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[-] KulunkelBoom@lemmus.org 16 points 1 day ago

545 people


Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? They are the leader of the majority party. They and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. 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 the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Marines are in IRAN , it's because they want them in IRAN .

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.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

[-] Aeder@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Yes, Representative Republics are designed to be that way, which is why they won't solve their inherent systemic issues unless you manage to get a candidate in that replaces the whole thing with either a modernized Democracy (as in people have power instead of representatives) or rips out the least democratic aspects out of the system and replaces them with something more democratic.

[-] uriel238 1 points 11 hours ago

How Money Works notes there are about 100,000 lobbyists in Washington defining reality for all these elected representatives. And that's just the ones with Lobbyist on their business card. Plenty more are unofficial but have the occupation of bribing government officers.

This is one of the reasons we see so many Let them eat cake moments.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 18 hours ago

I think the problem is systemic. These representatives are vulnerable not just to bribery, but to threats as well. The core concept of giving your political power to another person introduces a principal-agent problem.

[-] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Uhm... Gross oversimplification.

The complexities of decision-making and reasoning seem to be utterly lost in your view. Politicians are often extremely incompetent and the decisions are still difficult and will never make everyone happy, even if they were competent.

And stuff like: "the all don't want taxes" is just plainly stupid as a statement. In a stable society taxes are simply a way of financing society and community. They are not optional unless you afe asking for anarchy which would be even worse than the shit we have now.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 5 points 17 hours ago

Who's paying the taxes is optional. That burden should fall on the wealthy, not the lower middle class.

[-] ContriteErudite@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I would argue that the central issue is not which class bears the greater tax burden, but the persistence of the class system itself. I am not advocating for abolishing cash or personal property, but am questioning an economic order with declining social mobility and where the circumstances of one's birth increasingly determines the opportunities available throughout life. I think it's more accurate to say that we have castes instead of classes.

As wealth compounds across generations, so too does access to property, capital, education, and influence. The result is that assets become concentrated within a relatively small portion of society, while others find it increasingly difficult to establish any foundations for security and prosperity. Every person should begin from a place where opportunity is genuinely shared rather than inherited.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 14 hours ago

Whatever you want to call it. The point was that the wealthy should be the ones paying for the public good. Not those who are unfairly burdened by it.

this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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