This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Will a "Super Congress" Gut the Constitution - Just Like the Federal Reserve?
Ryan Grim has an update on his story about the "Super Congress", which I discussed yesterday:
The Super Congress amounts to an institutionalization of the gang structure that exists informally in the Senate, where a small number of lawmakers write legislation behind closed doors and then announce it to the public? Legislation written by the Super Congress would be extremely difficult for individual members of Congress to stop.
No wonder both liberals and conservatives hate the proposal.
Indeed, the Founding Fathers' vision of prosperity has been destroyed - and we've gone from the "wealth of nations" to the "debt of nations" - at least in part because our political system has been subverted by non-Constitutional committees and entities.
For example, the country's most powerful "agency" - the Federal Reserve - is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admits (via Bloomberg):
While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.
For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in a lawsuit - Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) - that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act.
As the long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (Charles McFadden) said on June 10, 1932:
Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies ....
- advertisements -
when people say i want a smaller government or government is too big, what they are really saying is " I want a decent and honest government" or "I want a government that is not corrupt and is highly accountable".
there is a huge difference.
statists and corporatists have hi-jacked this message of anti-corruption and are projecting it through the partisan lens.
As a result,people are confused, marginalized, the message lost, they are sucked into a blackhole that serves only partisans and their apparatchiks.
what the the majoriity of people are saying and what the 535 are saying is NOT the same thing.
dont confuse the message and stay focused.
this is not about over regulation, its not about government size.
this is about honest government that is not corrupt. this is what people want. not "smaller" government, not less "spending".
this is about pay for play. its about ending legal bribery. which at this point is deeply entrenched. this is about class power. yes i said the c word.
Would it be fair to say that the majority of us would like to see the rule of law restored as a replacement for our two tiered justice system?
Sorry, you are wrong about ' not "smaller" government, not less "spending"'. That is exactly what most people want.
Sure, less systemic corruption, greater transparency, and some things you didn't mention, like an end to imperial wars, are essential to an improved situation. But many, man of us do indeed want smaller gevernment and less spending.
Smaller gavernment inherently costs less and intrudes less.
And don't immediately think you can score a point by bringing up SS or medicare. Yes, they are underfunded--but this is precisely the point where the "smaller government" critics must mercilessly expose the chicanery of our big government profligates--who have not had a true trust fund since LBJ.
Whether or not smaller government is possible, absent some rather apocalyptic events, is another question...
Could a "smaller" government stand up to the power of giant (global) corporations?
Were government to be cut back, would not corporations also have to be disempowered and reduced? Do not giant corporations have too much power, and too much ability to abuse both citizens and environment?
I think people are missing the point about all of this Kabuki theatre that is currently going on, regarding the tug-of-war about the debt ceiling which only serves to distract attention from the fact that both positions, that of Obama and that of Boehner, lead to the same result--enriching the owners of the US. Tout ça change tout c'est la même chose.
The Dems want to raise the debt ceiling because with the additional debt, the interest paid on that debt by the taxpayers goes directly to the top 0.1%. Nobody seems to be on to this scam. The whole point of QE and anything else that increases the interest paid on the national debt is to funnel money, via interest on the national debt, to the owners of the US. Seen from that perspective, which is essentially cui bono (who benefits) everything falls into place à la Ockam's razor (the simplest explanation that works is the best explanation).
Obama wants a debt increase, Boehner wants to cut back on Social Security and Medicare. For Boehner, the money that would have gone into paying recipients of these programs is now used to increase the amount of money that goes to pay interest on the debt. The whole thing is a ruse. The debt is so large that the principal can never even be reduced, nor will it ever stop growing (Antal Fekete has some valuable insights in this area. See http://www.professorfekete.com/articles%5CAEFGrowthAndDebt.pdf ).
The American taxpayer is like someone with such a large balance on his credit cards that he will never be able to reduce the principal, and the interest that he fails to pay is added to the principal. Thus, either way--Obama or Boehner--the ultimate outcome is to funnel money to the top 0.1% which they then convert into assets of real value. It's all a scam. There is no point, at this point in time, in worrying about the size of the deficits (maybe Cheney was right in this sense and he knew it). I would guess that the only thing proping up the dollar is our military might, which our trading partners (partners in crime) fear, just as if it were like a very powerful mafia don.
If you truly want a rigorous understanding of the deficit and the national debt, I can't recommend enough reading Fekete's paper cited above. He is the only one, so far as I know, to have the insights he expresses there. A little math, but not hard and not understanding that won't block understanding the paper. This paper should be read by all who want to understand what is really going on.
Right on point. Excellent, thanks.
Let govt create non-debt (non- Fed) money to pay down debt without creating more debt. It got Lincoln and Kennedy killed, but now is another day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9oKt6vT-w&feature=player_embedded
The link doesn't seem to be working, but if you google "Antal Fekete articles" look for the article on Growth and Debt published in Feb 2009.
Another point of view that expresses the same ideas about interest on the debt going directly to the owners of the US is the idea that we are essentially living in a "company town".
Additionally, people are fond of thinking that fiat currency leads to collapse. That should be amended to "Fiat currency leads to tyranny."
When I think of "Super Congress," this is what I think of.
http://fliiby.com/file/708903/2ya2qw69vy.html
Bombs are flying
People are dying
Children are crying
Politicians are lying too
Cancer is killing
Texaco's spilling
The whole world has gone to hell
But how are you?
I'm super, thanks for asking
All things considered I couldn't be better
I must say
I'm feeling super
No, nothing bugs me
Everything is super when you're...
don't you think I look cute in this hat?
I'm so sorry
Mr. Crippled
But I just can't feel too bad for you right now
Because I'm feeling so insanely super
that even the fact that you can't walk can't bring me down
(people)
He's super, thanks for asking
All things considered he couldn't be better
He must say
(big gay al)
I'm super
No nothing bugs me
Everything is super when you're...
don't you think I look cute in this hat,
These little pants,
This matching tie I got at Barn's...
I'm super
(People)
In the barracks and the trenches as well!
(Big Gay Al)
Stick 'em up!
(People)
Big gay al says "do ask do tell"
(Big Gay Al)
Skittles
(People)
yes he's super and he's proud to be fay!
(Big Gay Al)
Ok
(People)
Everything is super when you're... GGGGGGAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!
When your GAY!
Cause it's just business. Too big to fail is good business.