Common Sense University

Political Common Sense cannot quite stop talking more about the real culprits of America as we identified them in our previous article, Congressional Culprits Revealed. First off, let us remind ourselves what the United States Constitution says about the branches of government:

The Executive and Legislative are constitutionally equal branches of the United States of America with build-in balances for the purpose of preventing having one branch ever dominating the other one. We know that the third person in line for the Presidency (after the President and the Vice-President) is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, we further know that all federal laws commence in Congress. No President can initiate laws, raise or lower taxes by himself, this is the job and responsibility of Congress, the President can sign those laws and budgets or veto them but he cannot write or legalize any laws in his branch of the government.

Another important responsibility rests with Congress: Declaring war, period! Accordingly, President George W. Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to deal with Iraq in such a way as to prevent the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq from posing threats to their neighbors, Europe and the rest of the world by developing Weapons of Mass Destruction among other such things. This authority included the use of military force and Congress granted the President’s request in October 2002. When numerous United Nations resolutions failed to achieve Saddam Hussein’s compliance, America and some of its allies went to war against Iraq in March 2003. The initial invasion of Iraq was very successful and was hailed by nearly everyone in Congress and that included the capture of Saddam Hussein later that year. It was the aftermath of the invasion that commenced the quagmire that followed, the internal ethnic and religious struggles in that country were totally underestimated, if even remotely understood and resulted in what followed since 2003.

But it is important to recognize that President Bush who is singularly being shouldered with the war now, could not spend one dime on the war without prior approval of budgetary funds by Congress. You would not know this when you get your news from the media. They claim its Bush’s war and the President keeps it going unnecessarily. Nobody mentions in this that if Congress would simply stop funding the war, the troops would come home in short order. But in spite of all the bickering and complaining, the Democrat led Congress has not been able to stop the war or even begin bringing the troops home. Contrarily, the President introduced a new strategy early last year called the ‘surge’ (an increase of troops to fight the enemies) and Congress funded that too.

If you will remember, the mid-term election in November 2006 was framed and won by the Democrats with the slogan ‘it is time for a change’. After their victory, the Democrats claimed that the American people had spoken and given them a mandate to end the war in Iraq, raise the minimum wage and some other social issues such as investigating the executive branch’s misdeeds during the previous six years.

Is it too early now to look at their record during the past eighteen months?  We think not. Here it comes:

• The Democrat led Congress has not ended the war in Iraq, in fact, it has funded an increase in troops;
• The Democrat led Congress has vigorously investigated the executive branch but has not brought about any indictments or convictions for wrong-doing;
• The Democrat led Congress has increased the federal minimum wage - by attaching it to a war funding bill;
• The Democrat led Congress has weakened our national surveillance programs in our war on terror;
• The Democrat led Congress has not passed any meaningful and course-altering legislation that was veto-proof.

We could be more elaborate and specific but what is the use: The results speak for themselves; the Democrats campaign theme in 2006 “It’s time for a change” has not brought about any significant changes! We also believe that it is safe to say they will not be any significant changes until the November elections this year. So then, what good was this campaign slogan and how do the people who believed their promise, wanted to see changes and voted for them feel now?

The point we want to make with this is very elementary: For all of you out there who wanted to see changes in America in late 2006, voted on the basis of empty promises without spending a little time on your own and trying to make sense out of the promises, you got snookered and deserve to be disappointed or feel at a minimum foolish! But you have another chance this fall: Analyze before you vote, think for yourself before you pull the lever for or against someone or something.

We believe to have made our point, Congress is the number one place for the culprits in America, they promise and do not deliver, they do not have your interest in mind first and foremost but the advancement of their personal beliefs and agendas, their own re-election being number One

In conclusion, we want to make one more point about ‘changes’. Common sense should tell us that bringing about changes does not have to be for the better as they could also result in things getting worse. Case in point: the price of a gallon of gas! The price for a gallon of regular gas was about $1.50 in 2001 (when President Bush moved into the White House and Congress was controlled by Republicans) and in November 2006 the price had risen to $2.40 per gallon, a total of $0.90 for the six plus years, an average annual increase of $0.15. Since the ‘change’ advocating Democrats have been in charge of Congress, the price for a gallon of gasoline nationally has risen from $2.40 to $4.10, a total increase of $1.70 (an average of approximately $0.10 per month)! Is Congress to be blamed for this? There could be two answers to this question? 1. YES, they are an equal branch of government and therewith carry a heavy load of what happens in this country! 2. NO, Congress is not to be blamed for this, the blame rests entirely with the President (and his buddies in the oil industry).

We have to ask you: Does this make sense? We do not think so, equal branches of government share equal responsibilities and therefore should share the blame for our energy crisis! The point is: Change or changes should not be assumed to be good but can also lead to disaster as seen in this example. Our recommendation is therefore: Beware of changes! Think before you vote, treat your right to vote as a precious privilege!