Castrating a Political Beast

by Ed Mattson

Friday I pointed out ten facts about Washington that have our country in deep fiscal decline. I didn’t even begin to list the moral decay that had been eroding the spirit of America for the last half century, as all one has to do is just look around. We see 5% of the population dictating to 95% of the population, supported by the Supreme Court, to where we can’t even call Christmas “Christmas” anymore.

To point out all the problems we see from down here on Main Street in Fly-over Country USA, it would take volumes, so we must just be content to pick at the problems like an ugly scab on the end of the nation’s nose, and pray… yes, I used the word “pray”, that somehow we find our way back. It’s a long shot at best and was prophesied by the great French political thinker and historian, Alexis De Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America…

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

Alexis De Tocqueville died in 1859. Did he have a crystal ball? Could he see into the future? Many scoffed at his words 150 year ago, but he was certainly right. He went on to call a spade a spade when he observed that…“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”Truer words have never been spoken.

Americans are a caring people and I believe it would be safe to say, that the majority feel great compassion for the animals under our care as household pets, even more so than sick children. I find that interesting when I see Hollywood’s intellectual elite go to great lengths in their indulgence and accumulation of wealth, that much care and feeling is extended to treatment of animals. Whether the cause is elephants, whales, gorillas in our midst, spotted owls, caribou, white tigers, dogs, cats and other animals, you can count on Hollywood to carry the torch. A few surprisingly even jump in to causes such as earthquake victims, and abused spouses, but once it comes to an accounting as to where the money raised has been spent, they generally run like cockroaches when you turn the light on (just look for all the money raised for Haiti…where has it gone). No accountability.

As our city pounds and animal shelters are bulging at the seams with dogs and cats that are no longer wanted by their owners, our compassion shows though by a call to have household pets “fixed“. That’s a funny word to use because I was raised in an era when we fixed a broken chair or fixed a car when it wouldn’t run, but I guess fixing a dog or cat sounds better than castration. What a cold hard word; reminiscent of “medical experiments”, ala Joseph Mengele. The logic behind castration is to control the continued breeding of animals for pets that nobody seems to want. Control the growth rate, and you minimize the need for animal shelters and euthanasia.

That got me thinking as I began to analyze what’s wrong with Washington DC as they race toward the conclusions Alexis De Tocqueville predicted in Democracy in America. The problem becomes more obvious everyday if we were to pay attention to history. The occupiers on Wall Street, the Tea Party… everyone is frustrated with government and demanding fixes. The occupiers want to punish the successful for their hard work, and get the government to give them free education, jobs and healthcare. I guess they never studied their history in that any government which has the power to give also has the power to take.

The Tea Party wants fiscal accountability from the government, far less restraints on entrepreneurial growth and less taxation which has become a license by the government to steal from those who are successful and reward those who are less productive. Their biggest complaint is government regulation which is stifling opportunity and growth in the private sector and prolonging the unemployment headache.

Folks, the root cause of the problem is GOVERNMENT, plain and simple. It doesn’t need to be fixed. It needs to be castrated!

Alexis De Tocqueville stated, “There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.” He also said, “I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” My personal thoughts on the subject of political parties and those who run for office are not as kind as the words of De Tocqueville. It has gotten to the point in Washington that if you want to corrupt a man’s spirit and destroy his integrity, just run him for office. Washington will take care of the rest.

I am probably being kind here in that I haven’t thrown all the bureaucrats in with the elected officials, I’ll let you decide that for yourselves. Keep in mind, my goal today is to develop a formula to change the status quo in the federal government which boils down to castration of the political beast, but can the bureaucrats and their cushy “make-work jobs” be far behind. I call them “make-work jobs” because when a government shutdown is threatened in order for the government to squeeze more money out of the tax base, they threaten us saying “all but essential workers (about 50%) will be sent home”. Hells bells, I thought that under the Constitution, the government was restricted to providing only essential services. Such a waste.

Maybe someday we’ll open up that can of worms, but just for the record, Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. They are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector, now estimated to be as high as 16.1% unemployment counting those underemployed, quit looking, and those who have reached the end of unemployment insurance.

The figure that should frost all Veterans is that the highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, from the most recent figure available. Yet DOD has the balls, along with their cohorts in Congress to talk about cuts in Veterans’ benefits. Talk about chutzpah! My contempt is not isolated. “There’s no way to justify this to the American people. It’s ridiculous,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House’s federal workforce subcommittee. So there are at least two of us in this corner of the ring.

Getting back to our beloved politicians and the formula for complete and utter castration as presented by Larry Ceres in a letter I receive last week. These ideas are a culmination of discussions by many and I think Larry deserves credit for putting them so succinctly:

Winds of Change, from Larry Ceres who suggests we need a Congressional Reform Act immediately. Seven of the points outlined below were covered by Larry, but since we have a Supreme Court that places political contributions in the column of freedom of speech we definitely need to add a few other thoughts to Larry’s ideas, bringing the total to ten:

1. No Tenure / No Pension. The Founding Fathers envisioned “part time legislators, not entrenched, life-long parasites of the public trough”. A Congressman/woman should collect a salary while in office and receive no pay when they’re out of office. They are to be treated as employees, not gods, and can contribute, from their paychecks like the rest of we Americans, to their 401K plans.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. They do not get to have special set asides, bonuses and retirement plans. They’re in the boat with the rest of us. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund should be moved to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system.

3. Speaking of Social Security…this is probably the fastest way for Congress to keep their hands off such funds knowing they are in the system like all workers. Social Security is made into a real “lockbox” and citizens can either opt-in or opt-out in search of their own retirement security, but everybody pays in some percentage of their income to insure solvency from past sins.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan such as a 401K, just as all Americans do, or contact their local insurance agent to set-up an annuity program. This should put an end to recently floated ideas some lame brains in Congress have talked about regarding “nationalizing all retirement funds“. S 3760, introduced August 5 by Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) is another attempt by Democrat do-gooders to steal the hard earner wealth of working Americans.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. This is only common sense. Does your boss let you decide your own pay raise? Letting Congress vote on their own pay raises is like letting the alcoholics run the liquor store.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. That should put an end to the foolishness of a 2500 page National Healthcare system. Yes reforms are needed but should be done through the private sector. Congress has no interest in the citizens they have tried to strap with Obamacare because they would be exempt from the degraded and rationed health care that system imposes on the rest of us. We all need to be in the same boat if the healthcare situation is to be corrected.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. Only Congress is exempt from the many laws they impose on the public and private businesses.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women would be voided immediately. This includes the so-called Tzars which have bypassed Senate confirmation.

9. Conflict of interest would carry jail time and monetary fines for all Congressional personnel, including aids, staff, and families, as well as all government employees. This idea of passing legislation (i.e. Nancy Pelosi allegedly gamed financial reforms to boost her personal stock portfolio and Meredith Attwell Baker is leaving the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast/NBC Universal — just four months after she voted to approve the controversial merger of the two media behemoths), is totally in conflict with honesty and integrity.

10. Term limits. We limit the Presidency to two terms, yet we have Congressional legislators who occupy Congress their entire life (Robert Byrd loaded West Virginia with enough pork in 57 years, to start his own pig ranch!). Dingell and Inouye have staked a camp in Congress for over 50 years; Conyers for 46 years, and Rangel and Young for 40 years. Enough is enough. They become to see themselves as royalty, no matter who the individual might be. Power corrupts as we have seen throughout history. Realistically, a legislator should be statutorily limited to a total of 12 years maximum and then be returned home to live under the laws they have enacted. They should also be prohibited from lobbying Congress or working for federal government contractors for a period of 10 years. This would go a long way in cleaning the cesspool.

In closing I remind all that De Tocqueville was absolutely correct when he said, “We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.” God Bless America.

Ed Mattson

Following his service in the Marine Corps Ed Mattson built a diverse career in business in both sales/marketing and management. He is a medical research specialist and published author. His latest book is Down on Main Street: Searching for American Exceptionalism

Ed is currently Development Director of the National Guard Bureau of International Affairs-State Partnership Program, Fundraising Coordinator for the Warrior2Citizen Project, and Managing Partner of Center-Point Consultants in North Carolina.

Mr. Mattson is a noted speaker and has addressed more than 3000 audiences in 42 states and 5 foreign countries. He has been awarded the Order of the Sword by American Cancer Society, is a Rotarian Paul Harris Fellow and appeared on more than 15 radio and television talk-shows.