chief legal advisor to the fixed income division from 1994 to 1997. From 1986 to 1994, she served as Managing Director and General Counsel of Mabon Securities Corp. and its predecessor business, Mabon, Nugent & Co.
Some might remember that Mabon, Nugent & Company invested 40 million dollars in the failing Global Motors that had brought us the famed Yugo.

Remember that catchy phrase?

Yugo, I go, we all go!

LAYOFFS AND DOWNSIZING....

Has anyone out there ever been laid-off or downsized?

I can tell you one group that never has suffered this indignity. Our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!!

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks.

Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)

$97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country?

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note:
Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, there were 3 senators that were not doing their jobs while on the campaign trail for 18+ months) but were still accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.

$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.

$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.

$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$8,073,383,400.00 per year, estimated total savings. (that's 8-BILLION just to start!)

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save. Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.

IF you are happy how the Congress spends our taxes, then just ignore this post. IF you are NOT at all happy, then I assume you know what to do.

Next Week: The Administration! What we might call the CEO and Staff!

A.M.

YOU'RE FIRED!