As I watch the president of the United States jet off to India and Asia I couldn’t help but be reminded of the sharp contrasts to two of our former and greatest presidents, Washington and Jefferson. The contrast is telling and it shows how far away we have drifted from the true intentions of our founding fathers and principles.
Anyone that has read about Washington and Jefferson (school books excluded) knows that these two men spent their individual fortunes on activities that were carried out for the good of our country. In some of their letters they struggle and feel guilt for submitting their “expense reports” to the US Treasury for reimbursement. These two great men loved their country and were fiscally prudent about anything related to the newly formed republic. They considered the funds they used the people’s money. They knew everything they spent was a gift of the hard labors of the American people. They would be appalled at the current trip of our current president.
Barrack Obama has an entitlement mentality and as he demagogues about corporate greed and high roller Wall Street fat cats flying around in personal jets, he is flying around on our dime with estimates at the expense of 200 million dollars a day while the people labor and 10% of us have no jobs to go to. At least the corporate executives are not using tax payer money; they are earning their money through a free market. Well, what’s left of it?
The lavish travel and spending by this president is despicable and shows the complete disconnect of a man that has no connection to our founding fathers, principles, or simple common sense. I don’t care if it’s 200 or 20 million a day, there are smarter ways to spend that money. The president’s security is important but if he can’t travel to a place like Mumbai with normal security he shouldn’t go. Find a neutral place to have a discussion. Foreign policy is an important part of a president’s job, but with all of the domestic angst in the country I think he should start sitting down and working with fiscal conservatives and implementing policies to balance the budget. Real policies that are not throw backs to the “great society.”
I would like to see the expense report for this trip. I would like to compare it to the Jefferson’s and Washington’s in today’s dollars. It has only been a few hundred years since these great men struggled with submitting any expense to the US Treasury. I miss their frugalness and patriotic obligation to serving their fellow Americans…
True knowledge of American history is necessary to insure the future of the America we love… This is an important time in our country's history. We must be wise and measured as we choose our leaders going forward.
Showing posts with label Jefferson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jefferson. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
From The Patriotic Resistance…
The latest scandal in politics just happens to be from the Republican Party but this story would fit well in either political party or any union or corporate board room. This quote was posted by someone that goes by the handle “Midnight Cowboy” on the ResistNet website. An organization of grass roots conservatives. I am not sure how all of the tea party folks feel but I know what this does when I read about it; It makes me ANGRY! This is why I despise, big business, unions, and party politics. This quote is about Michael Steele’s “leadership” of the Republican National Committee:
“He recently took some heat for moving the RNC annual meeting from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii. And one recent analysis by Politico.com found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, RNC spending on private jets had doubled, limo trips had tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.”
It is Michael Steele today, but this is not specific to the individual as much as a culture in party politics. This activity goes on because the political parties have become “corporations” with special interests and an agenda that has lost alignment with its members. It is a group dynamic that supports high flying, back room deals, constituent favors, all on the expense of the individual schlep paying the bills. The GOP is acting just like big business and unions do in the pursuit of power and influence. Big business, big government, big unions, and big groups of any kind eventually and unfortunately drift from the roots of the original intent of the organization if leadership is not held accountable by the members. The people are now starting to hold government and political party leadership accountable, and they don’t like it.
Not every Republican candidate is part of this problem but every Republican Party member has accountability in this behavior. The members of the party can brush this off as an individual indiscretion, but is it? Or is there a culture in the two parties that accepts the high life for their leadership while the individual member pays the bills and the price with their individual reputations. Is this the same party you joined and put your faith in? Or is there a need to hold them accountable by demanding fundemental change?
I have personally had enough of every organization that thinks we are just out here to vote or pay the bills. We have a say and we don’t need the organized parties or businesses, or unions to smear our reputations with their behavior while they ignore us; the people paying the bills, doing the hard work, and living life to a higher ethical standard. We do not accept this behavior and we want people in charge that share our values.
It is time to be Jeffersonian in our approach; individual over group leadership…
“He recently took some heat for moving the RNC annual meeting from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii. And one recent analysis by Politico.com found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, RNC spending on private jets had doubled, limo trips had tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.”
It is Michael Steele today, but this is not specific to the individual as much as a culture in party politics. This activity goes on because the political parties have become “corporations” with special interests and an agenda that has lost alignment with its members. It is a group dynamic that supports high flying, back room deals, constituent favors, all on the expense of the individual schlep paying the bills. The GOP is acting just like big business and unions do in the pursuit of power and influence. Big business, big government, big unions, and big groups of any kind eventually and unfortunately drift from the roots of the original intent of the organization if leadership is not held accountable by the members. The people are now starting to hold government and political party leadership accountable, and they don’t like it.
Not every Republican candidate is part of this problem but every Republican Party member has accountability in this behavior. The members of the party can brush this off as an individual indiscretion, but is it? Or is there a culture in the two parties that accepts the high life for their leadership while the individual member pays the bills and the price with their individual reputations. Is this the same party you joined and put your faith in? Or is there a need to hold them accountable by demanding fundemental change?
I have personally had enough of every organization that thinks we are just out here to vote or pay the bills. We have a say and we don’t need the organized parties or businesses, or unions to smear our reputations with their behavior while they ignore us; the people paying the bills, doing the hard work, and living life to a higher ethical standard. We do not accept this behavior and we want people in charge that share our values.
It is time to be Jeffersonian in our approach; individual over group leadership…
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Jefferson, the Fed, and the Tenth Amendment…
In one of the many arguments Thomas Jefferson had with Alexander Hamilton in the first administration of the newly found republic, under President George Washington, Jefferson used these words to describe why Hamilton’s plan for a federal bank under private management was a bad and unconstitutional idea:
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground”: that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.”…
Jefferson went on to argue: “The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated…” “If such latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or another.” Simply stated; Ignore the enumerated powers and there are no enumerated powers, the sky is the limit to expanded federal government.
This is the foundation of the “implied powers” argument used throughout history to ignore the true intent of the constitution.
How prophetic Jefferson was, and how we see over the years the federal government’s quest for power has given us a government that Hamilton always wanted, a government of an elite class of men with the power over the common man. My words, not his; his sentiment, not mine.
Jefferson fought desperately to stop what today is the Federal Reserve System. If Jefferson were alive today he would want to end the fed. Giving up the federal treasury to be run by “independent and private” interests in his eyes was a recipe for disaster. And the disaster is now upon us.
Jefferson accused Hamilton of “excluding popular understanding and inquiry.” He argued the system of banking and credit devised by Hamilton was so confusing no man including the “president or congress should be able to understand it, or control it.” Which he believed gave Hamilton a scheme to enrich himself and his cohorts within the system Hamilton devised.
These arguments between the two founders were the foundation of a two party system. Not the one we have today but it put people in two “camps”; federalists and republicans with a small r. The Republican Party of yesterday is in modern times what became the Democratic Party. The federalists were the big central government supporters that had the rich, wealthy, and British sympathizers behind it.
How times change but one thing remains true; the principles of our constitution are the key to our recovery and a prosperous future. If we listen and learn about our history and great men like Thomas Jefferson we can consider the paths ahead by using the great understanding that he had of government, to build our future.
He loved the constitution and it was he and Madison that promised the Bill of Rights to encourage the states to ratify our Constitution. It is time to revisit our constitution and our Tenth Amendment in particular. That is, if we want a prosperous future and one that restrains the federal government from intruding on out state and individual rights.
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground”: that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.”…
Jefferson went on to argue: “The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated…” “If such latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or another.” Simply stated; Ignore the enumerated powers and there are no enumerated powers, the sky is the limit to expanded federal government.
This is the foundation of the “implied powers” argument used throughout history to ignore the true intent of the constitution.
How prophetic Jefferson was, and how we see over the years the federal government’s quest for power has given us a government that Hamilton always wanted, a government of an elite class of men with the power over the common man. My words, not his; his sentiment, not mine.
Jefferson fought desperately to stop what today is the Federal Reserve System. If Jefferson were alive today he would want to end the fed. Giving up the federal treasury to be run by “independent and private” interests in his eyes was a recipe for disaster. And the disaster is now upon us.
Jefferson accused Hamilton of “excluding popular understanding and inquiry.” He argued the system of banking and credit devised by Hamilton was so confusing no man including the “president or congress should be able to understand it, or control it.” Which he believed gave Hamilton a scheme to enrich himself and his cohorts within the system Hamilton devised.
These arguments between the two founders were the foundation of a two party system. Not the one we have today but it put people in two “camps”; federalists and republicans with a small r. The Republican Party of yesterday is in modern times what became the Democratic Party. The federalists were the big central government supporters that had the rich, wealthy, and British sympathizers behind it.
How times change but one thing remains true; the principles of our constitution are the key to our recovery and a prosperous future. If we listen and learn about our history and great men like Thomas Jefferson we can consider the paths ahead by using the great understanding that he had of government, to build our future.
He loved the constitution and it was he and Madison that promised the Bill of Rights to encourage the states to ratify our Constitution. It is time to revisit our constitution and our Tenth Amendment in particular. That is, if we want a prosperous future and one that restrains the federal government from intruding on out state and individual rights.
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