Yesterday I received an email from my Congressman's office, seeking input on his support for the Balanced Budget Amendment and also his support for a "limited Constitutional Convention" called by the states with the presumably limited purpose to draft a Balanced Budget Amendment.
I consider these inquiries bogus because in my view, dissenting responses are tossed and a canned "thank you for your response" message is returned with some meaningless drivel about just why the congressperson thinks what he wants to do is really the way to go, and bye, bye, I really didn't want to hear opposition.
So I typed the following response, but didn't send it because I know that only three sets of eyes, the staffer who reads his email, the person who the letter opener says, hey, take a look at this, and maybe, just maybe, the congressman himself.
So I decided to let some other eyes see it, and if you like it, or dislike it, please comment below.
Dear Congressman XXXXXX,
I believe Congress and the President, no matter who is in congress or who the president already have the power to balance the budget, and I do not support the call for a Balanced Budget Amendment, nor do I support a "limited Constitutional Convention" to put forth a Balanced Budget Amendment.
My feeling is that Congress has the power to, through the taxing power granted it by the Constitution already to match cash resources to authorized expenditures, and for Congress to waste endless time and effort, at taxpayer expense of course, flogging a dead horse of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, settled legislation that has passed constitutional muster by the Supreme Court, passing a bill to repeal it fifty times, knowing that the legislation is DOA when it reaches the Senate, and if, by some miracle, the bill reached the president's desk, would surely be vetoed, is a complete waste of your time, my time and the time of over 300 million Americans, the very same people who pay your salary. I have a right to demand that my elected representatives earn their pay and not spend endless time and legislative resources doing nothing to work on the nation's problems, and everything to try to embarrass the President of the United States of America, while accomplishing nothing.
This is no way to run a government, and those who choose to work in this fashion deserve to be replaced at the next election. Are you going to continue to be part of the problem, or will you choose to be loyal to the Constitution as you have sworn on many occasions to protect, or will you be disloyal to your oath and the United States of America.
It's find to have political differences between the president and the other party, but if the disagreements become an obsession, and all consuming hatred that would cause one party to work to undermine the president, accomplish nothing, all for a short-term political advantage, and to create a situation where you want the president to fail more than you want America to succeed, then this is an out of whack situation that demands the voters fix by electing representatives willing to do the nation's work.
Remember this. If a faction in Congress causes the president, through conscious efforts to cause that failure, that same faction in Congress also is actively working to make America itself fail. This is unacceptable behavior for a congress or Congressman. Please tell me that you are not actively seeking the destruction of the administration of the sitting President of the United States of America.
Back to my original point. Congress has, through the power to tax and the power to spend, both delegated to the Legislative Branch by the Constitution of the United States of America, the ability to bring the resources of the government to bear on any problem, any war, any legislation that demands that funds be expended for the legislative purpose that is written into the laws that the same and previous congresses have passed. I see no reason why the congress, other than perhaps a lack of courage, cannot use the powers they already have and, through legislation, actually balance the budget. You, sir, and your colleagues in Congress, on both sides of the political aisle, can do that. Do you have the courage to do the people's work? Do you have the courage to stand up to vested political interests who treat the funding of your next election campaign as an investment, an investment in political access that a common citizen cannot buy, an investment in legislation that causes in improvement in their corporate or personal bottom line? Or will you stand up for the people who elected you, the people who live in your district, whom you have sworn to represent no matter what their personal political persuasion, you are elected to represent them. Will you represent the people who elected you, or will you represent the people who paid for your election campaign. This is a fundamental question that must be answered.
Ohiodem1
That was going to be my message to my congressman's inquiry, which I believe these and similar inquiries are really bogus, and they are looking to pad their statistics as a means to show that "the people really support me", when of course most don't. Most of these email go out to people who are supporters on their mailing list, and a few non-supporters find their wan onto the mailing list because they, like myself, have written letters opposing something the congressperson did, and I expect in that situation I am outnumbered something like 80 to 1.
Anyway, if you like, or dislike what I was ready to tell my congressman, please feel free to comment. I will put a poll below as well.