I'm Not Dead Yet

Who can resist a good Monty Python reference? I know I can not. The biggest problem I see in participation in the coming elections is that the choice I will have is to vote for the clueless candidate or the truthless candidate. Of course, I do not want to leave out the possibility of a truthless/clueless candidate.

I just saw a debate on the Faux News Program "Cashin' In." Bloomberg had correctly porposed that the entire Bush tax cuts be allowed to expire. Our situation is so dire that we have little alternative. The talking heads did point out that there needed to be spending cuts. Even with the expiration of the cuts, we still need to cut 10 trillion from our budget over 10 years. Our leaders either do not understand this, or they are lying to get votes. The 80% of the populace that says they oppose cuts in Medicare and Social Security need better leaders to tell them the truth. 

While we are not dead yet, we only have a few short years until we are forced to undertake great austerity. I think that a little austerity now is better than great austerity and possible societal colapse later. 

Old Vs. Young

Naturally we want to help the older members of soceity. But people in thier 20's have a difficult situation forced on them by thier elders. They must save for their own retirement while paying for the retirment of thier grandparents. The generational compact has been broken. 

 

Tenth Amendment

I saw Robert Bork on some talk show over a decade ago. He was asked about the tenth amendment to the constitution. Here is the text of that amendment: 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

What Bork said shocked me. Let me paraphrase what he said. Bork basically said that judges ignored the tenth amendment because most governmental functions violated that amendment. This was before Justice Clarence Thomas' attempt to bring such matters to the front of the discussion again. 

Bork was right of course. No one has paid any attention to the constitution, as limited by the tenth amendment, since 1800, just a few years after its ratification.  

This issue goes back to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wanted to buy Louisiana from the French. Yet this was forbidden by the tenth amendment. He was troubled by this. Jefferson's solution—ignore the issue and hope it goes away.  It has. 

So today we have evolved a government that bases most of its actions and functions on illegality. No one cares.  

So our modern candidates for office are pledging themselves to take an oath to uphold the constitution, and then immediately break that oath. While the constitutional oath that the congress critters take is not explicitly stated in the constitution, an oath is constitutionally required. Here is the oath they currently take:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. 

Originally, and more in line with the constitutional requirement to take an oath, they said this: 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States."

Click here for an official discussion of the oath.  

The irony for me is that any time I vote for a candidate in a national election, I will be voting for a person, who on their first vote, will be breaking their solemn oath they just made—even Ron Paul. The more I think about our system, our modern Babylon, the less is my desire to participate. 

Fire Them All

I hope "they" all can be fired!

Where Are We Spending?

A little chart candy for a laid back Saturday. If we want to balance the budget we will need to cut. By looking at this chart one can see how dfficult it will be to cut 40% of our spending as we need to. This chart is from Karl Denninger. I recomend that you read his commentary, or maybe I do not recomend it, it is after all the weekend.