About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Congressional Sessions & Herman Cain's Stats of the Union

"Let's make this a year of action. That's what most Americans want – for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations." – BO in the 2014 State of the Union Address
 
"...freedom doesn't mean you're on your own. Freedom means we're all in this together." – Senator Mike Lee in the Tea Party Response to BO's 2014 SOTU Address
 
"Must we go on in many groping, disorganized, separate units to defeat or shall we move as one great team to victory?" – FDR, June 16, 1933 as he announced the start of the National Recovery Administration & its 557 codes that millions of workers came under, including minimum wage rules, child labor rules, maximum hour rules, the precise components of macaroni, & what tailors could & could not sew.
 
***
 
Neither any of our Founders or me ever counted on the politicians in the House Chamber to focus on our lives, hopes, or inspirations.  And I doubt that many of the readers of RTE do either.
 
The above three quotations all have a togetherness theme that is anti-American.  Mike Lee's Tea Party response was otherwise very good except for his above ending which is disappointing.
 
As I listened to BO give his SOTU Address on Tuesday night I thought that the only constitutional part of the entire evening was the event itself – the Constitution requires the President "from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union."
 
Not only did the Founders not envision politicians focusing on the citizenry the way BO said, the original Constitution only required the Congress to meet once a year on the first Monday in December meaning that Congress's work could be over by the Christmas holidays with an eleven month adjournment before the next meeting.  In the election of 1930 thirteen elected representatives died before being sworn in & after the special elections required to replace the deceased the House switched from Republican to Democrat.  Source David Kennedy – Freedom From Fear & Bruce Cuthbertson writing in the WSJ
 
This of course was changed by Section 2 of the 20th Amendment to call for "the Congress to assemble @ least once in every year" starting on January 3.  The emphasis of the Founders was "once a year" while the modern day politician puts the emphasis on "once & continuous throughout the year" – & all to our detriment.
 
***
 
Click here to hear Herman Cain's stats of the union portion of his radio program on Wednesday following BO's SOTU address – look for Soundcloud to click on.  Mr. Cain pointed out in the broadcast that BO really didn't spend much time on the actual state of the union & certainly did not address the statistics many of which have been presented on RTE.  I think you will enjoy it if you did not hear it live.
 

1 comment:

  1. Doug - Since only 33 million Americans or 10% of the country watched the SOTU, an eye popping, 90 % of us have given up looking for answers from BO.

    ReplyDelete