EMPTY CHAMBERS: OUR U.S. CONGRESS

 

 

By Frosty Wooldridge
August 23, 2010
NewsWithViews.com

Elites, whether elected or unelected, will not do anything for the good of the country. Examples abound in the national debt, immigration predicament, trade deficits, unending wars, educational failures, drug war and environmental degradation.

Back in the early years of the Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson asked George Washington, “Why the need for a senate?”

Washington replied, “Why do you pour your coffee into a cup?”

“To cool it,” Jefferson replied.

“That’s why we need the senate to cool the passions of the peoples’ chamber—the House of Representatives,” said Washington.

Two hundred and thirty four years later, the Senate and House evolved into “Empty Chambers.” Senate majority leader Harry Reid cannot tie his shoes from his enfeebled mind. House leader Nancy Pelosi fails American citizens on every level. Congressional members on both sides of the aisle fail to pull their thumbs out of their eyes. They either cannot see or refuse to look at conditions across America.

Let’s touch on a few:

• 15 million Americans out of work
• 35 million Americans subsisting on food stamps
• Embroiled in two useless and unwarranted wars for nine years with no end in sight--$12 billion monthly cost
• $13 trillion federal debt and interest charges over $600 million daily
• America’s educational system in chaos with 50 to 76 percent dropout rates in Detroit and most other large cities
• More unwed black and Latino mothers with babies on welfare than married black and Latino mothers with fathers for their children
• 20 million illegal aliens sucking $346 billion a year from U.S. taxpayer dollars across 15 federal agencies
• Unsecured borders and flourishing drug trade after 39 years of the “War on Drugs”
• $700 billion annual trade deficit
• 2.3 million Americans behind bars
• Unending home foreclosures across America

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Yet, the “Empty Chamber” fiddle-faddles around week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out with Congressional gridlock.

“Jefferson’s unshakable faith in eventual triumph of human reason over prejudice and superstition was, as John Adams conceded, an admirable hope,” said Joseph Ellis, historian.

Jefferson said, “The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of the aristocrats should prevail, were questions which kept the states of Greece and Rome in eternal convulsions.”

At this point in time, our country faces many of the same problems from 1776 with the Federalists versus the Republicans. John Adams, our second president, sided with a more monarchist presidency. Jefferson championed states’ rights with diminished executive power.

Several weeks ago, President Barack Obama stomped on states’ rights while not doing his job to secure Arizona’s borders. It’s nuts! Our own president refuses to serve American citizens, but in fact, lashes out against them.

Author Mike Folkerth, www.kingofsimple.com, said, “I have quit writing my blog as everything that I can say, has been said…we’re screwed. After seven years of study, one book, and 1100 articles, I have determined that there is nothing that anyone can do to change our plight. The human mind is fatally flawed. We are delusional, short time, non-rational animals that are driven by power, greed, vanity, and instant gratification. Four thousand years of written history has proven that some things never change.”

How can we alter our situation? Do we just give up like Mike Folkerth? How many of you understand that we stand nostril-deep in environmental, debt and societal problems—that, at some point, we will not be able to solve. At some point, we face proverbial Hobson’s Choice.

With each column I write, I give readers contacts to take action. That’s the key. I won’t rile you up without giving you a way out, a plan, a solution, a choice before ultimate consequences. It’s up to you to take that choice and change the history of the United States and the world—by your actions.

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Next action: next November, vote every single incumbent out of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Vote in fresh, new, articulate and 21st century minds with ideas that will move our civilization toward a positive future rather than what we suffer today. Einstein said it best, “The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the same kind of thinking that created them.” That’s why the current Congress fails on every level and remains “Empty Chambers.”

Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as he interviews top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the Dots" at www.themicroeffect.com at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in to your time zone.

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