This is the first time I have a judicial approach taken to use the legal system to force the political class in Washington to clean up the cronyism, criminal activity, the resultant wasteful spending (e.g. bailouts), and actually abide by the Constitution and existing laws. It is becoming quite obvious that the existing members of Congress are more and more unable, unwilling, or to wrapped up in themselves to fix the major issues facing America today. This law suit is a way to force these people to do their jobs properly, efficiently, and with integrity, traits that have been sorely lacking in Washington.
Today and tomorrow we will lay out why additional tactics like this are necessary to increase the pressure on our politicians to get to work in a corruption free manner. The day after tomorrow we will wrap up this proposed “suing the government to make the government accountable” line of reasoning with a call to action and a request for help in carrying out the action plan.
Given that the political class has stolen with our political processes and warped and twisted them for their own good, these types of approaches may be the only way to get Washington, its spending, and its cronyism corruption under control.
Okay, let’s get started with today’s discussion and background. The following blog post from October 26, 2012 contained the following condemnations of Washington politicians (along with the sources of these damning accusations):
http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-government.html
- Congress is on pace to make history for the least productive legislative year since 1947.
- This Congress passed only about 61 bills in 2012.
- The current Congress will likely have the lowest level of legislative activity since statistics began being tabulated, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
- The inability and incompetence of Congress to get things done has resulted in the lowest public approval in the nearly four decades, as measured by Gallup.
- A whopping 83% of Americans disapprove of “the way Congress is doing its job.”
- The poor ratings given Congress are consistent across the political spectrum with approval from only 9% of Democrats, 11% of Independents, and 10 % of Republicans. In other words, Americans are divided on just about every issue in the world except the fact they mostly thing our Washington politicians are doing a horrible job.
- The Senate has cast fewer votes in 2012 far this year than any year in decades.
- More than 20 of the 100 Senators have not had a single amendment considered on the Senate floor in 2012. Certainly good work if you can get it. High salaries, great benefits, and no need to contribute anything of value to the country.
- And after blocking Senators from offering fixes to bills throughout the year, a major part of their job description, Majority Leader Harry Reid of what once was “the world’s greatest deliberative body” publicly announced from the Senate floor, “I will say this so it will save a lot of trouble for anybody. … Amendment days are over.” So much for intelligent debate and compromise, so much for democracy.
- A number of important committees within both the House and the Senate are failing to do the important work for which they are responsible.
- Perhaps the most striking disappointment is the Senate Budget Committee. Since the last REAL Federal budget was passed over three years ago on April 29, 2009, Washington has spent $11.2 trillion and added more than $4.8 trillion to the national debt.
- With the national debt now over $16 trillion, never before have taxpayers needed a budget blueprint more to guide our nation away from fiscal ruin and stop the idiotic spending on idiotic programs and projects.
- However, the Senate Budget Committee has failed to produce a budget, which it is required to do by law, in over 1,200 days.
- In addition to not producing a budget resolution, the Committee has also refused to hold many committee meetings, a key tool for Congress to conduct oversight, investigate problems, seek solutions, initiate conversation and debate, and advance an agenda.
- The Senate Budget Committee held a mere 12 hearings in 2012, fewer than all but five other congressional committees from both chambers.
- Likewise, the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees about three-fourths of the Federal budget including all of the major health care and retirement entitlement programs and the Federal tax code did very little in 2012.
- Despite its broad jurisdiction, the Finance Committee reported out and discharged only 11 legislative measures.
- These included a non-binding resolution supporting the goals and ideals of “National Save for Retirement Week” and a resolution authorizing the committee’s own expenditures, reducing any real, constructive output of the Committee down to no more than 9 legislative measures.
- The Senate Finance Committee held just 28 hearings in fiscal 2012 through September 1.
- Overall, the Committee's performance places it in the top ten LEAST productive of all Congressional committees in terms of approving legislation and the top ten Senate committees holding the fewest number of hearings. Again, this is probably the most important Senate committee and also one of the least productive.
- Despite the importance of small business to our nation’s economy and their recent struggles, the small business committees of both chambers tied for first place as the committee approving the least amount of legislation in 2012. No wonder that small businesses are not driving any kind of economic revival.
- The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee held only FOUR hearings (An average of one hearing every three months) and passed out just three measures, one of which authorized expenditures for the committee itself. Thus, making its total output of any consequence a measly two actions.
- Likewise, the House Small Business Committee reported out just three bills and held 31 hearings, which is significantly more than its counterpart in the Senate, but fewer than most of the other committees in the House.
- Two other committees have been largely idle this year: the Senate’s Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee and Special Committee on Aging.
- The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry reported out and discharged just seven measures, one of which was to provide for its own budget, and held a mere nine hearings.
- The Aging Committee reported out a SINGLE measure, which was to provide for its own budget, and held just nine hearings. In other words, this committee’s only functions in 2012 was to authorize its own existence.
- Whether it was failing to hold oversight hearings, pass laws, cut unnecessary spending, or simply cast votes on amendments, the U.S. Congress let taxpayers down in 2012.
- Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution entrusts Congress with the responsibility to approve how money is spent out of the Treasury and to account for such expenditures. It is obvious that the current set of Washington politicians are in violation of this Constitutional responsibility.
Pretty anemic performance, overall and individually at the committee level and individual Congress member level. These are people whose salaries are in the top 3-5% of the nation, who probably have the best health benefits and retirement packages in the nation (since they voted themselves the packages themselves), and whose intermittent work hours make them part time workers at best.
And what is really scary, although we see from this October 26, 2012 post that the political class does very little work as required by the Constitution and existing laws, they cannot even hit the major deadlines that are required of them throughout the year, as highlighted (or lowlight) by our October 1, 2012 post:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-2012-political-class-insanity_1.html
According to the website, Bankrupting America, the current set of politicians in Washington are not only delinquent in setting a budget for 2013, they are also technically breaking the law. Consider the following missed deadlines and the laws/statutes they have violated:
- Missed Deadline #1: White House Fails To Submit Budget On Time. “The White House told Congress on Monday that its budget will be late this year, meaning President Obama once again will miss the deadline set in law. Congressional officials said the President now will send up his budget on Feb. 13, which is a week later than the usual date. The law requires the budget be sent by the first Monday in February.” (Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times, 1/23/12). The President Is Required To Submit His Budget Outline By The First Monday Of February. (Congressional Research Service, 1/28/04, p.2)
- Missed Deadline #2: Senate Budget Committee Fails To Submit A Budget Resolution. According to the Library of Congress website, the Senate Budget Committee failed to vote on a budget resolution. (Library of Congress Website, Accessed 9/9/12). A Draft Budget Resolution Is To Be Submitted To The Senate By April 1. (Congressional Research Service, 1/28/04, p.6; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Budget, Website, Accessed 9/9/12).
- Missed Deadline #3: Congress Fails To Pass A Budget. (Library of Congress Website, Accessed 9/9/12). The House And Senate Are Required To Pass A Budget Resolution By April 15. (Congressional Research Service, 1/28/04, p.6)
- Missed Deadline #4: House Appropriations Committee Failed To Report All Of The FY 2013 Appropriations Bills. The House Appropriations Committee only passed eight of the 12 appropriations bills by June 10, 2012. (Library of Congress Website, Accessed 9/9/12). The House Appropriations Bill Is Supposed To Report The Final Appropriations Bill By June 10. (Congressional Research Service, 1/28/04, p.6; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Budget, Website, Accessed 9/9/12)).
- Missed Deadline #5: U.S. House Failed To Finish Work On The FY 2013 Appropriations Bills. As of June 30, the House had passed only five of the 12 appropriations bills. (Library of Congress Website, Accessed 9/9/12). The U.S. House Is Supposed To Submit The Final Appropriations Bill By June 30. (Congressional Research Service, 1/28/04, p.6; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Budget, Website, Accessed 9/9/12)).
- Missed Deadline #6: The OMB Failed To Report Its Mid-Session Review On Time. “The Obama administration has missed another annual budget deadline, failing to send Congress a mid-session budget review before July 16. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed Monday that the deadline for the review, due every year on that date, was not met this year.” (Erik Wasson, The Hill, 7/16/12). The White House Is Supposed To Submit The Mid-Session Review By July 15. (Committee on the Budget, Website, Accessed 9/9/12)).
- Missed Deadline #7: White House Misses Sequestration Transparency Act Deadline. “The White House announced that it will not meet Friday’s deadline to make public what plans it will put into place to deal with the massive defense cuts coming at the end of the year. The announcement comes shortly after President Obama signed into law the Sequestration Transparency Act that requires him to submit a report to Congress detailing the impact of his ‘sequester’ on defense and non-defense programs – cuts that were triggered after the so-called Super Committee to come up with a debt deal last year.” (Fox News, 9/7/12).
As we said in that post, “Come on guys." One of your primary responsibilities as Federal government employees is to establish, pass, and execute a fiscally responsible budget. Besides passing laws, there is nothing as important as budgeting and protecting the integrity of taxpayer wealth. Other Federal politicians have been doing this successfully for centuries. Why are you so inept at doing the same? Without a budgeting process, expenses and costs get out of control which is probably why we now have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION.”
Disgraceful performance over the past few years. A performance of such low caliber that the major issues of our times (e.g. the lost war on drugs, failing public schools, skyrocketing national debt, the lack of a coherent national energy policy, etc.) are either never addressed or are so shoddily addressed (e.g. Obama Care, financial industry reforms, etc.) are done so poorly that they make a bad situation worse.
But to change this situation, to reverse this insanity, is very difficult:
- Despite breaking the law and violating their responsibilities as outlined in the Constitution, these same people control the justice processes in this country. Thus, they are unlikely to prosecute themselves for breaking existing laws on the books with regard to schedule and responsibilities.
- These same people control the political/election processes in this country via the gerrymandering of Congressional districts, handing out taxpayer wealth disguised as earmarks for political cronies and campaign donors, preventing the establishment of term limits, hobnobbing with and cutting deals with organizational entities such as unions, corporations, and PACs in return for political support, etc.
- These people have access to a lot of money to keep themselves and their political friends in control, control that will not be given up easily.
This does not mean we should stop trying to take back control of the political processes, using many of the steps and processes outlined in “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” However, that is just one front in the battle to protect our wealth, our safety, our freedom, and our democracy. After more justification is laid out tomorrow, we will open another front the following day via the judicial system, ala the Spire Federal lawsuit.
To not do all that is needed to defeat the “invisible empire,” as coined by Woodrow Wilson, is an insult to legacy of liberty in this country and a surefire way to ensure our kids and grandkids' lives are not as rich or filled with potential as past generations.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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