Term Limits for Representatives and Senators. With all the low-hanging corrupt political fruit to grab and chew to pieces, some will wonder why I am choosing to bring up "term limits". The answer is simple. We all agree that American politics are corrupt. Both in terms of process and personnel. The process is a result of the personnel though. As some like to say, we need to deal with the disease, not the symptons.
First, I do not want to imply that every elected official becomes corrupt. A very minute amount do not. This post is not about that immeasurably small minority though. It is about the majority of our elected officials, who do become corrupt; which is our biggest opportunity to bring real change and reform to our government. Think about it for a second. Since 1968, the House has a re-election rate of NINETY-FIVE PERCENT!! The Senate has almost 85%!! The government, those very elected officials, are the ones responsible for transforming the country into what it is today. We the people are ultimately responsible for their actions. We allowed this corruption by allowing the SAME elected officials to run the country year after year.
So what are the pro's and con's of term limits?
Some pro's:
- favors "meritocracy" by downgrading "seniority"
- reduces the power and influence of the lobbies and bureaucracy
- it will help in the fight against wasteful spending by removing powerful politicians that get in bed with pet projects that turn into out of control "keep me getting re-elected" projects
- it will encourage fresh ideas and current representation
- encourages more voter participation because it won't be the same old names on the ballot every year
- encourages voters to vote on principle instead of popularity
- gets real Americans running this country, instead of "politicians"
- will reduce corruption by making it difficult for alliances to bully junior politicians
Some con's:
- gets rid of the few good elected officials that we have
- encourages corruption to be passed on by having corrupt outgoing politicians endorse their replacement
- loss of knowledge and experience in our representatives
- exposure to electing the "latest trend"
There are more of each, but I really am struggling to come up with con's. Please give me your input on both.
I am in favor of term limits because the good outweighs the bad here. In regards to the concern of "we lose good elected officals", let me say this. If they truly are good at what they do, they will have a proven track record to show us, right? If they truly care about us, they will back a candidate that will continue on their principles. Ideally, that candidate would have some track record of their own that supports that they are closely aligned to the outgoing official. Make sense? Of course there is room for corruption in this - as there is with ANYTHING in a free country. This gives us a real opportunity to scrutinize them though - instead of just voting on their name recognition.
One of the biggest problems with no term limits is the "seniority" problem in our system. If you don't know how it works, here it is in a nutshell. The longer you have been in position, the more "senior" you are. The senior officals get "first call" when committees are formed. Every major law that is passed is brought to Congress by the committee that is appointed to draft the "Bill". So, mediocre officials, that are senior based only on tenure not ability, are the ones that head up every major Bill that goes in front of Congress for a vote. Talk about exposing ourselves to deep, deep corruption.
I could spend several BLOG entries on "Seniority vs. Merit". Man I get fired up over that process. But again, term limits would not allow the same people to be in charge of these committees for years and even DECADES on end!! This alone should be enough to sway any nay-sayers.
Secondly, I would argue that having new names on the ballots more often would encourage, if not force, voters to better research the candidates before voting for them just because they recognize their name. This in itself would expose corruption and encourage more Americans to vote and even run for office.
Voting ballots are part of the problem as well though. Let's face it, most Americans check the box of the party they most closely associate themselves with. That tends to get the same people elected again and again since the people voting each year are usually the same people that voted the last time. Remove the candidate's party affiliation from the ballot.
Campaign reform is a must whether we inact term limits or not. Too much to go into here, but the laws around campaigning are no less corrupt than the politicians taking advantage of voters. The guy with the most money (legal or otherwise) and most recognizable name wins.
Another factor that ties directly into this is immigration reform. President Bush used "amnesty for illegals" as a political tool to buy votes. It worked. President Obama is trying to use that exact same trick himself right now. Any law that is so obviously used to buy votes should be considered unconstitutional at worst and treasonous at best - I say treasonous because making ILLEGALS (that is CRIMINALS) equal citizens to you and I is unforgiveable. This is corruption in plain view, yet we do nothing about it.
Combine these things and you have reform that the people will actually benefit from. This is a deep conversation and I have only scratched the surface. I will close with one of the things I opened with: we have got to focus on the disease, NOT the symptons!!
the Patriot
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
We MUST Stop OUR Government!!
So everyone should know by now that the House voted late last night and, after many bribes and backroom deals, passed the Senate's Obamacare Bill - with NO alterations whatsoever. So who really knows what's in the Bill? It is painful to research, but I want to share with everyone the main points of the Bill.
Take a minute to read these and then let's talk about how important it is that we REPEAL this Bill IMMEDIATELY!!! Post comments here on my BLOG or on my Facebook fan page by the same name.
- Effective IMMEDIATELY, Health Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny people with pre-existing conditions. This is actually listed as a "pro" on liberal and statist BLOGs. How is this going to help? If you have a "risk pool", which is what insurance companies have, and you intentionally add SICK people to it, you have no choice but to INCREASE your premiums so you can offset the cost of the liability you were just forced to accept. Premiums will go up for everyone, even the low income families Obama has manipulated into supporting him. And we will lose jobs due to insurance companies having to lay off to find profit to make up for the hit they will take from this requirement. Sound positive to you? Now, there is a way to reform this portion of the Bill to help those with pre-existing conditions. This isn't it though.
- 33 MILLION Americans (Americans? ya' right, not all of them) will begin receiving Health Insurance through a massive expansion of Medicaid and the creation of State-run insurance exchanges (co-ops or "pools"). Again, this is cited as a major "pro" of the Bill. In reality, this throws money at an already broken program and increases everyone's Premiums even more (on top of what the first bullet point will do). You can't add freeloaders to a risk pool without the risk level increasing. Whenever this happens, costs go up for all. Problem 2 with this "pro" is that it increases the number of patients our already short-staffed medical personnel will be seeing by FIFTEEN PERCENT!! So we are already short on Doctor's and we are going to increase their client base by 15%...... supply and demand tells me that either they will raise their prices or lower their quality of service - or most likely a combination of the two. And the doctor's will have to deal with all of this while at the same time receiving a decrease in their reimbursements for MediCare patients. The rest of us will be charged to make up differences. I ask again, how is this a "pro"?
- So here is a "con" by anyone's standards, except for those 200+ Democrats that voted in favor of it anyway - Beginning in 2014, if you choose not to have Health Insurance for any reason whatsoever, you will be FINED $695 by our Government. That amount is based on premiums going down of course. They will not go down though and that fine will have to be drastically increased if it is to accomplish it's goal. So, for the first time in our country's history, you are being told by the government how to spend your hard-earned money. If you defy the Kings and Queens, you will be FINED. This is NOT Democracy. This is Tyranny. This is enslavement disquised as ..... oh, actually they aren't even trying to disguise it anymore are they? They are openly beating us into submission.
- Employers with 50 or more employees will be fined $2000 per employee if they do not provide them with health Insurance. Here is how that plays out in the real world: the employer that has 55 or 60 (or even 70 employees), instead of paying $100,000+ a year in fines, is most likely going to lay off people until he has 49 employees. More unemployment means more burden on the rest of us. And what is his motivation to create jobs? Not going to happen. He is going to stay at 49. But let's say he doesn't lay them off and he pays the fine instead (as if!!). He still has to make a profit, so he increases his costs to the consumer for whatever it is he is selling (product, service, etc.)! This translates to less sales for him and less revenue collected by the IRS, not to mention more layoffs. All of this means more burden on the taxpayer and will also mean higher Insurance Premiums for all.
Let's points out a few other by-products of this mess:
- Doctor's near retirement age will opt for early retirement and close their practices because of the unreasonable environment our government will be creating for them. This means layoffs. This also means even less Doctor's, which means even higher Premiums and lower quality service.
- Small businesses everywhere will be pushing their employee's to join State pools so they can lesson the burden on themselves - which will create further burden on the taxpayers.
- "Debt to Income" ratios across the country will increase, leaving less and less money to spend back into our economy. This means drastically less sales tax collected by the states, which leads to increased Payroll Taxes and Property Taxes.
- With so little money being spent by consumers, the Real Estate market will truly collapse. Not the 15-25% drops in value we have seen over the past 4 years - I am talking 40-50% drops from CURRENT lowered values. This will cause unheard of unemployment in the construction industry, banking industry, and on and on right down the line.
- This is a platform for our government to propose and pass more Socialist programs like Obamacare. The precedent has been established.
- Our elected officials no longer have to listen to the will of the people. Again, the precedent has been set based on the corrupt manor in which they passed this Bill.
Everything is tied to everything else here folks. The circle of life is being artificially tampered with and this will create uncertainty like we have never seen in our history. Our country will go further into debt and our debtors WILL call on us for repayment. And they will do it when we are at our lowest, when they fear that their chances of every being re-paid are all but lost. We won't have the means to repay them. This is where wars start people. Real wars. Real death. With the technology of today's world, another World War would cause death and destruction on a level even the most disgusting video game has not imagined.
Think I am taking this too far? After all, what harm can come from trying to help people recieve medical attention and save money? As I say above, our economy is linked to everything we touch. Even the smallest uncertainty can change our financial position for years. Health care is 16% of our entire economy. Imagine how devistating this could possibly be.
But we still have a voice. We still have a platform of our own. We still have the means to turn this around. We still have the intelligence, the desire, and the tools to take this country back. We still have a vote people! It seems to be all we have left that our corrupt government cannot ignore. One little vote in Massachussetts in January caused the entire ObamaCare agenda to change strategies. They had to skirt around so many procedures and policies to get the senate Bill passed that even they have lost track of their corruption and back room deals. All because of 1 election in 1 state. Imagine the scare we could give them if we repalced 20 of these corrupt politicians (on both sides of the isle!!!)!!!! Imagine if we replaced 30 of them?!?!? That is where it starts people. We need to replace every last one of them, but we need to start somewhere. The next time we have a shot at doing this is in November of THIS YEAR. We cannot lose focus or enthusiasm between now and then. We have to hold people accountable. If we do not, they will hold us enslaved.
I love this country. I am taking it back from the corrupt elites. Please join the fight.
the Patriot
Take a minute to read these and then let's talk about how important it is that we REPEAL this Bill IMMEDIATELY!!! Post comments here on my BLOG or on my Facebook fan page by the same name.
- Effective IMMEDIATELY, Health Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny people with pre-existing conditions. This is actually listed as a "pro" on liberal and statist BLOGs. How is this going to help? If you have a "risk pool", which is what insurance companies have, and you intentionally add SICK people to it, you have no choice but to INCREASE your premiums so you can offset the cost of the liability you were just forced to accept. Premiums will go up for everyone, even the low income families Obama has manipulated into supporting him. And we will lose jobs due to insurance companies having to lay off to find profit to make up for the hit they will take from this requirement. Sound positive to you? Now, there is a way to reform this portion of the Bill to help those with pre-existing conditions. This isn't it though.
- 33 MILLION Americans (Americans? ya' right, not all of them) will begin receiving Health Insurance through a massive expansion of Medicaid and the creation of State-run insurance exchanges (co-ops or "pools"). Again, this is cited as a major "pro" of the Bill. In reality, this throws money at an already broken program and increases everyone's Premiums even more (on top of what the first bullet point will do). You can't add freeloaders to a risk pool without the risk level increasing. Whenever this happens, costs go up for all. Problem 2 with this "pro" is that it increases the number of patients our already short-staffed medical personnel will be seeing by FIFTEEN PERCENT!! So we are already short on Doctor's and we are going to increase their client base by 15%...... supply and demand tells me that either they will raise their prices or lower their quality of service - or most likely a combination of the two. And the doctor's will have to deal with all of this while at the same time receiving a decrease in their reimbursements for MediCare patients. The rest of us will be charged to make up differences. I ask again, how is this a "pro"?
- So here is a "con" by anyone's standards, except for those 200+ Democrats that voted in favor of it anyway - Beginning in 2014, if you choose not to have Health Insurance for any reason whatsoever, you will be FINED $695 by our Government. That amount is based on premiums going down of course. They will not go down though and that fine will have to be drastically increased if it is to accomplish it's goal. So, for the first time in our country's history, you are being told by the government how to spend your hard-earned money. If you defy the Kings and Queens, you will be FINED. This is NOT Democracy. This is Tyranny. This is enslavement disquised as ..... oh, actually they aren't even trying to disguise it anymore are they? They are openly beating us into submission.
- Employers with 50 or more employees will be fined $2000 per employee if they do not provide them with health Insurance. Here is how that plays out in the real world: the employer that has 55 or 60 (or even 70 employees), instead of paying $100,000+ a year in fines, is most likely going to lay off people until he has 49 employees. More unemployment means more burden on the rest of us. And what is his motivation to create jobs? Not going to happen. He is going to stay at 49. But let's say he doesn't lay them off and he pays the fine instead (as if!!). He still has to make a profit, so he increases his costs to the consumer for whatever it is he is selling (product, service, etc.)! This translates to less sales for him and less revenue collected by the IRS, not to mention more layoffs. All of this means more burden on the taxpayer and will also mean higher Insurance Premiums for all.
Let's points out a few other by-products of this mess:
- Doctor's near retirement age will opt for early retirement and close their practices because of the unreasonable environment our government will be creating for them. This means layoffs. This also means even less Doctor's, which means even higher Premiums and lower quality service.
- Small businesses everywhere will be pushing their employee's to join State pools so they can lesson the burden on themselves - which will create further burden on the taxpayers.
- "Debt to Income" ratios across the country will increase, leaving less and less money to spend back into our economy. This means drastically less sales tax collected by the states, which leads to increased Payroll Taxes and Property Taxes.
- With so little money being spent by consumers, the Real Estate market will truly collapse. Not the 15-25% drops in value we have seen over the past 4 years - I am talking 40-50% drops from CURRENT lowered values. This will cause unheard of unemployment in the construction industry, banking industry, and on and on right down the line.
- This is a platform for our government to propose and pass more Socialist programs like Obamacare. The precedent has been established.
- Our elected officials no longer have to listen to the will of the people. Again, the precedent has been set based on the corrupt manor in which they passed this Bill.
Everything is tied to everything else here folks. The circle of life is being artificially tampered with and this will create uncertainty like we have never seen in our history. Our country will go further into debt and our debtors WILL call on us for repayment. And they will do it when we are at our lowest, when they fear that their chances of every being re-paid are all but lost. We won't have the means to repay them. This is where wars start people. Real wars. Real death. With the technology of today's world, another World War would cause death and destruction on a level even the most disgusting video game has not imagined.
Think I am taking this too far? After all, what harm can come from trying to help people recieve medical attention and save money? As I say above, our economy is linked to everything we touch. Even the smallest uncertainty can change our financial position for years. Health care is 16% of our entire economy. Imagine how devistating this could possibly be.
But we still have a voice. We still have a platform of our own. We still have the means to turn this around. We still have the intelligence, the desire, and the tools to take this country back. We still have a vote people! It seems to be all we have left that our corrupt government cannot ignore. One little vote in Massachussetts in January caused the entire ObamaCare agenda to change strategies. They had to skirt around so many procedures and policies to get the senate Bill passed that even they have lost track of their corruption and back room deals. All because of 1 election in 1 state. Imagine the scare we could give them if we repalced 20 of these corrupt politicians (on both sides of the isle!!!)!!!! Imagine if we replaced 30 of them?!?!? That is where it starts people. We need to replace every last one of them, but we need to start somewhere. The next time we have a shot at doing this is in November of THIS YEAR. We cannot lose focus or enthusiasm between now and then. We have to hold people accountable. If we do not, they will hold us enslaved.
I love this country. I am taking it back from the corrupt elites. Please join the fight.
the Patriot
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Freedom From Corruption
This BLOG entry is going to seem "extreme" to some of you. Extreme because it goes against the machine. Extreme because it calls on politicians to put "We The People" ahead of their personal agendas. Extreme because it calls on the President to protect Americans FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Extreme because it requires ACTION!!!
It is really rather simple though. We are the "United States of America". "of America" referring to "the Americas", North and South. "States" referring to 50 SEPARATE states. And "United" referring to the common belief the residents of those 50 states share, known as The Charters of Freedom. Don't know what those are? Take a few minutes to explore the link and the 3 Charters. No, really - please read and understand them - all of them.
I explain the above before explaining my "extreme" proposal for a reason. Our Country is going through some hard times right now. No one would argue this. We have out of control spending, out of control borrowing, out of control debt, out of control corruption, out of control arrogance, and we have a country that desperately NEEDS a Leader that will help protect us from this corruption and these idealogues, not one that will enable them.
Here is the good news - The United States of America already has an instrument in place to stop ALL of the above. The key here is returning to the roots of our Country's founding. The individual STATE within a UNION. All 50 states have the ability to protect themselves from the Federal Government by remembering this simple fact. All 50 states have the ability to boot the Federal Government out of THEIR business. That is why the founders of this Nation created individual States within the Union (do not confuse this with State Sovereignty" - that cannot exist within a Union). If they had intended all States to fall under ONE law, they would have created ONE Sovereign State and they would not have named our Country The UNITED States of America. They seceded from the tyranny of Britian so that ONE State could never again DICTATE to the masses.
That's it. It's that simple. ****THAT'S IT? This is EXTREME? Doesn't sound very extreme to me!!!****
Let's shed a little "perspective" on things. The Progressives have slowly (and brilliantly) implemented changes over the decades that have conditioned us to accept our States the way they are today - which is NOT how those that originally formed our States intended them to be. They have infiltrated and manipulated all levels of Government, as well as "We The People". We have been conditioned to accept things the way they are with little to no challenge given to those that have so diligently corrupted our great Nation. We play the part of the helpless victim and wait for "someone else" to fix things. WE THE PEOPLE have got to take back OUR Country.
It starts at the lowest level: Townships, Cities, Counties, and STATES. When browsing through the Charter link above, take a minute and read the 10th Ammendment of the Bill of Rights. Progressives have added the 16th and the 17th ammendments that restrict the 10th Ammendment somewhat. It is up to the STATES to reassert themselves on the basis of the 10th Ammendment. Read it carefully. EVERY state can INDIVIDUALLY create a common UNION within this Country if they step up to the plate and STOP THE TYRANNY of our Federal Government.
****"This is all about Obama-hating!!!"**** Really? Come on. That is just a pathetic arguement. This is NOT about Obama. Yes he is an idealogue and a Statist, but he is only a figure-head for the Progressive Movement (the current one anyway). His position as the POTUS is supposed to be not only as a leader and representative of our country, but also as a DEFENSE against government corruption. That line of defense has obviosly failed WE THE PEOPLE. So, the next "Line of Defense" needs to stop this attack on our Country.
That next Line of Defense is US. It is you and me. It is time for every citizen to step up and DO SOMETHING. Whether or not you support ObamaCare is irrelevant. The PRINCIPAL of having the Federal Government FORCE something on American Citizens is the problem. TYRANNY is the problem!!
Here is another link - the ACTION part of this BLOG. Yes, you have to DO something. You can't just say you support an anti-tyranny movement. You have to be ACTIVE in supporting it. Our "LINES" must stand. We cannot allow the Progressives to continue their assault against us; and their agenda of turning our Great Country into a corrupt platform for tyranny. Tell your State that you want them to PRO-ACTIVELY put laws in place that PROHIBIT the Federal Government from infringing any further on YOUR Rights. Tell them to block the Federal Government from YOUR business. If we do not stop the Federal Government takeover of our 50 individual States, we will soon lose the structure of individual States and become ONE State. ONE State is what we seceded from over 200 years ago to gain the Freedoms that we currently enjoy. Why would we allow, or worse - encourage, our States to regress into that Tyrannical Government?
TAKE ACTION!!! CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!!!! click here
the Patriot
It is really rather simple though. We are the "United States of America". "of America" referring to "the Americas", North and South. "States" referring to 50 SEPARATE states. And "United" referring to the common belief the residents of those 50 states share, known as The Charters of Freedom. Don't know what those are? Take a few minutes to explore the link and the 3 Charters. No, really - please read and understand them - all of them.
I explain the above before explaining my "extreme" proposal for a reason. Our Country is going through some hard times right now. No one would argue this. We have out of control spending, out of control borrowing, out of control debt, out of control corruption, out of control arrogance, and we have a country that desperately NEEDS a Leader that will help protect us from this corruption and these idealogues, not one that will enable them.
Here is the good news - The United States of America already has an instrument in place to stop ALL of the above. The key here is returning to the roots of our Country's founding. The individual STATE within a UNION. All 50 states have the ability to protect themselves from the Federal Government by remembering this simple fact. All 50 states have the ability to boot the Federal Government out of THEIR business. That is why the founders of this Nation created individual States within the Union (do not confuse this with State Sovereignty" - that cannot exist within a Union). If they had intended all States to fall under ONE law, they would have created ONE Sovereign State and they would not have named our Country The UNITED States of America. They seceded from the tyranny of Britian so that ONE State could never again DICTATE to the masses.
That's it. It's that simple. ****THAT'S IT? This is EXTREME? Doesn't sound very extreme to me!!!****
Let's shed a little "perspective" on things. The Progressives have slowly (and brilliantly) implemented changes over the decades that have conditioned us to accept our States the way they are today - which is NOT how those that originally formed our States intended them to be. They have infiltrated and manipulated all levels of Government, as well as "We The People". We have been conditioned to accept things the way they are with little to no challenge given to those that have so diligently corrupted our great Nation. We play the part of the helpless victim and wait for "someone else" to fix things. WE THE PEOPLE have got to take back OUR Country.
It starts at the lowest level: Townships, Cities, Counties, and STATES. When browsing through the Charter link above, take a minute and read the 10th Ammendment of the Bill of Rights. Progressives have added the 16th and the 17th ammendments that restrict the 10th Ammendment somewhat. It is up to the STATES to reassert themselves on the basis of the 10th Ammendment. Read it carefully. EVERY state can INDIVIDUALLY create a common UNION within this Country if they step up to the plate and STOP THE TYRANNY of our Federal Government.
****"This is all about Obama-hating!!!"**** Really? Come on. That is just a pathetic arguement. This is NOT about Obama. Yes he is an idealogue and a Statist, but he is only a figure-head for the Progressive Movement (the current one anyway). His position as the POTUS is supposed to be not only as a leader and representative of our country, but also as a DEFENSE against government corruption. That line of defense has obviosly failed WE THE PEOPLE. So, the next "Line of Defense" needs to stop this attack on our Country.
That next Line of Defense is US. It is you and me. It is time for every citizen to step up and DO SOMETHING. Whether or not you support ObamaCare is irrelevant. The PRINCIPAL of having the Federal Government FORCE something on American Citizens is the problem. TYRANNY is the problem!!
Here is another link - the ACTION part of this BLOG. Yes, you have to DO something. You can't just say you support an anti-tyranny movement. You have to be ACTIVE in supporting it. Our "LINES" must stand. We cannot allow the Progressives to continue their assault against us; and their agenda of turning our Great Country into a corrupt platform for tyranny. Tell your State that you want them to PRO-ACTIVELY put laws in place that PROHIBIT the Federal Government from infringing any further on YOUR Rights. Tell them to block the Federal Government from YOUR business. If we do not stop the Federal Government takeover of our 50 individual States, we will soon lose the structure of individual States and become ONE State. ONE State is what we seceded from over 200 years ago to gain the Freedoms that we currently enjoy. Why would we allow, or worse - encourage, our States to regress into that Tyrannical Government?
TAKE ACTION!!! CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!!!! click here
the Patriot
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