So when will they pass a BUDGET!!!!!

I'm sorry, I don't think that problem about the Debt, Deficit spending, and the Debt Ceiling have been fixed yet!

The people are ignorant and the politicians are expert choreographers and magicians.  Fancy footwork, and the slight of hand will not fix the fiscal disorder we have in Washington. 

Who agrees with me, that the press won't talk about budgets again until sometime in Friday, December 13, 2013, when the "Conference Committee" is to deliver a budget.

There should be pressure on here.  Why aren't the American people up in arms about this.  Our government has not passed a budget in over 5 years.  This is their job, they have failed to do their job for 5 years and we the people just watch TV.

I don't get it. 

In the immortal words of Master Yoda, "do or do not, there is no try". 

Do your jobs congress, you have no choice.  At some point, I have faith, the American people will snap out of the trance they are in.  We will clean house then.

Take care friends.

T. M. Mangum

The last three weeks

For several weeks the nation was involved in a debate centered on the topic of the National Debt.  Some in the main stream media have called the end of the partial government shutdown a loss for the Republican Party, a waste time, and harmful to the nation.  If the American people have not decided to become more informed on the failings of congress and the state of the Nation’s fiscal house then I guess I can agree with their summation.  I believe, However, it is never a waste of time to bring to light the ills that need to be healed.  Our government for more than 5 years now has not passed a budget.  We have run fiscal yearly deficit of over $1 Trillion for at least that same number of years and the national debt will soon top $17 Trillion!  The problem with the last few weeks is the talk was not all about Budgets, Debt, Deficits, and Fiscal Responsibility.  Now that again is in my opinion the fault of the Media as well as the Republicans but I hold to the notion that it is never a waste of time to try and bring the debate to the people and discuss the things that need to be fixed. 

The Budget, The Deficit, The Debt

So, what we are being told is that the 432 members of the House and the 100 members of the Senate, along with the President; for several years now have been unable to agree on a budget, that too much debt ($17 Trillion + and counting) is not good, and that running Trillion Dollar Deficits every year is not a way to reduce debt.

In the State of Utah where I live, the week following the Government shut down, new unemployment claims surged by 7,000.  I am one of those fortunate souls.  If you take a moment to read back through my posts here you will be able to garner several things:

1.        I am a conservative, constitutionally minded, advocate for change in our
              government.

2.        I think most of the American Electorate, (The People) are simply ignorant
             when it comes to politics, government, and economics.

3.        If the American people do not re-educate themselves, and change their
             government, in the end the US and the world economies will suffer
             greatly.

4.        I do believe that a better America is worth fighting for and that true
             change, by the will of the people, can be accomplished. 

In one day, if 533 Idiots do not raise the Debt Ceiling the U.S. as a nation will experience many harsh realities and people around the world will suffer.  Let us not make any mistake about who is at fault here.  While it is very evident that our elected representatives hold the smoking gun and have their fingers on the trigger, it is our fault that our nation is here at this place now.

We have been here before, the debate about budgets, deficits, and national debt have ebbed and flowed like the tides and we have failed to direct our elected representatives in the matter.  However this again to me is not surprising. I have heard the conversations,

“we can’t cut military spending it will weaken America.”  A good friend of mine

Echo’s the reporting of the day in 2011 as the debate over budgets, deficits, and debt took center stage.  With 2012 Defense spending at $1.4 Trillion Dollars, I think that cuts are very appropriate and necessary.  The task of prioritizing and slimming and cutting out waste should go to the professionals we employ and elect in Washington and the Pentagon and the “this will weaken the US.” BS argument is null because it is their jobs to do what needs to be done with the money provided.

“Changing the retirement age for Social Security is not fair.”  Another good friend

Again echo’s the reporting of the day back in 2011 when the debate over budgets, deficits, and debt was center stage.  Again, we the people have to wake up and gain control of our senses and our government.  If you are on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid no worries no change for you.  If your 62 well we just moved the goal post, don’t look for partial benefits till your 65, and none of us should be looking for benefits before 70!  If there is great hardship and inability to care for one’s self we should make exceptions and of course there is major reform needed in the system; the amount individuals pay, corporations pay, and the government pay into the fund as well as in how the fund can be used by the government but this must be part of the plan.

I highlight these two areas because they represent the two grate portions of the Nation’s Budget and the two great sides of the chasm that divides the people and their representatives. 

Start with the big things the rest will follow.  Not changing the way we do things will lead to much greater suffering. 

Thanks for stopping by.
Thomas M. Mangum

The Right to Rise!

The Right to Rise?  This interesting, “NEW” phrase seen in the Wall Street Journal article, penned by Jeb Bush, on December 19^th 2011, is actually a consolidation of several rights that we all should be intuitively aware of.  Look to our country’s founding and the writings of the founders to determine the meaning of this phrase.  If we look at the constitution, we will read,

“We the People in order to form a more perfect Union . . . and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

In this instance the phrase “right to rise” simply refers to the peoples desire to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and future generations.  We can look back at the Declaration of Independence to garner some evidence about what they meant then, by the “Blessings of Liberty”, though for most they again are intuitive.  The most important of these blessings is the basic concept of the American Government that most profound and basic concept being, all authority, power, rights, and responsibility for governance belong to the individual citizens.  The individual citizens for a period, for a specific reason, voluntarily give permission to their representatives to use said authority, power, rights, and responsibilities to govern for the common good. This is the other piece of the Constitutions Pre-Amble;

“We the People . . . Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty . . . United States of America.”

We the people allow those we place in government to wield our authority for ensuring the opportunity for all to secure the “Blessings of Liberty”.  We declared our Independence because the King and British Parliament took held a monarchical view of governance and inflicted upon the fledgling colonies, laws, regulations, and taxation that inhibited the ability to gain the “Blessings of Liberty”. The complaints of the colonists in the Declaration reaffirm the intuitive nature of the American form of government.  Government exists to serve specific purposes on behalf of, in place of, and at the direction of the people.

So again, the right to rise is the sum total of the American experience, living life in a land governed by a political process created by the People, for the People, at the consent of the People.  A government whose sole purpose, primary objective, and ultimate responsibility is the sustainment and protection of the individual liberties of the people.  The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or the attainment of personal property, for the purpose of obtaining an easier, self-styled life for ourselves and future generations.

As we try to define the cause behind the decline of the economy, we would not look to government if we were confident that they are doing the job we asked them to do in the constitution.  When we discover the decline as a direct result of the actions and or in actions of the government, we are shocked.  Some yell at the government “you should have/you should do something” others yell “why did you do that”.  The answer to both sets of screamers is read the constitution, understand it, and compel your elected representative to hold true to its dictates.  Yes, the dictates of the people and the several states found in the constitution, a contract that created the Federal Government and details specifically the things that the Federal Government can and cannot do.  We the people need to know what the constitution says, we must insist that our elected representatives follow the rules established in it, and we must restrain ourselves in our desire to ask for actions that the constitution directly prohibit the Federal Government from doing.

This is the only nation on the face of the earth where each person should wake with an optimistic spirit and a knowledge that if they pursue their desires, work hard, become knowledgeable, and maintain a level of integrity and honesty toward their fellow man then success will come.