Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Taxation without representation

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury" so begins the statement from a lawyer. Let me use the same thing to begin this discussion.

Today, in 2008, in the United States of America, we have Taxation without representation. Roughly 232 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence we have and 235 years after the original Boston Tea Party we are back in the same place. The only difference is that the powers that are taxing us without representation are now located on our own shores, in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals around the country.

We Americans protested in 1773 against the fact that a heavy tax was laden on the purchase of tea when the colonies had no representation in Parliament. Well we have elected our representatives to our current government but do they look out for the welfare of the American people, or for their own welfare and pocketbooks? I suppose that there are a couple of people in government somewhere who are actually looking out for their constituents, however I do argue that there are many who are more interested in their own interests.

I take, as an example, the recent property tax cuts in Florida. Many municipalities are now 'scrambling' to get buy with the lower revenue. All of them are claiming that they have to cut Fire, Police, and medical services. Yet they continue to sink money in boondoggles and their own pet projects. The largest example of this is a 400 foot ferris wheel in Orange County, Florida. How about getting rid of some of the many other 'services' that all of the governments in Florida perform. They are far to many to list in a blog post but start navigating around the labyrinth and you will see the absurdity of government. It's big. It's bloated. it's out of control.

Are we a Democracy? NO. We are a republic. A government FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE. We are responsible for this mess. Mitt Romney was right when he stated that Washington is broken. We the people need to stand up for what needs to be done to fix this place. We are guaranteed the right to bear arms so that the government can be overthrown if it becomes uncontrollable. I am not recommending that we all get our guns and storm Washington D.C, what I am saying is that you get involved. Contact your Senators and Congressmen. Tell them that you are not going to stand for the pork barrel spending. That you want to stop shipping your money over to the middle east to pay for oil so we can finance the people we are fighting there. That you want to keep your pay and not give it all up to the government. That they need to start optimizing and do things better and cheaper.

Most importantly that local government should become more involved and the federal government should become less involved. We need less at the federal government and more in the local so we can be more involved.

And for God's sake people... take responsibility for your actions! The next time you feel you need to complain about the government... look in the mirror. See that person looking back at you? They are responsible for this mess.

-End of Ramble

8 comments:

Beth said...

I am with you, however it would appear that many of our fellow Americans do not seem to care about federalism anymore. If they did, we would have had Thompson or Tancredo as the nominee for the GOP and they would be the frontrunner, not some liberal junior senator who only talks about change. Unless he wants to change things to go back to the way they are suppose to be, under the Constitution, then we don't need your brand of change, Mr. Obama.

Beth said...

I should add that I have contemplated a modern day Boston Tea party type idea to get our elected officials' attention, but have no good idea yet. With having the Internet to be able to get an idea out to millions, I wish I could think of something grand!

Ordinary Guy said...

Beth... I will put on my thinking cap. There has to be a way we can have our "Boston Tea Party" where we don't get arrested and raise up this issue to the masses. We have to wake up from the electron tube trance that we have been put into.

Beth said...

Maybe I will make a post about it at my blog and if we all brainstorm we can come up with something.

I did post a bumper sticker I liked that says "None of the Above" that might be a start.

Also, Soapboxgod is working in MN on a Sons of Liberty group, which is something we can try to spread of our own states.

Ordinary Guy said...

I need to get in contact with soapie and find out more. I saw your bumper sticker post. "None of the above" is a good idea... but who then? How do we effect change? We need something big.

Beth said...

How about a new Declaration of Independence sort of document?

Ordinary Guy said...

I love it beth...

We could start out with a bunch of "Whereas" clauses to identify why a new one is needed.

Thinking thinking thinking...

Beth said...

I did come up with not a new Declaration, but a new Preamble at my blog.

Really, the original documents by our fore fathers are so well written, so eloquent and simple, bold and intelligent, that I am not sure it needs re-working.

Except people don't seem to understand it, or maybe they have forgotten, so maybe we do need to spell it out for them.