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