Thursday, December 22, 2005
Reduce the fat
The Senate yesterday approved a bill -- barely -- that would reduce the national debt $40 billion by making changes in Medicare and Medicaid, among other programs. While changes in these programs can work to reduce the deficit, why doesn't Congress first cut the salaries and pensions for its members and eliminate other waste that is rampant throughout the gigantic federal bureaucracy? Then, maybe cuts elsewhere will be more palatable to everyone.
Second American Revolution
Two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, our Founding Fathers, speaking for thirteen disgruntled colonies shackled by taxation without representation, penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Today, we Americans are governed by an out-of-touch Congress, which pays lip service to helping the poor, elderly, middle-class, minorities, disabled and disenfranchised but in actuality cares only about protecting the individual wealth and tenure of its members. Legislators, for the most part, legislate not to protect our freedoms but rather to further their own agendas -- i.e., do what is necessary to get re-elected so they can continue earning their fat salaries and pensions.
But something is wrong when legislators can funnel their wealth overseas and thereby avoid huge tax bills, then tell those who are getting social security or SSI disability that there is a limit they can make before they begin to lose their benefits. Would it really be wrong for a person on SSI to get $1,000 a month from the government and to earn another $1,500 a month on their own? That would amount to $30,000 a year -- and it really might not even be that much after Uncle Sam taxes the $18,000 earned income -- a figure that is far below the comparatively fat salaries earned by legislators. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Lawmakers who left Congress last January are receiving pensions ranging from as little as $14,165 a year for six years' service to as much as $114,102 a year for more than 30 years' service." ... But no, the cap on how much a person can make before they begin losing their benefits is $620. So, unless that person can earn at least $2,600 a month (to match the $1,500+620+taxes), they would be better off not working at all and just live off the taxpayers. Who does that hurt? The rich? ... No, it hurts the middle class and the poor.
This is just one inequity heaped upon us by a government that restricts our freedoms more and more every year. It is time to speak out against this tyranny. It is time to voice our displeasures, no matter which side of the aisle we are on! It is time for another revolution!!! But a Second Revolution should be one waged not with the sword but with the tools furnished us by our Founding Fathers. We need to work within the system, to speak up, to dissent, to protest, to write emails and letters, run for office ourselves, to turn up the heat collectively on our representatives, to use the power of our votes to upset the status quo.
So rise up, speak up and TAKE ACTION!!!
A Voice in the Wilderness
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Today, we Americans are governed by an out-of-touch Congress, which pays lip service to helping the poor, elderly, middle-class, minorities, disabled and disenfranchised but in actuality cares only about protecting the individual wealth and tenure of its members. Legislators, for the most part, legislate not to protect our freedoms but rather to further their own agendas -- i.e., do what is necessary to get re-elected so they can continue earning their fat salaries and pensions.
But something is wrong when legislators can funnel their wealth overseas and thereby avoid huge tax bills, then tell those who are getting social security or SSI disability that there is a limit they can make before they begin to lose their benefits. Would it really be wrong for a person on SSI to get $1,000 a month from the government and to earn another $1,500 a month on their own? That would amount to $30,000 a year -- and it really might not even be that much after Uncle Sam taxes the $18,000 earned income -- a figure that is far below the comparatively fat salaries earned by legislators. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Lawmakers who left Congress last January are receiving pensions ranging from as little as $14,165 a year for six years' service to as much as $114,102 a year for more than 30 years' service." ... But no, the cap on how much a person can make before they begin losing their benefits is $620. So, unless that person can earn at least $2,600 a month (to match the $1,500+620+taxes), they would be better off not working at all and just live off the taxpayers. Who does that hurt? The rich? ... No, it hurts the middle class and the poor.
This is just one inequity heaped upon us by a government that restricts our freedoms more and more every year. It is time to speak out against this tyranny. It is time to voice our displeasures, no matter which side of the aisle we are on! It is time for another revolution!!! But a Second Revolution should be one waged not with the sword but with the tools furnished us by our Founding Fathers. We need to work within the system, to speak up, to dissent, to protest, to write emails and letters, run for office ourselves, to turn up the heat collectively on our representatives, to use the power of our votes to upset the status quo.
So rise up, speak up and TAKE ACTION!!!
A Voice in the Wilderness
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