In years past most contributors would select one party or the other for the majority of their contributions. Now all but the most political give money somewhat equally to both parties to hedge their bets. By giving equally to both parties smart money says that some of the ambiguity of laws can be thwarted.
Example: the Internal Revenue Service provides a means for money and power to the members of the Congressional Ways and Means committee. This is not in actual cash, but in the ability of make winners and losers with each decision. Each decision means mega bucks for one group and that group must pay the political price with money and power. In some ways the most powerful people in our nation’s capitol are in Congress rather than the White House.
There are two reasons to think this: first, the President is term limited while members of Congress can serve right to the grave. Secondly, the power of the purse, the real power of the money is what makes all of the power in our nation’s capitol work. It is the political “Golden Rule.” He who has the gold makes the rules.
The more you look at the way Congress is organized to provide its members with power and money, the less it looks like the first Congress in 1788. That was a Congress of citizens who served and the service took a toll on their lives and fortunes. Not so any more.
It took almost 150 years for the standard of Congress to be in session all year and the threat to everyone’s wallet to also be all year. In the last fifty years people go to Congress with average wealth and come home after decades quite rich. It is not the salary; it is the connection to money and power.
In the past few years Congress has been engaged in the plundering of citizens. Each Congressman is not required to follow the same rules as citizens. Congressmen have programs to make them wealthy. The rules favor incumbents so that it is infrequent that an incumbent leaves Washington until they are ready.
As we have seen, what today’s Congress is fixated upon is little about good government and everything about which party will control Congress. That included the way money is given to citizens when the treasury is empty, which is not what the founders intended. Or that for a generation both parties have left the Southern Border of the country open for political reasons.
None of these actions are best practices for the good old U. S. of A. Certainly it is not what the founders of our great nation envisioned. I suspect they realized the possibilities and tried to write the Constitution in such language to prohibit full-time money-grubbing leaches taking over Congress. That whirling sound is the founders spinning in their graves.
Here in New Mexico there is a constant drumbeat to disregard the New Mexico Constitution and “Do what is right for the good folks in New Mexico, namely, blah blah blah.” That seems strange to me that people who recently put their hand on the good book and swore to preserve, protect and follow the Constitution would spend so much time trying to not preserve, protect and follow the Constitution.
Last year at this time the U. S. Supreme Court ruled on the Constitutionality of the healthcare act known as ObamaCare. It was not ruled unconstitutional, rather, it was ruled a tax which on the surface might have invalidated it since the bill started in the Senate. Money bill must start in the House. But neither party cared. We are struck with representatives who would pass a 2,700 page bill without even one representative reading it.
In a nation of laws, ambiguity takes a back seat to the laws that are passed without being read.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico on six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
