An Abrogation Of Responsibility Bill Now Being Considered In Congress
Posted: Monday, January 18, 2010
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
The Constitution of the United States places the responsibility of governmental spending in the laps of congress. Now with pork spending, vote buying, and all manner of wasteful spending incorporated into our legitimate spending, our annual deficit has soared and plans continue to increase that for the foreseeable future.
But the day is swiftly approaching when it will have to stop. China, our primary source of easy money to continue these deficits, have warned us already that the deficits must be brought under control. We will soon be at a point of no return, where we cannot meet our obligations and cannot borrow more. Result: Bankruptcy, devalued money, or totally killed money and replaced by new.
The congress passed, a couple of months ago, a bill extending our credit limit to $12.4 trillion. That was sufficient to run the government until February, at which time, it will have to be raised again. A proposal was made in December, to form a special commission to oversee the nations budget and to do whatever is necessary to bring it under control. It would have the power to force drastic spending cuts, force taxes wherever/whenever they might be needed, and so on.
It is a good thing that our legislative and executive branches have come to this realization that we are spending over our limits, but notice the way this is to be carried out. Legislation has been submitted to congress, formulated by Senators Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, Judd Gregg, Republican from New Hampshire and has been endorsed by 33 other senators.
The commission would be comprised of (a) 16 members of congress. These would be selected by the Senate majority and minority leaders, 4 each. House Speaker and minority leader, 4 each. (b) The secretary of the treasury, and one appointee by the president. The proposals put forth by this committee would be guaranteed an up or down vote in both houses of congress but no amendments would be allowed. Anyone who would accept a position on such a commission would have to be a complete idiot. First of all, any decisions would be nullified by congress. Second, you would have more gridlock within the committee than in the full congress. As unpopular as their decisions would necessarily be, it would be political suicide for the 16 congressmen.
Why do they come up with these things? They do it in order to cloak the process from the public eye because of the unpopular decisions. They did the same thing with the closing of over 300 military bases after the cold war thawed. No one wanted to lose their bases and congress was too chicken to face up to them.
President Obama favors this process, plus a total of at least 35 congressmen who have endorsed it. Frankly, I am inclined to favor it myself, but it frightens me to think of the ramifications, especially under a liberal Democratic administration with many of them leaning towards socialism. Their only thoughts as to bringing the deficits down are raising taxes, cutting Medicare benefits, etc. After some 24 decades, they have not learned that taxing big money businesses and individuals, always cut back on our GDP, employment and costs the poor more for their purchases of necessary items. It has been their favorite criticism of the GOP, that they favor the big businesses and wealthy, by lowering taxes. It has been proven time after time that such lowering of taxes speed up the economy and GDP.
This administration will very soon, add large taxes to those earning over $250,000 per year. This offers some good temporary income, but you can count it for certain, the costs will be dribbled down to the working stiff in the form of lower wages, higher cost for merchandise, and even loss of jobs. It is like holding back on the reins of a pair of prancing horses, give them their rein and they will take you quickly to your destination. Many have a disdain for those who are wealthy, but they are still the ones who drive this economy, not the congress and president..
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Do you feel like tilting at windmills, Joel?Sometimes. Thanks for commenting Jim.
Good call. In some ways, though, it's all academic. Our current system under the Federal Reserve is an economic house of cards and the longer we prop it up, the harder it's going to come crashing down when it does. And it will.
There are so many tough decisions that the current politicians refuse to even name, much less go about addressing, that almost the entire lot are guilty of high crimes against this nation.Yes, you are correct. The pitiful part is, we have some good men who understand this and would like to step in, but they can't get a toe in the door at the polls. Thanks for your comment, Stephen.
Interesting article, Joel. It's frightening how easily the system of checks and balances can be disrupted when one party is given too much power.Absolutely. We need desperately to get enough conservative congressmen back in there to stop what is going on. The only good thing, when the results of all of this hits us, the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. Of course we'll be suffering with them. Thanks for the comment.
Keep shining the light into the dark corners! MarijoThank you Marijo, I'll continue to try, anyway.
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