Letter: Congress needs to be honest with the people
To the community,
In a criminal case, the police may say there’s a person of interest. Congress has members who are persons of interest. Mark Twain wrote, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
For instance, Congress is prepared to push us over its made to order fiscal cliff in a ballet with the executive. There’s an attack on Social Security and Medicare. But it’s never mentioned that both are trust funds and as of 1999 the government owed the funds $2 trillion. The government “borrowed” from the funds.
Bill Crawford
And in this country, church property isn’t taxed. Thus, churches are subsidized. But it’s taboo to address the subject. Mum’s the word in Congress.
And it’s never mentioned that when Congress passes new tax law, it takes the IRS years to implement the legislation; as much as five years. No wonder the tax code is a tangled jungle.
And the bottom line is that in 1947 [President Harry] Truman created the national security state. Then we began arming ourselves to police the world. The fiscal cliff is the borrowing of money to finance war and more wars. If we would stop the profiteering, cost overruns for guns, we wouldn’t have to mobilize the Army.
Mark Twain summed it up with, “I guess that the government that robs its own people earns the future it is preparing for itself.” And the forgotten president, John Quincy Adams, spoke truly when he said to Congress, “The great object of civil government is the improvement of the conditions of those who are parties to the social compact.” How sad that Congress has breached the compact with we the people.
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
I agree with everything you’ve said Bill but, and maybe this was not on purpose, you’ve not mentioned in your letter anything about the or this, President. He too plays a role in not being honest with the American people. The President’s actions are certainly no better nor worse than those occupying seats in Congress. We have many problems in our country, the largest of course being the out of control spending of the Government. The least of our problems are churches not paying property tax… In fact all of this talk about taxes and taxing the rich is “the” lie of the moment. Providing more taxes to this Government not only does nothing to solve anything, it is maybe the biggest trick on the American people. The Government, specifically the left and this President has managed to convince millions of American’s that this is “the” problem. The problem is SPENDING!
Only Crawford could come up with the theory that by NOT taking somebody’s money, the government is subsidizing them.
How about WE & our churches get to keep what WE make? Why is ANYBODY else entitled to our earnings? The only thing government is any good at is mismanagement and corruption.
When will you be satisfied? When they take it all? And dole you out an allowance like a child?
…speaking of congress, Mitch McConnell SPONSORS a bill recently, then the bill passes with bipartisan support only to be FILIBUSTERED….by McConnell himself!
He then goes on to complain that Obama wants more control for the debt ceiling, something that he says will give the Pres a blank check to spend. Only problem is that raising the debt ceiling is simply authorizing pay-back on what is already SPENT. Mitch, you don’t even understand the basics, THAT is criminal, these guys all need the BOOT. What a buffoon, stop wasting our time.
So the only thing govt is good at is mismanagement? Medicare delivers good healthcare a a price lower than any benefits carrier. Until we decided to semi-privatize the Post Office and that it had to prefund 75 years of pensions in 10 years (something asked of no corporation) we easily could send a letter anywhere in the US for less than $.50 (would cost more than 10x that by fedex). Superstorm Sandy… same event would have killed hundreds if not thousands in other countries and rescue services were there. Think you know a thing or two?.. probably were taught at a public school, many of which score the same or higher than most private schools. Hope you don’t drive any roads to work…. the list can go on. Don’t know what govt you have, but mine, while need a lot of improvement in many areas, provides a lot of programs and services well.
Should have added…
I don’t care that the Churches don’t pay property tax, but that some openly violate the terms that they swore they would follow when applying for tax-free status (to not politic)or that clergy don’t pay taxes on huge salaries when they have them (and yes I know this is not your average church, but the mega ones).
To Lisa I would say that if you think the Government runs those programs noted in your write up well then there is not much I or anyone else can say. You are one of the many millions that think it’s okay for our Government to spend more than they take in and you probably feel its right that 2% of all American’s pay the bill. Medicare is an important program and no one has ever suggested anything different. Having said that if you don’t think there are billions in waste and abuse you are simply misguided. The Post Office, really, you’re sticking up for that huge waste hole of tax payer dollars? And blaming it on the private sector? I’m sorry and with all do respect, your thinking is part of the problem. That’s the great thing about America though, we are all entitled to our opinions!
Boone6651: Many mega rich, and now the business roundtable has all agreed, the upper 2% should pay more on monies made over $250,000 for family or over $200,000 for individuals. Warren Buffett said it best, we need to increase revenues to be about 19% of GDP (it presently is 15.5%) and decrease spending to about 21% GDP (it presently is about 23%). The resulting deficit (2%) is then quite manageable and trivial when put into context of economic growth. Keep in mind, we ran a deficit during the great expansion from WWII to the 1960’s and it was trivial because of the economic growth. Shifting the tax burden to the Clinton era on the top 2% generates $trillion – not small potatoes.
PS, yes the republicans have put forth a number of programs to greatly reduce benefits on Medicare – so yes they are talking about that. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnel and others keep talking about entitlement reform and they have suggested ways to trim benefits that are paid out. Interesting fact is that Medicare over the last 40 years has varied each year from being from 2 years to about 15 years of solvency. We are now at about 12 years – so in the grand scheme, it does not need huge changes. Enjoy, Rick