We The People

Cesar Chavez was the darling of Hispanic agricultural workers in the 1960’s. Some of you may recall his affect on lettuce prices? Don’t buy non-union lettuce from California? The result was a national spike in the price of lettuce. Without Hispanic labor the lettuce crop in California rotted in the field. A shortage of lettuce resulted and prices zoomed.

That labor action by Chavez sparked a major change in immigrant worker rights. Soon thereafter the California grape boycott occurred. Although a protracted battle, union contracts were written to protect quality of life and wages for immigrant field workers.

Cesar Chavez did much for others. He also shared words of wisdom.  Here’s one:

“Once social change begins it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”

Smart words. Perhaps our not being able to un-do social change is the basis of fear from our conservative friends?  We hear so much from them about entitlements and the mentality of entitlement. But is that really a true fear? Or a false alarm to rally the troops of believers? I think the latter. It is a rallying cry that is based on false assumptions.

First off, Social Security is a trust funded benefit plan paid for by payroll taxes earned and remitted by both employee and employer. The benefit plan is defined by the program’s law. It is administered as an insurance plan and is bound by the mathematics of actuaries. If the plan has been tweaked too often by politicians to sweeten benefits that have proved unsustainable, then shame on those politicians seeking votes for such favors. You know this has been done. But now many of those same politicians complain that it is the beneficiaries that are to blame!

I think not! And that is why it is a falsely based rallying cry. The same is true for Medicare. It is a benefit plan paid for by both workers and employers. It is actuarially based as well. It is not an entitlement. It is a benefit plan managed without deficit by administrators knowledgeable in such matters.

And a strong fact remains: both Social Security and Medicare trust funds are not in debt. They hold over six trillion dollars in balances. Those balances may be growing smaller over time, but there remains time to adjust income or payouts to maintain both funds at sustainable levels for decades. No budgetary action is needed. These two plans do not contribute one penny of debt to the national deficit.

Medicaid may be another matter. But that is just the point. It is a separate program and a government benefit program paid out of federal and state general revenues, not premium payments from the beneficiaries themselves.

Another deficit point. Congress – more specifically the House of Representatives – has the constitutional function of controlling the nation’s purse. They make budgets, authorize tax legislation and incur expenses. They cause the payment of those payments. Yes the Senate has to approve in some measure those legislative actions, and the President – the Executive Branch of the Federal Government – agrees or vetoes those actions.

Authorizing national deficit ceilings is not a control over the President, nor his over the Congress. It is a control over Congress set by themselves over their own actions. If they don’t authorize a higher debt ceiling, then they have declared their own check book to be broke; no checks should be written. But it is their expense authorizations they are denying, not the President’s.

You see the scam? This is a sophomoric political game played by Boehner, Cantor and McConnell. They are reduced to a pitiful level of name calling and false claims.

The President is not addicted to spending. Rather the Congress is so addicted. Worse, they are also deadbeats who are threatening to not pay their very own bills.  Shame.

We The People have the responsibility of saying so to our elected representatives. 320 million of us need to remind our congresspersons that they have the responsibility to solve this problem on their own recognizance. Reagan insisted we do this many times during his presidency. I don’t know about you but I think President Obama asked each of us to do the same from this day forward during his Second Inaugural speech. Yes. Democracy is not exercised every 2 or 4 years; it is our duty as needed on issue by issue.

Is now such a time for you? On gun control? On debt ceiling? On deficit spending? On taxation? On education reform? On election finance reform? On abortion rights? On any other issue of importance to you and to the nation’s well being?

If you agree, please contact your elected representatives now and frequently hereafter.

Thank you for your diligence in this matter. You will feel good doing it. And they will feel the burn of responsibility in representing you!

January 25, 2013