Don't re-elect anybody

General Real Estate Investing
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Thought you heavy thinkers out there would appreciate this one.

This takes a minute to read. It is a short essay by Charlie Reese, a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

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 why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, why 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 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 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 to and criticized the President for creating deficits.

The president can only propose a budget.

He cannot force 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 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 – provided voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

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

Posted by Raj

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Agreed 100000000000000000000000000000000%.

In my opinion, all these Congressman who are voting against the American people should be lined up and shot.

Dont know what else to say…

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And I would like to add one other thing…

If Hilary Clinton becomes president, I HOPE TO GOD she gets assasinated. She is the biggest f’in lying peice of sh!!!T on this earth. I really do mean that.

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hoosier4life,

You really need to rein in those ideas on assassinating or shooting Hillary Clinton or other elected officials.

I have lots of respect for anyone who runs for public office. It is a huge amount of often thankless mind-numbing work and long hours.

Hoosier, you need to try to serve on a committee, or attend some city council meetings in your area. I got a lot of appreciation for elected officials by doing that and seeing what takes place just to keep the wheels of local government turning.

You don’t have to agree with your elected officials. But you must respect them for doing their work. Vote them out if you don’t like them, or run for office yourself.

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Nicely said furnishedowner. It’s also nice to have that same type of respect you describe for the military too. Whether you agree or disagree with what the military is involved in now or in the past, the military is told to go do a job. You can respect the people and the position they’re in even if you don’t agree with what they’re ordered to do. I hear lot of people these days saying they support the troops even though they don’t support the war. Always remember the military defends your freedom to say you’re for or against a cause!

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I am with you 100% on respecting the military. It’s their leaders who should be held to a high standard of conduct as leaders and examples.

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I disagree. I have almost no respect for most of the people who run for office.

Ross Perot should have been president, and he would have been… but he got death threats against his family. He was a guy who actually knew what the American People needed, and that was to stop all this Free Trade BS and give the Americans jobs. Who do you think gave him the death threats? BIG CORPORATIONS.The same BIG CORPORATIONS who are paying the Congressman off to vote their way. YOU RESPECT THAT?!?!?!?!?

Im guessing your not a factory worker whos been working for 30 years and who just got their job sent to China?

Hiliary is NOT for “The American People.” She had one goal as the First Lady, and that was to get Free Health Care. She didnt get it, then she gets up on stage and bashes Obama every chance she gets.

Shes lived a rich life her whole life, why in the hell does she care about people who are losing their factory jobs? SHE DOESNT. SHe is still making money hand over fist.

NAFTA must be stopped. Its ruining peoples lives, but the problem is, big corporations WILL NOT allow it to be stopped.

Again, I hope to GOD Hilary doesnt make it.

ALSO… We need to go and figure out every Congressman who has voted against the American People and HANG them. What they are doing to our country is not what American was built on, but they are making money, so they dont care.

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Instead of wailing and complaining about things we won’t be able to change, we should spend that mental energy doing more deals.

Just a thought.

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My dad works at Delphi. Their are 28 Delphi Plants in the US, and out of those 28, 24 of them went to China.

Who do you think allowed that to happen?

Im sorry, but its kind of hard to ignore that.

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Hooiser,
It makes it extra hard when big issues like you talk about hit so close to home. My dad retired as a factory worker about five years ago. He’s one of the last people I know personally who gets to enjoy what used to be a pretty standard pension. My uncle has worked at the same factory for over 40 years. It’s the only job he’s had since graduating high school. His factory has gone thru several owners and name changes over the years. One of the changes was the new owner did away with all the worker’s pensions. So here he’d worked for this company knowing he would have that for his family’s future and it was all taken away with a change of ownership. I think many of the current working class people nearing retirement didn’t invest over the years because they were just trying to get by and support their families and they were also counting on a pension. Now the younger generation sees that a pension isn’t so standard any more. We also realize we’re probably not going to work for the same company or even do the same type of job for 30+ years. That’s why I think it’s so important to not leave anything to chance. We can’t count on Social Security like generations past. I know you’re young and just getting started with everything. Look into putting a little each month into an IRA. I’m making up for lost time in my early 30’s. I had a different strategy in my early 20’s and then a divorce happened. I’ve had to start over. It’s going well now, but I sure wish I would’ve started an IRA then.

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Well I don’t think that lining up congressman and shooting them will solve anything. Perhaps a better system of holding officials to their campaign promises or they get fired is start. Besides, if you listen closely to the candidare’s words, they don’t promise ANYTHING. The say things like, " I’ll work toward" and “I support”. People actually believe this as a promise and get upset when it doesn’t come true. As far as companies going overseas, you can’t pin everything on the govt. After all, it’s the companies that make the decision. When you have countries that produce for cheaper, you have competition. Why pay $20/ hr. when you can pay $5/hr.? It’s sad but true. I think the govt. just has to do LESS and let the companies do business without all the beurocracy.
As far as retirement/pensions go, it’s a shame that your pension can just disappear like that with a change of ownership. I don’t much about the “old” pensions, but I believe the employee didn’t contribute anything into the plan. He was then then taken care of for life after retirement. With the current 401K, IRA’s etc… the employee contribute a lot of their own money and hands it over to financial “experts” and just let them take care of it. They have no control over where their money goes. The can only allocate according to risk levels. Not actual stocks funds etc… If the employee’s portfolio suffers huge losses, the only one making money are the financial “experts” handling things. That’s I love REI. It’s easy to understand, control and make money if you’re willing to take the time to educate yourself.

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Hoosier,
Americans will hopefully solve problems with intelligent mandates and by holding people accountable for their actions. One of the reasons for our prosperity is that we can sell treasury notes because when something goes wrong or goes against public opinion, we don’t go around killing people or burning buildings down. Seriously, it’s what separates us from third world countries that cannot seem to rise economically.
People who go around engaging in the south central Los Angeles riots or committing shootings at universities or blowing up government buildings or assassinating our elected officials comprise a sect that we have come to know as “terrorists.” They are the enemy, not the solution.

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Capitalistic America allowed that.

And so did your dad. That’s what happens when you get a job, you have a boss that decides whether or not you will get paid next week.

When something goes wrong in life, you can either take responsibility or you can make excuses.

You can’t have success and have excuses at the same time. That leaves you only 1 choice if you want to be successful in life, you take responsibility for everything that happens to you.

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[[[… and out of those 28, 24 of them went to China…Who do you think allowed that to happen?..]]]]]]

The American consumer.

Everybody wants lots and lots of cheap goods, and too few were willing to pay extra to buy “made in America”.

Politicians have nothing to do with it. The consumer votes in the market place with their dollars.

There are also a few places where the workers themselves and their unions caused their jobs to go overseas. Going on strike for more money when they already make $38 dollars an hour, they don’t do anything but push a switch, and their company is already struggling. Sorry, but those guys brought their unemployment down on their own heads. (Although, that is not the case with most workers who have lost jobs to overseas)

A sad additional note. I try to buy American, and there is precious little left to buy. Overseas goods are often the only remaining choice.

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So they all get voted out, and get replaced with whom???

Yep, more corrupt/incompetent people, same merry go round since the dawn of human history. The individuals/groups that seek power preach change and they perpetuate the same problems after they get into office.

Man is incapable of successful self rule, the cycle just repeats.

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The politicians don’t run anything. There are 16 families that control the whole world. I read that in a book ya’ll. I thought that was just a rumor until Bill Clinton won the election in 1994. When Clinton was running he said NAFTA was the worst thing we could do and it would bury us and we should stop it. When he won the election he said we must have NAFTA. It was like on his first day in the Oval Office somebody came in with “the binder” and told him where we are one the plan and that he had to follow that plan. Politicians just follow the plan and we go along for the ride.

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The same Bill Clinton that we called “The Lyin’ King”?

Stop! Say it ain’t so.

His wife lies when the truth would actually server her better. Their both pathological. They can’t help themselves. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop today – she claims she has hunted and shot a duck in Arkansas…I’m thinking in the next day or so we’ll find out that she has never had an Arkansas hunting license and/or never had a duck stamp – so she’ll get to chose between liar and poacher.

Keith

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Politics make me mad.

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Hoosier,

Politics can make you mad but the alternative is anarchy, a jungle of the strong taking from the weak. We have to have a political system where the people we elect make rules for us. It’s imperfect, but all we’ve got.

Be careful about making death threats. The Secret Service doesn’t look kindly on threats against elected officials or candidates. You also said that Ross Perot left politics because of exactly those kind of threats.