“House Stiffs Sandy’s Victims”

That was the almost pornographic headline in my local “progressive” paper. It also carried a huge photo of an enraged Gov. Chris Christie railing over the House failure to pass a relief bill for the needy victims of Superstorm Sandy. True enough, but as much as I’m disappointed with the Republican leadership, you have to give them credit for splitting this pork bloated bill into two parts – putting off the inevitable pork fest for a few months. The Sandy victims will finally get some help, but the Republicans will have assured credit go to the totalitarian-in-chief.

My friend, Dr. Kevin Collins, who posts on his blog www.coachisright.com and allows me an occasional post, forestalled a trip to his Florida second home to stay and help run relief efforts on Staten Island with a local Knights of Columbus chapter. He’s in great health, a member of MENSA, but no spring chicken. The man, alongside hundreds of others giving their time and treasure have worked to exhaustion to help these folks. The Feds have a role, albeit a generous and short-termed one (subsidiarity, you know!)

Gov. Christie must be among those legions of elected officials who only read Democratic (nauseating) talking points duly echoed by a complicit media. The bill was not just for Superstorm Sandy relief, but our ubiquitous elected representatives stuffed it with pork. With all due respect to my Muslim and Jewish brothers, this is even unacceptable to little old Catholic me who loves pork chops and apple sauce. Little old Catholic Boehner saw right through Ms. Nancy and Dirty Harry’s Luciferian plans and squashed them – for now.

Stuffing bills with pork is a time-honored political habit that will be hard to break. It might go a long way to restoring constitutional law and reduce our children’s burden if we did. The rest of this article is just about that idea, so read on….

When Chief Justice John Roberts asked if the defenders of Obamacare expected SCOTUS to review all 2,700 pages of this overreaching law, he posed a question that should have been asked 100 years ago during countless other deliberations. It made no more sense to the Court than it did to Charlie Rangel – or any well-intentioned lawmaker or bureaucrat. Tea Partiers formed committees to take on 20 pages each among them. It wasn’t pretty! Ms. Nancy still claims her Congress took the Constitution into consideration. Lesson 1: Always listen to your local Tea Partier!

Lawmakers have their overpaid fun for a while, but bureaucrats make careers out of draconian rules, harassment, and fines to justify their existence. So much for term limits!

If things are ever to turn around, lawmaking and bureaucracy must incorporate “Subsoil” – personal responsibility, and “e pluribus unum” into the wonderful Chaos of human interaction and proper government oversight. Then there is a chance to preserve the American Way of Life in our Constitutional Republic..

Five important questions should be consistently asked, truthfully answered, and applied with integrity when writing legislation and running any resulting bureaucracy:

• Will this new law help or hurt initiative or personal responsibility?
• Does the legislation or the bureaucracy it authorizes equally benefit the wider community?
• Will this legislation put people or regions in a creative or entrepreneurial strait jacket?
• Will the legislation encourage and maximize private enterprise and employment without requiring major government oversight?
• Is the legislation less than 100 pages in length, devoid of selective privileges and unrelated attachments and riders?

Entitlements discourage individuals from challenging and motivating themselves. Are the people allowed to do their best when challenged? There will always be hard-to-define needs of the helpless that should largely be handled locally, especially in the long term. We’re all needy – we’re not all helpless!

Individual and community initiative and uniqueness must never be subordinated to a rigid plan for central control through taxes, financial manipulations, or bureaucratic overreach. Challenges and competitions between communities would be far more productive by exhorting beauty and quality rather than harassment and fines. Unexpected opportunities in the chaos of daily pursuits lead to the development of individual gifts and talents (and from these, new technologies, industries, and services.)

Draconian bills of great length are by definition what the Founders called “pretended legislation” filled with taxpayer poison pills and bureaucratic license. We must no longer pass bills so we can see what’s in them. If a bill is too long, it becomes impossible to analyze and critique its veracity and constitutionality before the damage is done. SCOTUS brought that home loud and clear in the Obamacare preliminary hearings. The Congress voted on the 150+ page “Fiscal Cliff” bill within 15 minutes of receiving it. I’m no speed reader, but this is an awesome feat of gross misfeasance of office that we and our children will pay for.

©2013 Gerald V. Todd – PO Box 1578, Bakersfield, CA 93302-1578 toddyo1935@att.net

661-213-6288

Photo credit: Bob Jagendorf (Creative Commons)