Responsibility #50

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#666699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04900840erlcjm.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>NATIONAL SECURITY--Structural,Moral,Economic,Domestic,International</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NATIONAL SECURITYStructural,Moral,Econom"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility Contents"><U>Responsibility Contents</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 1"><U>Responsibility #1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 2"><U>Responsibility #2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 3"><U>Responsibility #3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 4"><U>Responsibility #4</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" 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#36</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 37"><U>Responsibility #37</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 38"><U>Responsibility #38</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 39"><U>Responsibility #39</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 40"><U>Responsibility #40</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 41"><U>Responsibility #41</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 42"><U>Responsibility #42</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 43"><U>Responsibility #43</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 44"><U>Responsibility #44</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 45"><U>Responsibility #45</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 46"><U>Responsibility #46</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 47"><U>Responsibility #47</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 48"><U>Responsibility #48</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 49"><U>Responsibility #49</U></A>   |   <B>Responsibility #50</B>   |   <A HREF="id84.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 51"><U>Responsibility #51</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 52"><U>Responsibility #52</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id86.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 53"><U>Responsibility #53</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 54"><U>Responsibility #54</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 55"><U>Responsibility #55</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 56"><U>Responsibility #56</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id90.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 57"><U>Responsibility #57</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 58"><U>Responsibility #58</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 59"><U>Responsibility #59</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id93.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 60"><U>Responsibility #60</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id94.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 61"><U>Responsibility #61</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 62"><U>Responsibility #62</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id96.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 63"><U>Responsibility #63</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id97.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 64"><U>Responsibility #64</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id98.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 65"><U>Responsibility #65</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 66"><U>Responsibility #66</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id100.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 67"><U>Responsibility #67</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 68"><U>Responsibility #68</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 69"><U>Responsibility #69</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id103.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 70"><U>Responsibility #70</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 71"><U>Responsibility #71</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id105.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 72"><U>Responsibility #72</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 73"><U>Responsibility #73</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id107.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 74"><U>Responsibility #74</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id108.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 75"><U>Responsibility #75</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id109.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 76"><U>Responsibility #76</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id110.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 77"><U>Responsibility #77</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id111.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 78"><U>Responsibility #78</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id112.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 79"><U>Responsibility #79</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id113.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 80"><U>Responsibility #80</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id114.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 81"><U>Responsibility #81</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id115.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 82"><U>Responsibility #82</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id116.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 83"><U>Responsibility #83</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 84"><U>Responsibility #84</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id118.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 85"><U>Responsibility #85</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id119.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 86"><U>Responsibility #86</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id120.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 87"><U>Responsibility #87</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id121.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 88"><U>Responsibility #88</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id122.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Health Care Letters to President, et al,"><U>Health Care Letters to President, et al, 8/24/94</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id123.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arguments for Delay in Enactment of a He"><U>Arguments for Delay in Enactment of a Health Care Bill</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Post WORLD WAR IIPost COLD WAR Deja Vu"><U>Post WORLD WAR II--Post COLD WAR Deja Vu</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id125.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 89"><U>Responsibility #89</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id126.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 90"><U>Responsibility #90</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 91"><U>Responsibility #91</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id128.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 92"><U>Responsibility #92</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id129.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 93"><U>Responsibility #93</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id130.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 94"><U>Responsibility #94</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 95"><U>Responsibility #95</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id132.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 96"><U>Responsibility #96</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 97"><U>Responsibility #97</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id134.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 98"><U>Responsibility #98</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id135.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Structure of Our Nation is Unsound"><U>The Structure of Our Nation is Unsound</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id136.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ltr. to Editor, 3/19/96, Property Taxes "><U>Ltr. to Editor, 3/19/96, Property Taxes and Education Funding</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04311c00egdysm.png"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Responsibility #50</div> <div> (written prior to July 1992)</div> <bR> <div> To the People of the United States of America:</div> <bR> <div>      The last essay was ended with the statement that "we have to rethink Wealth, more like our founding fathers would".  So there would be no misunderstanding, wealth was defined by the pronouncement that "if you are not poor nor near poor, you are wealthy to one degree or another".</div> <div>   </div> <div>      In that paper, it was proclaimed that "wealth is the most abused and usurped factor in our American democratic republic". This has come about through the drift of our federal government into omnipotence.  The empowerment was completed when We the People overruled the Supreme Court, by ratifying a Constitutional amendment permitting the Congress "to lay and collect taxes on incomes", without any specified restraints.  Having experienced the <U>unbridled and unprincipled latitudes</U> that our politicians have taken (and are taking) with revenues and appropriations, we know now that we were hornswoggled. </div> <div>      Fifty or more additional essays could be written, with terse enumerations of the unbridled and unprincipled latitudes taken by our elected officials, with respect to tax codes and appropriations.  More of the same were promised by our 1992 candidates.  The futility of such a course is evident from the results of the last twelve years.  Our country is in deep manure, the smell is overwhelming, and the pitchfork is at the point of breaking!  So lets develop <B><U>inviolable principles to govern the generation of federal revenues and the expenditure of federal appropriations,</U></B> so as to control federal omnipotence and maintain justice for all.</div> <div> 1. <U>OUR NATION SUBSCRIBES NEITHER TO SOCIALISM NOR COMMUNISM WITH RESPECT TO THE FORCED SHARING OF WEALTH</U>.   </div> <div> Accordingly our federal government must abide by a strict compliance with the respect for property expressed in the Bill of Rights, <I>"nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation".</I>  Taxes and appropriations would entail no transfer of funds (wealth, property) from one person to another, one group to another, one state to another, one region to another, one industry to another, anyone to any other of these, etc., <I>"without just compensation".</I></div> <div>   </div> <div> Invoking and enforcing this principle would at long last rid our nation of the spoils system, "pork barrels", and special interest legislation.  Along with the Presidential and Congressional reforms outlined in the first 14 Responsibility papers, they will cause elected and appointed officials to come, to be sent, and to be sponsored, to Washington so as to serve our nation rather than to bring home the bacon to West (By God) Virginia [see "The King of Pork" article in Parade Magazine of May 31, 1992], tobacco subsidies to North Carolina, museum at Lawrence Welk's North Dakota birthplace, etc., etc., etc.---.</div> <div>         </div> <div> 2. <U>COROLLARY TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IS THAT AMERICA IS A </U><U>CLASSLESS SOCIETY</U>.</div> <div> Since the breakaway of our original thirteen states from Great Britain, our nation was intended to be a classless society.  Not withstanding the fact that our Presidents and members of Congress have taken upon themselves the privileges and trappings of an aristocracy (see Responsibility #3 and #6), the United States has no Kings and Lords.  True, in the unbridled and unprincipled latitudes that our federal government has taken with respect to taxes and appropriations, there is the specter that there are classes of citizens receiving favorable or unfavorable treatment, dependent upon the swing of the power pendulum, and the flow of campaign funds.</div> <div>   </div> <div> With the principles being herewith enunciated, and with the reforms being proposed throughout these Responsibility papers, we have the prospect of dispelling this specter; we can quell the disuniting slogans of candidates to take from the one class (undefined) and give to the other class (undefined); and, we can dispense with the destructive vicissitudes of the tax and appropriation structures, brought on by the year to year and election to election power struggles.</div> <div> It is only human that we look with askance at the very rich or, indeed, at anyone who is wealthier than we are.  But the Bill of Rights properly precludes government from enacting and enforcing laws whose purpose is to level wealth.  As we shall discuss later, the federal government should be on the alert to correct or preclude conditions that lead to "ill-gotten" wealth.  It is between each of us, who has a degree of wealth, and nature's God as to what extent we share that wealth.  Caesar must not force us to share it through confiscatory and inequitable tax structures. </div> <div> At first stroke it might appear that a national resolve to eliminate poverty, principally funded through general tax revenues, would be in contradiction to these first two principles.  Not so!  Please review Responsibility #47 through #49.     </div> <bR> <div> 3. <U>A SECOND COROLLARY TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IS THAT HE WHO RECEIVES THE BENEFIT PAYS THE COST, OR IN THE SAME VEIN, HE WHO INCURS AN EXPENDITURE PAYS THE COST OF THE EXPENDITURE.</U></div> <div> Brooks Jackson in his book "Honest Graft-Big Money and the American Political Process" had the following quote from George Washington Plunkitt, an early 20th century ward boss and sage of Tammany Hall: "I mourn with the poor liquor dealers of New York City, who are taxed and oppressed for the benefit of the farmers up the state".  Imagine the torrents of tears Mr. Plunkitt would </div> <div> shed if he were alive today to witness how our 536 (Congress plus President) Robin Hoods rob from the one to give to the other.</div> <bR> <div> 4. <U>THE SOURCE OR SOURCES OF REVENUE TO MEET AN APPROPRIATION WILL BE SELECTED SO AS TO MEET 3. ABOVE WITH THE LEAST INEQUITIES</U>.</div> <div> At present the federal government for the most part decides sources of revenues based on political expediency.  Will voters (or special interest groups) scream loudest if we add 5 cents tax to a gallon of gas, or if we raise income tax rates by 1 percent, or if we go to a value added tax, etc.?  Just get the revenue where we can with least negative political effect, toss it in the general revenue pot, and appropriate it to whomever we please!  Worst still don't collect any revenue--just increase the deficit and the national debt, and let future Presidents and Congresses face the political music!</div> <bR> <div>      Nine more <U>inviolable principles to govern the generation of federal revenues and the expenditure of federal appropriations</U> will be set forward in the next two essays.</div> <div>                     Publius IV</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id84.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility 51"><U>Responsibility #51</U></A></div> <div> Back to: <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Responsibility Contents"><U>Responsibility Contents</U></A>   </div> </td> </tr></table></body>