Mr. Beale - The Face of Bureaucracy ?

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

Amidst all of the hysteria and political hyperbole of the recent fiscal nonsense, there occurred something that neatly encapsulates why America feels as it does about those in Washington D.C. who have been entrusted with the guidance of this nation.

There are indeed issues to be discussed relative to the recent actions of Congress & the President over the partial government shutdown. Sadly, all that truly happened is a delay of the entire fiasco – it will return after the first of the year, so there is time for the Madison Conservative to address those subjects.

However, sometimes absurdity is a perfect salve for the wounds of politics.

Consider this following headline:

A former federal official refused to testify before a House committee Tuesday. Invokes Fifth Amendment right

That healine does not do justice to the story. In a time when the political class was meandering on about ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ government workers, there was one who was indeed ‘non-essential’. This one person in no way should be considered to encapsulate the normal government employee, but he does do a magnificent job of portraying the general belief of the American electorate about who is minding the store.

Here’s is a part of an opening speech given by the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD). The first part of his commentary relates to how the Republicans forced the shut-down and generally are to blame for the woes of the planet, but then he got to the point. It is a classic, and would be delightfunny if it were not true.

To wit:

With that said, let me turn to today’s hearing.

I want to begin by thanking Inspector General

Elkins and his deputy, Patrick Sullivan,

In addition, I want to acknowledge the role of Administrator McCarthy in finally revealing this fraud, which lasted decades. I know we will discuss the Inspector General’s concerns about how quickly his office received a referral, but I believe the IG will agree that had it not been for Administrator McCarthy, this fraud may never have been uncovered.

Mr. Beale’s betrayal of the public trust for his own personal enrichment is truly shocking in its scope, duration, and sheer audacity.

Mr. Beale defrauded the Environmental Protection

Agency for decades—under both Republican and Democratic administrations—by claiming he was a covert operative for the CIA.

One senior EPA official during the Bush Administration actually approved Mr. Beale’s request to work offsite one day a week so he could participate in an “inter-agency, special advisory group working on a project with the Directorate of Operations at the CIA.”

This was no ordinary ruse.

In addition to lying to senior EPA officials across multiple

administrations, Mr. Beale also duped his own family members, his friends, and even his own lawyer.

Mr. Beale did not come clean to his own criminal defense attorney until investigators arranged for a meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in order to finally confront him about his lies.

But that’s not all Mr. Beale lied about.

According to the Inspector General, Mr. Beale also lied about contracting malaria and serving in Vietnam —all to obtain a handicapped parking spot. Mr. Beale also lied on travel vouchers about where he was going and why he needed to go there so he could visit his family in California.

Simply put, Mr. Beale was a con artist, and the American taxpayers were his mark.

As public servants, we must always remember that we serve the people.

Mr. Beale flouted one of the most basic tenets of government service — it’s not your money, it’s the taxpayers’ money.

Mr. Beale’s actions are an insult to the thousands of hardworking and dedicated public servants across the country and an insult to our CIA agents around the world.

While Mr. Beale was claiming to work at Langley and pretending to go on secret missions overseas, real intelligence agents were hunting down Osama bin Laden and battling al Qaeda in the most dangerous places in the world.

Mr. Beale’s impersonation of a CIA agent forced our nation’s law enforcement and intelligence officials to spend their scarce time and resources uncovering his fraud instead of combating real threats around the globe.

This is truly reprehensible.

I am gratified that justice has been served and that Mr. Beale will pay for his fraud.

Tax Day

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

In facetious ‘honor’ of this being the week that federal law mandates the submission of income tax filings, the Madison Conservative is presenting an abbreviated version of the blog this week to provide some insight into the current realities of income tax law and the hypocrisy of the Obama administration in its continued histrionics relative to ‘tax fairness’.  The President has been continually haranguing the electorate that those who can afford to pay more in taxes should do so, in order to demonstrate their patriotism.

Consider these facts about the tax system in this nation and the incredulity of the two most powerful men in the world with regard to the tax ‘fairness’ issue.

First, here is the idea of taxation as intended by the framers and founders of this country:

The United States Constitution, Article I, Section 9:

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken

Concisely and specifically written; to demonstrate the dangers of a Congress acting ‘in the best interests of fairness to the nation', consider the sixteenth amendment to our august governing document:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

A direct reversal of the founders’ intent, and one that has become a blight and a plague upon the freedom of the American people.

There is also this fact to confirm the belief of the American people that they are in fact being taxed too much and that indeed this nation does not have a taxation problem, it has a definite spending problem – (please note the dates provided – they occur AFTER Tax Day):

April 18 will be Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans have worked enough to pay all of their federal and state taxes for 2013 – a round total of $4.22 trillion, according to an analysis done by the Tax Foundation.

That's five days later than in 2012.

Americans will pay more than $2.76 trillion in federal taxes and $1.45 trillion in state taxes for 2013 -- for a total of $4.22 trillion in taxes, or 29.4 percent of income. (Figures are rounded.)

April 18 is the 108th day of the year, or 29.4 percent of the calendar year.

Mitt Romney was chastised mercilessly by the political left when it was revealed that his tax rate was a shade over 15%. He was accused of squirreling money away in off shore accounts, and the point was raised about his ‘economic patriotism’ for having such a low rate. The mass media went apoplectic that his rate was not closer to the accepted ‘fair’ rate of 39%, the intended target of “tax equity’, so that the middle class would not have to pay for ‘tax cuts for the rich’.

In that context, consider this official government release:

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid $112,214 in federal income taxes in 2012 on adjusted gross income of $608,611, an effective rate of 18.4%, the White House said Friday.

Finally, a favorite of the Madison Conservative. There are many terms to describe this type of arrogance and outright theft. It is a fitting encapsulation of exactly what is wrong with the political class, the tax system and the mindset of a bloated and ineffective government.

To wit:

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, took in $26,400 in 2012 by renting a cottage on the property of their Delaware home to the Secret Service, tax records released by the White House revealed.

They netted $17,944 of that rental money.

The namesake of this blog would be appalled.

The tax-paying electorate of America should be equally outraged and figuratively take pitchforks in hand and storm the castle.

March 17th, 2013 - A Cursory Recap of the Week That Was.

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

A cursory recap of the folly and nonsense being perpetrated upon the American electorate this past by the political class and their sycophantic media hacks demonstrate a depth of ignorance shocking in its scope.

To wit:

 President Obama this week stated in an ABC News interview that this nation does not have a looming debt crisis – his quote:

“We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next ten years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place”

At 16 trillion dollars – ($16,000,000,000,000) and growing, it could be said that the President is being disingenuous at best, ignorant at worst.

The current debate on gun control is expanding to include what are euphemistically called ‘background checks’. These checks will not affect law abiding citizens, but the hue and cry is to have these checks include mental health history. This information will be provided as a result of the Affordable Care Act – (ObamaCare). The question must be addressed: Do Americans want their personal medical history provided to a bureaucracy with no controls regulating that information? (The Madison Conservative will address the background check issue in a later post.)

At a time when there is an obvious lack of leadership, at a time when the American people are not being given a true perspective on the importance of what America truly means, the Madison Conservative believes a quick refresher course is in order.

To that end, please read the following address from President Lincoln. It is timeless and timely for Americans to remember what this nation means, and how a true leader speaks to the people in only 278 words.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Madison Conservative Platform - Part 3

The continuation of the Madison Conservative platform now turns it attention to those for whom the platform is being constructed. Previous blog posts have discussed the need for campaign finance reform and the debate on term limits. It is now time to thrash out who will be able to utilize these particular reforms.

There has been much bluster and blather centering on what is cynically referred to by the full political spectrum as ‘voters’ rights’. In the wake of President Obama’s choice to circumvent the Constitution and Congress by unilaterally deciding to legislate by executive fiat, the need to clarify voting eligibility is more critical than ever, given the need to flex democratic self-rule muscle in the voting booth before such freedoms are expunged by a singular political will.

{It is critical to note that is was during the 2010 election cycle that a democratic governor (Beverly Perdue, D-NC) suggested bypassing elections so that the congress could act and vote without fear of electoral consequence.}

The question thus becomes clear – who may vote and how, and what, if any, identification should be considered viable for entering the voting booth.

The important distinction is that this particular plank of the platform will only encompass federal elections; the rights for individual states to regulate their own electoral processes must be respected under the tenth amendment.

First, the constitution stipulates that only those citizens who have attained the age of eighteen may vote.

The intriguing question then becomes what constitutes a ‘citizen’. Felons may not vote; their convictions make them ineligible The Constitution is absent a description on this point, and the Articles of Confederation speak only of ‘free citizens’, excepting ‘vagabonds, paupers and felons’.

It thus then falls to the electorate as a whole by way of our elected officials to make the determination in a country of over 300 million inhabitants who may be classified a citizen eligible to vote, and who does not hold that specific status.

We may look to elective office requirements as a guide, but it must be remembered that the Constitution provides that only natural born citizens may hold the office of President, yet naturalized citizens may still vote.

It is with an eye to that particular ambiguity that the Madison Conservative proposes specific legislation to address this murky issue. It may be attained solely through legislation; a constitutional amendment is not a thoughtful option for this issue.

The law would proceed with language somewhat as follows:

Any individual who has attained the age of eighteen and has not been convicted of a felony is hereby eligible to vote in any and all federal elections. Furthermore, any individual who would be qualified to attain United States citizenship may be considered eligible to vote in any and all federal elections.

That would address the specifics of who is eligible to vote.

The next concern is how to maintain the integrity of Election Day itself. The political parties have in essence conspired to help muddy the basic electoral process by promoting various and sundry electoral schemes. Early elections, mail –in elections, same day registrations and their ilk have done nothing but to distill the inherent responsibility of every citizen to have their voice heard. By diminishing the solemnity of the vote, it has lost much of its significance and allowed mischievous political theater. Many need only to recall the imbecility and outright stupidity of American election officials attempting to discern the intent of any given voter by the interpretations of ‘chads’.

The American example of democratic self-rule should never be subjected to such folly ever again. The Madison Conservative thus believes that there should be an encompassing national methodology for casting federal election votes, even it be nothing more than putting an “X” in a box.

The most sensitive point in this particular debate centers on the legality of requiring photo identification in order to vote.

The voices against such a requirement point out correctly that the right to vote is a constitutional right and the only specifically delineated constitutional right that would require such a manner of photo identification in order to authenticate the identity of the voter; in other words it would be the only right that mandates identification. The claim is made that on that point alone requiring a photo ID is somehow an infringement and an unnecessary burden on the voter.

The specious nature of that argument is clear to those on the opposing side. There is little activity that today does not require a valid photo ID, be it to board an aircraft, cash a check or gain admittance to an arena hosting a speech by the President. The omnipotent nature of ID’s makes the burden argument fallacious on its face. The maxim held that it would be better for one hundred guilty men go free than for one innocent man be wrongly imprisoned.

This is the hard fact of voting in the twenty-first century. The ability for political mischief when a simple photo ID can solve much of the potential problems is a requirement in an era when voting has been made more accessible, albeit more so in a manner that almost mandates a security back up.

In other words, it would be better to inconvenience one hundred voters to produce an ID than for one voter to have his vote negated by any manner or cause.

It is that simple.

The Madison Conservative Platform - part 2

The founders and the framers were wary of providing a default governing class when they designed the Constitution as the governing document of their fledgling new democratic republic.

The specifically delineated the duration of each elected term of office for each member of the trilateral government they were espousing. The president, congressmen, senators and jurists all have clearly defined terms of office.

In a previous post, the Madison Conservative discussed the need to amend the Constitution to address the pervasive, corrupting influence of unregulated financial support for the entire spectrum of the political class. That post was presented as the first plank in the Madison Conservative platform because the need to return the electoral process to the American voter is paramount to the successful growth of democratic self-rule.

The subsequent point that needs to be addressed then is the re-clarification of the terms of office for our elected officials.

Many voices in the public debate on cleaning up the governmental process genuinely believe that the Constitution must be amended to include term limits on our elected leaders. The opposing voices claim with equal earnest that such restrictions should be implemented only at the state level.

Before espousing its position, the Madison Conservative believes a quick recap of the history on the constitutional construct on terms of office is in order.

There were no term limits written into the Constitution. The reasoning was simple; the framers believed that the American people would make the necessary choices with respect to choosing their elected leaders.

President Washington, in his wisdom and foresight decided that two terms was sufficient; in addition to being tired, he genuinely believed that serving any longer would set the precedent of a default monarchy, with a president for life serving in place of an outright king. Subsequent presidents did not see a need to break with that precedent, and those who tried, i.e. Theodore Roosevelt, were soundly defeated by the electorate who felt that George Washington had it right.

In the midst of World War II, the American people opted to return Franklin Roosevelt to office for a third and then a fourth term. His death in office was the argument made that the office of the presidency was too strenuous for a man to endure for longer than two terms. The Congress thus amended the Constitution to restrict the term of office for the president to two terms; Harry S. Truman would have been the last man to serve longer than eight years had he opted to do so.

The Congress did not believe its own responsibilities required extensive vigor and so voted only to restrict the term of office for the executive branch; the cowardice involved in hoping for short term political advantage by so amending the Constitution should be of note to the contemporary body politic.

This explains why senators have served for thirty and forty years, apparently believing that their electorate cannot be properly represented by any other qualified citizen.

After careful consideration, the Madison Conservative has decided to incorporate into its platform the wisdom of the founders and the framers. The twenty second amendment to the United States Constitution should be repealed.

The American electorate is much more sophisticated given its access to information in the internet age. The Madison Conservative believes that the recent trends of the 2010 congressional elections and the failed attempt to recall the Wisconsin governor show that the American electorate is more than capable of fulfilling the belief of the founders and framers of getting it right.

The intelligent control of campaign finance coupled with unfettered choices are the best available tools the body politic can employ to insure that democratic self-rule continues to thrive for ourselves and our posterity.

The Budget Process - how much are the paper clips?

And so begins again the nonsensical annual practice known as the congressional budget cutting process, an oxymoron if ever there was one. It ultimately does little more than demonstrate and highlight the absolute ineptitude and chicanery inherent in the officials currently entrusted with the nations purse strings. Only in government would a program that was intended to receive a ten percent increase have that endowment cut to only a five percent increase would it be trumpeted as a five percent cut. Members from all facets of the political spectrum gravely intone in front of an array of microphones that cutting entire programs would result in various stages of Armageddon for that programs recipients. The final budget proposal is then heralded as a triumph of responsible spending, and that the hard choices have been made to put the nation on the road to financial health.

As the saying goes – hardee har har.

This process has now resulted in a fourteen trillion dollar debt. Obviously, changes need to be made, and the changes are both easily attainable, and ultimately practical. Just ask any small business owner.

There is little doubt amongst the electorate that there is sufficient income generated in this country to provide for the essential processes of government. What no elected official has yet to present, however, is the actual operating cost of government. Any small business owner can tell you exactly what their operating costs are, from their utility costs to how much they spend on paper clips. This critical information is what affords them the opportunity to achieve the intended goal of being profitable. Any business that does not know their operating costs is not long for the yellow pages. Yet nobody in government looks at what it actually costs to run the government. The budgetary process merely looks at cutting or adding to each year’s allocations, without looking to see the true bottom line. Politicians talk of budget surpluses; how can there be a ‘surplus’ when there is debt to be paid, interest on that debt to be serviced? The actual concept of a budget ‘surplus’ should be an affront to the electorate; it is THEIR money. Any money the government does not need to function should be returned to that electorate. The budget can easily be brought into balance, but what that balance truly is must first be determined by obtaining the facts relative to the operation of the bureaucracy.

The government needs to know what it is spending in paper clips.

It is the peoples’ money; not the governments.