Politics As Usual: 545 vs. 300,000,000

I received a forwarded email the other day that caught my attention. This is odd for me because I rarely read forwarded messages. I'm sure I am not the only one, right? Anyway, this email was forwarded to me by someone that I respect who knows me well enough to not send me a lot of junk and so I opened it. The original title of this email was "The 545 Rule". I consider myself somewhat intelligent and began reading, because as far as I could recall, I had not ever heard of a 545 rule. The article was written by a retired Orlando Sentinal reporter named Charlie Reese. The central idea of this article was as follows: One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of 300 million people that are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. Period.

We are now at the beginning of the 2012 campaign season, so please take time to just think about this 545 rule. Politicians are the only people who,  1) create problems and then campaign against them, 2) have Constitutional authority to vote appropriations, 3) write the tax code, 4) set fiscal policy and lastly 5) control the Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Reese put it best when he wrote that those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. 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 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.  They are the only people that have the power to go along with the status quo or to change it. This is why we as a part of the 300,000,000 should hold them accountable, we are their bosses.

We are the voters. We control the 545 and not the other way around. It is amazing that we forget this from time to time. Politicians are out of control. If you are not convinced by now, then let me just run down a small list of taxes that they have decided we need to pay: building permit tax, cdl tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, excise tax, federal income tax, federal unemployment tax, fishing license tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, inheritance tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, marriage license tax, medicare tax, personal property tax, property tax, real estate tax, social security tax, sales tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal universal service fee tax, telephone state and local tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, so I assume you are getting the point now. Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation had no national debt. I am not against taxes, but I am against stupid taxes. We are taxed more when the government cannot control its spending. So when 545 people are not doing their jobs properly, then they request that 300,000,000 pay more taxes to increase the nations revenue so they can give it another try. Give me a break! Let's see what we decide to do in 2012! Are we going to continue this vicious cycle or are we going to do something about it?