Jennifer Gaucher: The Giant Cesspool on Capitol Hill

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Jennifer Gaucher, GoLocalWorcester Guest MINDSETTER™

Capitol Hill Photo: Wikimedia/Eget foto

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag…………..“With Fairness and Social Justice to All” Joe Kennedy III has asked the people of Massachusetts to join him “to fight for fairness in Washington” as he launches his campaign to run for the 4th congressional district seat formally held by retiring Congressman Barney Frank.

He makes the claim, in his YouTube campaign announcement, “that our country was founded on a simple idea: that every person deserves to be treated fairly by each other and by their government and that every person deserves a fair chance to play their hand, to make the most out of their hard work.”

Sounds eerily familiar to the claim by President Obama, in his State of the Union Address,” that we need to restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

President Obama’s convoluted vision for creating his “fair society” is bigger government, more bureaucracy, more stimulus programs, more handouts, more regulations, more union coddling and higher taxes.
JK³’s clouded vision is to “fight for fairness” in Washington with a fair jobs plan, a fair education system, a fair housing policy and a fair tax code.

Welcome to America boys! America is not the land of equal outcome; it is the land of equal opportunity. 312 million Americans and 14 million illegal immigrants live, love and labor in the greatest country in the world because we are guaranteed unalienable rights in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In America, everyone has the opportunity to strive for excellence, to work hard, to take risks, to fail and hopefully to prosper, personally, professionally and monetarily. But not everyone has the ambition, enthusiasm or motivation to work hard, to achieve and to prosper.

Some choose not “to” because they can. Equal opportunity offers everyone a fair choice. Free-will guarantees an option to buy in or buy out of the American dream.

We the people built this country on a revolutionary concept of economic and political liberties that promoted personal ambitions and self-interest. Limited government, individual responsibility, and free markets allowed people to better their condition. We established the longest reigning form of government in the world by working hard and taking risks always striving for reward in the form of personal and/or monetary prosperity. Our democracy has thrived on a decentralized form of government of, by and for the people.

Today, American adults can be segmented into three groups, those who “can,” those who “can’t,” and those who “won’t.” Tax dollars provided by those who “can” are allocated accordingly and without prejudice for those who “can’t.”

President Obama and JK Cubed prefer social responsibility to individual responsibility. They adhere to a command and control centralized form of government that promotes equal outcome. They believe that it is “fair to share” other people’s money. They have no shame taking from those who “can” then redistributing it to those who “won’t.” They want people to rely on government and ultimately to become dependent on government for survival and protection.

The giant cesspool on Capitol Hill and its 50 parasitic statehouse “leech” fields serve as crony capitalist sanctuaries where special interest privileges masquerade as fairness initiatives to override general interests. The perennial political class spends other people’s money, disguises the cost then passes the debt obligation forward in return for more time in office to accumulate ever more influence. The spending addiction is unfair; the annual deficit is unfair and the compounding debt is unfair.

Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore from 1965-2000 warned, “The problem in America is that the government worries too much about the individual and not enough about its country.”
535 entrenched politicians have led us into a $16 trillion abyss and no amount of political compromise, “balanced approach,” or “shared sacrifice” is adequately addressing the SOURCES of the unfair debt & deficit dilemmas emanating out of Washington D.C.

America is not experiencing this severe fiscal chaos because we have been unfair. America is in an extreme financial predicament because we have been overly generous. In the name of security and equality unlimited government policies regulate the transfer of power from local control to Washington control by taking from those who “can” and giving to those who “won’t.”
Bold and behemoth strategies that include fundamental and structural changes are necessary to alter the stagnant economic climate and gridlocked political climate. The American people want to hear specific solutions and they want to see real results.

If President Obama wants a “fair society” and JK Cubed wants to “fight for fairness” then they both should be able to conclude that excessive tenure of politicians and a tax code that penalizes income are the two biggest drivers of the unfair debt crisis our country faces. Exorbitant taxation and infinite terms violate antitrust laws when politicians dole out tax dollars in return for votes. They call this arrangement social justice. I call it a mega-monopoly gone wild.

Citizen legislators who will vote in the best interest of the country should be present on Capitol Hill not career politicians maneuvering to preserve their own self interests with endless spending promises. Term limits will allow for popular legislators to serve four or six years in the House of Representatives and twelve years in the Senate. Limiting terms and eliminating congressional pensions are the only available options to limit and control government spending. Public service should not be a means to secure financial gain. “Fighting for fairness” in Washington begins with restoring fairness to taxpayers.
Ideally Congress needs only convene and be paid for six months out of every year, January one to July one. Congress averages 150 work days per year in Washington. The rest of their time is spent on recesses, fact-finding missions and fundraising events. Therefore, members of Congress should campaign on their own time, from July one to January one, not while under the employ of the United States government. Again, these changes will restore fairness to taxpayers.

Abolishing the income tax and the IRS are imperative if President Obama and JK Cubed want everyone to pay their “fair share.” In tax year 2011, 49% of filers paid no income tax; they had no skin in the game.
Taxing income is counterproductive in a capitalistic society and it has evolved into a con game used by polarizing politicians to promote class warfare. Income should not be penalized, i.e. “taxed”. Consumption should be taxed. The National Retail Sales Tax also known as the Fair Tax will eliminate class warfare and tax loopholes. All corporate, gift, estate, dividend and capital gains taxes will be gone. Americans will be incentivized to EARN and penalized, i.e., TAXED to spend. Items will only be taxed at “point of sale: the more expensive the purchase, the higher the tax.

No income level will be exempt, subsidized or penalized. All citizens and non-citizens, rich and poor will pay as they purchase. Success and savings will be rewarded, the tax base will be broadened and everyone will pay their fair share. A 12% - 16% tax rate will coincide with drastically reduced government spending in fairness to all taxpayers.

Charles Krauthammer, a columnist at “The Washington Post” admits that “fundamental reform of a corrosive, corrupted tax code that misdirects capital and promotes unfairness is necessary to eliminate class resentment.”

President Obama and JK³ are progressive ideologues who believe America is the land of equal outcome and they are the chosen social justice engineers who know best how to redistribute the fruits of other people’s labor. Taking from those who “can” and giving to those who “won’t” in return for votes is clearly UNFAIR and UNAMERICAN.

I don’t want placating politicians who enable bad behavior by catering to government beneficiaries; I want passionate politicians with strong convictions who won’t sacrifice their principles of limited government, limited terms,

limited taxation, limited spending, free markets and individual responsibility.

If these two “fair-minded” men genuinely believed in a “fair society” with “fairness for all” they would be campaigning to:
a. Limit congressional terms
b. Eliminate congressional pensions
c. Abolish the income tax &
d. Dissolve the IRS.

According to James Poulos, a columnist at “The Daily Caller,” “The real inequality problem we face isn’t measured in income; it’s measured in independence. And it won’t go away until the political power concentrated at the national level is so diminished that the most economically powerful and the most economically powerless will stop conspiring to put government in charge of ever more aspects of American life.”