We the People are Taking Back Our Country
We usually talk about money on Mondays. As we discussed possible topics for today’s post, we realized there was no bigger issue than what’s going on in Washington and Wall Street. Our apologies to our international listeners, but we’re going to be domestic today. But as we’ve seen, it obviously affects everyone worldwide.
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Hear George & Mary-Lynn talk about today's post on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Hear George & Mary-Lynn talk about today's post on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download___
We usually don’t talk about politics. We won’t be partisan; there’s plenty of blame to go around. We know that we may upset everybody today; that’s not our intention.
We think it’s time to look at the facts so we can make the right decisions here in a few weeks … who are we going to hire?
Not just for President, but for government at all levels. It’s time that we, the people, take back our country, our states, and our cities.
We’re sick and tired of the blame game and passing the buck on personal responsibility. Leadership is about taking responsibility. The leaders of our biggest companies aren’t taking responsibility, but even more sad, our elected officials aren’t bearing it, or requiring it, either.
We, the taxpayers, invested $85 billion in AIG. What was AIG’s response? They threw a $440,000 “party”. Sure they called it a “planning meeting” or an “executive session”. But how can you justify spending that kind of money for a retreat when you’re using our money and you’ve been on the brink of financial collapse?
It was a complete slap in the face and our leaders should have seen it as such. But what did they do? Turn around and give AIG another $38 billion two weeks later!
How many of us could walk into a bank two weeks after we borrowed a bunch of money in desperation and get more?
How successful would we be at getting more money if we so grossly underestimated how much it would take the first time around?
“Oh, and by the way, Mr. Banker, we know you’ve heard that we wasted some of it on a spa getaway, but we need about half as much again as we borrowed the first time. Will you lend it to us?”
Can you imagine the response?
Fortunately, AIG scrapped plans for another “party” after news got out about the first one. Of course, we’ve also learned that they tinkered with the idea of spending some of our money running an advertising campaign to apologize for the first “party”.
Some insight into the mismanagement
Warren Buffett was interviewed by CNBC’s Becky Quick back in August. Part of the conversation turned to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We’ll paraphrase …
Congress set up the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) back in 1992. The sole job of this agency was to evaluate the soundness, accounting practices, and the like of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Two companies … that’s all OFHEO had to oversee. Buffet, of course, notes that he does more than that all by himself.
It took 200 OFHEO employees and a $65 million dollar a year budget to do that.
Year after year, OFHEO reported to Congress. They stated that the accounting was sound. The directors were great. Everything was just fine. There was nothing to worry about.
Well, we all know what happened – two of the greatest accounting misstatements in the history of the stock exchange caused by management misconduct. What was OFHEO’s response?
A report to Congress blaming the management, the directors, the audit committee. Everybody but themselves.
200 people with a budget of $65 million overseeing just two companies. Yet they assumed no responsibility for this huge blunder.
The problem we have is that everybody blames anybody else every time there is a problem. It needs to end now.
How to put an end to it
The solution may surprise you. It starts and ends with us. We need to take personal responsibility. We made mistakes too. We bought in.
We saw government borrowing and living beyond its means, so many of us borrowed and lived beyond ours. From this day forward, that ends. We won’t forget this lesson. We will bailout ourselves. We will get back on our feet. We will prosper.
We also delegated too much. We voted, but we didn’t pay close enough attention to what our elected officials were doing. Well, Mr. or Ms. Politician, you have our attention now. And we’re going to keep paying attention.
What we can’t control
Here’s what paying closer attention has shown us – we see a complete vacuum of leadership. You’re not a leader if you don’t take responsibility for your mistakes. You’re not a leader if you don’t solve problems; you only assign blame to others. You’re not a leader if you can’t tell us where we’re at, why we got here, and what we’re going to do about it to make tomorrow better than today.
We can’t personally do much to change the leadership on Wall Street. We can’t do much to change who reports our news, because the media missed the boat on this one as well. We can’t choose the bureaucrats, like the ones at OFHEO, who oversee key agencies and put policy into action.
What we can control
We do get to choose who we hire to represent us. We have important decisions to make in a few weeks. Not just for President. Not just for the Senate or the House in Washington, D.C. We get to choose who will represent us at all levels of government.
So here’s how we put an end to it now. Quit thinking like a Democrat or a Republican. That’s another trap they’ve led us into and we bought in.
No, we will hire the best person for the job. We need to do our homework: What’s their record? What have they accomplished? How have they handled their fiduciary duties in the past?
The past is the best predictor we have of the future when it comes to human behavior. That’s how we would hire anybody else. Why would we hire our elected officials any differently?
We have access to the records of our current elected officials. We can know what they’ve done. We need to start paying closer attention.
Resources
Current legislation before Congress
Votes Database by The Washington Post
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives
Official site of the U.S. House of Representatives
Official site of the U.S. Senate
List of government agencies – federal, state and local
Find the official sites of state, county, and city governments
We the people
We’re looking for public servants, not party servants or power servants. We the people are taking our country back.
Go ahead, Mr. or Ms. Politician … take that special interest money. But you better be clear about who you serve. We the people.
Mr. or Ms. Elected Official, go ahead and listen to your party leaders. Just know that, on Election Day, we won’t vote for the person who serves the powers that be. We will vote for the person who serves us. We the people.
Combined, we’re more powerful than Washington can ever be when we are educated and informed. We will take personal responsibility to learn who best serves our interest, and the interests of our children and grandchildren.
We the people are taking back our country.
What do you think?
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Great article! I agree 100%
Unfortunately I do not think that either parties are “for the people” anymore.
If I do vote for president, can I write-in George and Mary-Lynn?.
We the people! Bigg Success!
I know this is long, but a friend sent it to me today, and I thought it was so fitting, given your topic. I have copied and pasted this article from my email.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the
Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create
problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the
Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are
against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high
taxes?
You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The
president does.
You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to
vote on appropriations.
The House of Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don’t set fiscal policy,
Congress does.
You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal
Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and
nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the
300 million are directly, legally, morally, and
individually responsible for the domestic problems that
plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because
that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913,
Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a
sound currency to a federally chartered, but private,
central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a
sound reason. They have no legal authority. They
have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a
president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t
care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in
cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject
it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the
legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy
convincing you that what they did is not their fault.
They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an
excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would
have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the
President for creating deficits.. The president can only
propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept
it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land,
gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives
for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.
Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of
the majority party. She and fellow House members, not
the president, can approve any budget they want. If the
president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they
agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million
can not replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present
facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I
can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not
traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully
grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of
the federal government, then it must follow that what exists
is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it
unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it
in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ , it’s because they
want them in IRAQ .
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite
retirement plan not available to the people, it’s
because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats,
whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to
lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to
regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from
whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let
them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied
mystical forces like “the economy,”
“inflation,” or “politics” that prevent
them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the
people who are their bosses provided the voters have the
gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their
mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of
the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
What you do with this article now that you have read it is
up to you, though you appear to have several choices.
1. You can send this to everyone in your address
book, and hope they do something about it.
2. You can agree to vote against everyone that is
currently in office, knowing that the process will take
several years.
3. You can decide to run for office yourself and
agree to do the job properly.
4. Lastly, you can sit back and do nothing, or
re-elect the current bunch.
YOU DECIDE, BUT AT LEAST SEND IT TO EVERYONE IN YOUR
ADDRESS BOOK, MAYBE SOMEONE IN THERE WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT
IT!
Ryan, I don’t like hearing “if I vote” you HAVE to vote! Remember, the Presidential election is just a part of the equation. We have to hold our local / state officials accountable too. If writing us in will get you to the polls, then go for it!
Amy, this is PERFECT and thanks so much for sharing it!
Nationally, we have our biggest deficit in history and they are saying it could double before the end of next year. Our state govenment is broke. Our county government is looking for ways to raise more money (taxes) and our local government is in the process of trying to figure out how they can tax their way out of a budget that won’t balance. Yet, we keep on going. Pensions and benefits for our government employees are out of line! Federally, our lawmakers exempt themselves from laws they pass. Our country has become one of career politicians not citizen government. Shame on us for allowing it to happen.
Thanks for the great program! We all need to study, know the facts and then vote!
Pat Drake