By Robert W. Peck
Chairman, Constitution Party of Washington
As a new year begins and a new Congress comes on the stage promising reform, fiscal accountability and a return to conservative principles, I’ve got to remind us all to stay focused on the big picture. Too often, our attention is diverted from the real and weighty issues that determine the future of our country, our liberty and our prosperity. Like the illusionist who diverts our attention from what is really going on, the political powers that be, along with the dominant media and political pundits, direct our attention to whatever is being billed as the major political battle of the day. But more often than not, those battles are being waged over what amounts to minutia or only minor differences in policy when compared to what I consider to be the big picture.
A CASE IN POINT
The recent battle over extending the Bush tax cuts is a good case in point. Both Democrats and Republicans decried each other’s position as disastrous, ruinous, or downright evil. Both told their supporters that they were here to save them from the other party. Conservative commentators told us that the Democrats would destroy the economy and crush us under an unbearable burden of increased taxation. When the dust settled and the Republicans claimed victory, conservative leaders engaged in an orgy of self congratulation patting themselves on the back for ushering in the new age of conservatism that will save the country from the liberals. The casual observer would think it is now safe to go back to sleep confident that small government, low taxes, Tea Party Republicans are in charge now and all will be well.
But was the extending of the Bush tax cuts the epic struggle for our economic survival that it was billed to be? Or was it a distraction that diverted our attention from the big picture?
During that debate we were inundated with plenty of minutia from political pundits and talking heads discussing whether the Bush tax cuts increased GDP, decreased federal revenues, or increased the federal deficit and by what percentage of GDP adjusted for inflation as based on CBO projections for the year 2018 and how that will effect couples filing jointly with 2.3 children and a medical insurance co-payment of . . . . . blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum, insert endless stream of baffling BS here.
Ultimately, there were really only two relevant questions; 1) How much of our personal income is being taken for the cost of government and; 2) Exactly how much did the Bush tax cuts reduce that burden for the average American? With that in mind, I set out looking for answers and found the following.
OVERALL TAXATION
What is known as the ’Bush tax cuts’ is actually a collection of various changes in federal tax laws, rates, rules, etc, assembled into two different bills passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2001 and 2003. To see exactly how much these tax cuts directly affected our lives and our standard, the following gives a sampling of what percentage of gross income the average American paid in taxation (local, state and federal combined) during the last 10 years.
2000 32.98% Last year of Clinton Presidency
2004 28.53% First year that all Bush tax cuts were fully implemented
2006 31.16% Last year of Republican controlled Congress
2008 28.99% Last year of Bush Presidency
2010 26.89% Current rate under Obama and Democrat Congress
(source: http://www.taxfoundation.org)
TOTAL COST OF GOVERNMENT
The actual cost of government is considerably higher as it takes into account total spending, fees (not counted as taxes) and the cost of complying with government regulations. According to Americans for Tax Reform (www.costofgovernmentday.com), in the last decade, Cost of Government Day, the day at which Americans stop working to pay for the cost of government and start keeping what they earn, has fallen on:
2000 June 29 Last year of Clinton Presidency
2004 July 10 First year that all Bush tax cuts were fully implemented
2006 July 10 Last year of Republican controlled Congress
2008 July 16 Last year of Bush Presidency
2010 Aug 19 Current Cost of Government Day
According to the above, while taxes may have gone down by as much as 3% during the time of the Bush tax cuts, the cost of government went up. In other words, our standard of living didn’t really change, but we did acquire a lot of new debt, over $4trillion during the Bush Presidency.
THE DISTRACTION
First of all, the battle over extending the Bush tax cuts was not really about lowering taxes, it was about maintaining the current level of taxation. And it wasn’t a battle over the whole 3% that those tax cuts appear to have represented, seeing as Democrats already planned to retain most of those cuts. The ’Great Battle’ was over one element of the Bush tax cuts that was directed at individuals earning over $200,000 per year. To win this ’Great Victory,’ Republicans acquiesced to nearly $1 trillion in new spending (i.e. debt), $313 billion of which their own budget point man concedes is unnecessary. By the way, all of this was done to gain only a two year extension, after which time we’ll be watching this movie all over again.
While everyone was paying attention to the Republican versus Democrat battle being waged over extending that one element of the tax cuts, we were all successfully distracted from looking at the big picture – the fact that regardless of which party is in power, over half of all that we produce continues to be devoured by the government behemoth (63% currently and about 52% under Bush and the Republican Congress).
It isn’t that the extending of the tax cuts doesn’t matter. It’s that issues like this often manage to distract us and cause us to lose sight of the bigger picture. Our party of preference wins the battle of the day and we all go back to our homes singing the victory, oblivious to the fact that taxpayers continue to lose the war as the establishment maintains the status quo.
THE BIG PICTURE
In 2011, let’s not get distracted by the minutia offered up by party leaders, political pundits and the 6 o’clock news. Let’s stay focused on the big picture – the weighty issues of life, liberty, property, the clear limits placed on government by the U.S. Constitution, the 63% of all our income that is being consumed by government, the $3.5 trillion per year being spent by the federal government and $1.2 trillion per year in new debt that is being heaped on the backs of the next generation.
If the Republicans in Congress want to claim to represent Tea Partiers, Constitutionalists and traditional conservatives, they need to step up to the plate and wage a real war to rein in out of control spending and put the federal government back in its Constitutionally prescribed box.
In 2011, the big picture is the fact that the Republican controlled House of the 112th Congress has it within their power to rein in most of the federal government’s un-Constitutional activities (by defunding them), end deficit spending and balance the budget. You see, Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution states that “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.” In other words, the federal government cannot, and will not, spend a penny more than what the controlling party in the House (the Republicans) decides it will spend.
Now you may be thinking “Oh my, the Democrats would scream bloody murder – there would be gridlock – the government could shut down.” Yes! You’re catching on! That’s exactly the idea and it’s exactly what the framers of our Constitution intended. They intended for the people’s direct representatives (the House) to be able to hold the rest of the government in check by holding the purse strings and thereby be able to “compel the Senate to agree to a reasonable measure, by withholding supplies till the measure is consented to,” as James Iredell argues in connection with the Constitution ratification debates. As for a “reasonable measure,” I think balancing the budget and denying funding for any activity or agency not clearly authorized under the U.S. Constitution is quite reasonable. The next reasonable measure that I would like to see, is to get the total cost of government (local, state and federal) back to its 1910 level of 5% of income as opposed to the current 63%.
If, in the coming two years, under a Republican controlled House, even one un-Constitutional program receives funding or one dollar is added to the deficit, or Cost of Government Day comes any later than January 19 (as it did in 1910), it will not be because Republicans are powerless. It will not be because of ’the big bad liberals.’ It will be because the Republicans in the House want it that way. The only other possible explanation would be that we the people have elected to high office weak-kneed, limp-wristed, panty-waists who are afraid of a fight. No, I didn’t call the Republicans panty-waists, I said we’re going to give them two years to show us whether they are or not.
A CALL FOR TRUE GRIT
With the remake of one of my favorite movies in mind, True Grit, I have to ask, where are the national leaders with grit? Men who without fear for their popularity or political careers, will stand up to the criminal violators of our Constitution, take the reins in their teeth and a gun in each hand and charge at the oppressing oligarchs who seek to tax us into oblivion.
Oh for a handful of national leaders with True Grit!
__________________________
If you agree with the content of this article, please forward, post and publish far and wide. If you don’t, who will?
© Robert W. Peck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncgy2SgORds
Conservative Tea Party Patriot a.k.a. The Mad Monk
You also state that “why not just allow all Californians to shot illegals on sight.” Answer:
this is California and all people have constituional rights. Governor Brown is not
a clone of “Rafael Trujillo”,viz., we should have
no “El Corte” (ala, the events on the island of
Hispanola between October 2 – 8, 1937).
Remember “Papa Doc” pocketed almost all the
funds from the 1952 treaty.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg,
Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
Conservative Tea Party Patriot a.k.a The Mad Monk
Now you raise the issue of “Jean-Claude Duvalier”. Your scripts looks like it comes
directly from “le Comite pour le Rembourse
Immediat des Montants Envoles”.
France was collecting from the Goverment
of Haiti indemity for the lost French slaves
for 122 years. Now you claim that Black in
Arizona should pay for the loss of Arizona
slaves to the heirs of slave owners.
Arizona is not Haiti. Arizona is not Zanzibar
either, heirs of slave owners in Zanzibar got
indemity for lose of slaves also. Even though
Barack Obama II is a Subject of the Sultan of
Zanzibar (because of a Decree of the Sultan of
Zanzibar in 1919 naming his paternal grandfather
a Subject which past to his grandson).
Note that aforesaid grandfather go out of prison
in 1951, because he was not a Subject of George VI.
Barack Obama has never asseverated the
United States Oath of Allegiance against the Sultan Jamshid of Zanzibar (now in Portsmouth,
England). Why should a Subject of the Sultan
Jamshid be act as if he was President of the
United States?
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg
Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
Mr Vice Chairman, and “-“:
Again, I have never heard of this mad monk of cortez person. But Sarah Palin is indeed, my heroin, and I wish the American Independent Party good fortune with its nomination of Todd M. Palin. It could get particularly interesting if the Republicans nominate his wife for the same office in the same year.
Thank you for your historical point about Arizona secession still being legally in effect. What I mean to say is that we should put it practically into effect. The next time the US government tells us we can’t allow Arizona citizens to shoot all suspected illegals on sight, we can tell them to mind their own business.
I have an idea, it will make America, and the world much better off.
First we take all the Jews, Arabs and Muslims round them up and send them to the middle east.
Next we get all the Mexican and Central American illegals and send them to there home countries.
Then we drop nukes on them until they all die.
Then we pop open a can of Coors Lite and shoot off fireworks, celebrate the 4th of July and high five “USA #1! USA #1!”
Also, I think Jean-Claude Duvalier would make a great president as well. What I have to wonder is, if we have to have a foreign born negro as President, why does it have to be a Marxist Communist Muslim like Barack Obama, and not a good Godly man like Jean-Claude Duvalier?
Do we really have to let Haiti have him back as their President, or can the US get first dibs?
Julian Assange should be treated as an enemy combatant, and as far as drawing and quartering being unconstitutional…
The constitution does not apply to enemy combatants and besides, if we make it commonplace, it wouldn’t be cruel and unusual punishment now would it?
I’m not Chelene Nightingale, but she sounds like she has some good ideas. So what if she spells rhinos as rinos? Pamela Brown also spelled it RHINOS in the California official election booklet and she got 5.86% of the vote.
My favorite part is where she says
“Controlling the border to prevent illegals from committing crimes and terrorist acts and siphoning billions in services is a top priority. ”
Why not just allow all Californians to shoot suspected illegals on sight? That would be a cost efficient way to keep those varmints from crossing the border. We sure would love to have a law like that here in Arizona, too.
The part about cutting taxes during a disaster made a lot of sense as well. One time, a flash flood washed away my trailer and I remember sitting there, looking at the wreck that remained of all my former belongings and thinking “you know, what I could really use right now is a tax cut.”
Sorry, words like RHINO for RINO.
“-”
No it is not Chelene Nightingale. The Mad Monk
a.k.a. Conservative Tea Party Patriot has read some history of Arizona.
Nightingale, uses works like RHINO for RINO.
Sincerely, Mark Seidennberg,
Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
Conservative patriot tea party sounds a lot like Chelene Nightingale! DOH!
Conservative Tea Party Patriot a.k.a The Mad Monk
Sarah Palin is your herion. Ha!
The American Independent Party will have on it’s ballot in 2012 her husband Todd M. Palin for
President.
Next, Arizona did secede from the United States
of America on March 16, 1861. The people of
Arizona do not have to do it again. The act was
done almost 150 years ago, but you know that
already from your posting as The Mad Monk of
Cortez, Colorado.
Remember that Arizona Congressman Marcus H. MacWillie died with out being reconstucted, viz., never taking the Oath. This was told to me
by my late friend, William Shearer, founder of the American Independent Party. He showed
me his historical information on Congressman
MacWillie in his library in Lemon Grove, CA
and them stated to sing I’M A GOOD OLE REBEL.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman,
American Independent Party
Mr. Vice Chairman
You have me confused with someone else. I have never heard of this “Mad Monk,” nor have I ever been outside of Pima County, Arizona in my whole life.
I’m a true red blooded American. My gun is firm, long, wide barreled, upright and ready, and my finger is always on the trigger.
I hate gays and Mexicans with a passion. Nothing makes me madder with passion than a gay man or a Mexican, or especially a gay Mexican, with his shirt off and his muscles glistening with sweat. I hate them so much that my veins start bulging out, my nose flares, and I get all red in the neck and face. My gun gets just about ready to go off every time I see one, that’s how mad I get.
I also hate the Islamic bastards, although I gotta say I kind of admire how they control their women.
I support the troops and the police. In fact no one is a bigger fan of men in uniform than I am.
I am also a Christian patriot. What I love the most about Jesus is His fervent nationalism, His support for the troops and wars of liberation, and His unabashed free market capitalist economic views. Like when He said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a poor Mexican to get into heaven. Jesus is my kind of tea party patriot!
Another of my favorite Bible quotes: Go to war on your neighbor before he does it unto you. Couldn’t have said it any better!
How can someone be a true Christian when they can’t even read the Bible in the original, English language, King James Version?
Jesus spoke English Only, so why can’t the illegal Mexican invaders and all the other foreigners coming into this country to take away our jobs? Don’t they understand that in a free market these jobs rightfully belong to native born Americans?
Like the citizens of Tucson 150 years ago, I support secession.
As a former confederate territory, Arizona should secede from the union and round up and deport all the Mexicans. Then, since, slave holders were never compensated for having their slave property seized, the descendents of slaves living in Arizona should pay reparations to the descendents of slave owners.
The ones that don’t have the money to do so should be put to work as cooks, maids and gardeners, since we won’t have the Mexicans around anymore.
I hear that Bristol Palin recently moved to Arizona. Her mother, Sarah Palin, is my heroin.
I love it when she said we should target liberal politicians like Gabrielle Giffords and, I quote, “don’t retreat, reload!”
BTW what kind of guns and ammo are you into? I like ’em big, personally.
Conservative Tea Party Patriot
I saw your posting as “The Mad Monk” on another forum. You can not come up with
anything new, you just repeat the same garbage
here.
You did the same thing last July 25th from you
hole in Cortez, CO. You are not conservative nor
are you a tea party patriot.
Again, you do know that citizens of Tucson were
supportive group of the Confederate States of
America 150 years ago.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg,
Vice Chairman, AmericanIndependent Party
Mr. Vice Chairman
Please don’t get me wrong. Negroes and women can both be very useful, as long as they remember their place. It is when they try to take the place of white men that problems occur.
If you make it down to Tucson on February 14th, 2012 maybe we can get together. We can get our knees together (to pray of course), oil and play with each other’s guns and talk about shooting liberal politicians.
After that maybe we can cruise by a Home Depot and holler at Mexican day laborers in the parking lot. Sounds like fun…what do you say?
Conservative Tea Party Patriot
First, for another post I know you have studied
history. However, your views on the historical
events are fogged.
Here you attack “negros” and “women”. I have
lived in North Carolina and Louisana and have
saw the changes mostly for the better.
I remember a black baby died in LA because the father and mother who were black did not want a transfusion of a white man’s blood. It worked
both ways. People should look for the good in
all people.
My father told me that when his parents took him to Arizona in 1912, Old men were there with
signs saying 50, viz., 50 years since Arizona
Territory joined the Confederate States of America. My dad told me that story of his
visit to Arizona when he took me to visit the
new State of Alaska in 1959.
February 14th 1912 will mark the 150th
year that Arizona cesession from the United
States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlF-druUwNU
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg
Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
Robert Peck makes a lot of sense in this article. The Bush tax cuts for rich people were not nearly big enough. We need Conservative Tea Party Patriot Constitutionalists who will make sure that rich people don’t pay any taxes at all.
What makes people who can’t afford their own roads, schools, medical care, etc., think they really even deserve to live at all?
I love his suggestion of turning the clock back to 1910, when women and negroes knew their place, queers were in the closet, workers who tried to unionize got shot by Pinkerton guards, and nobody cared where you drilled or dumped your waste as long as you had money. It was a simple, better, and simply better time.