If you canargue against this, you're stupid....

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/business/berko/1729992,4_3_JO23_BERKO_S1-090823.article

I got permission to pass it on.

We've only ourselves to blame. Period.

Blame management for economy
Comments

August 23, 2009

Dear Mr. Berko: How come you never blame the executive officers of The Big Three -- the big insurers, the big banks and the big brokerage houses -- or the unions for destroying the economy? Their actions are certainly responsible for the problems that have put our country in danger of a depression. These people, their high-mileage cars, swindling mortgages, dangerous derivatives, enormous salaries and their contempt for fairness, decency and the law have nearly doomed the economy. They should be punished and jailed. Please, how about putting the blame on management and the unions where it really belongs?

B.D.

Kankakee Dear B.D. : I think you've been eating Twinkies under the power lines for too many years. I have frequently excoriated management and unions in this column and in speeches around the nation. You can't blame the collapse of Chrysler and General Motors only on management and the unions.

Yes, they share some of the blame, but the overriding blame must be attributed to the wonderful 545 men and women you elected to Congress. You can blame the collapse of the banks and brokerage firms on homicidal management. But I would put the principle blame on the very caring 545 men and women you elected to Congress. You can blame the implosion of the mortgage industry on glutinous management and that's cool. But the real blame belongs to the conscientious 545 people you elected to Congress. You can blame Wall Street's cupidity for the 50 percent decline in retirement account values, or the business cycle for our 10 percent unemployment numbers and the homebuilders for crashing home prices. They are all culpable. But the truth be told, the alpha and omega of those and other domestic problems rest with the dedicated 545 politicians you elected to Congress.

Charlie Reese, who used to write for the Orlando Sentinel and is known for his paleoconservative views, remarked, "Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them."

Reese once asked: "If both democrats and republicans are against deficits, (why do we still) have deficits?" The only answer is because the 545 members of Congress want the U.S. to have a continuing deficit. It's politically very profitable but not for the 300 million citizens who must pay it back.

Think about it.

If millions of Americans believe the tax code is unfair, then why do we have a tax code that is unfair? The only answer is the 545 Democrats and Republicans in Congress want it that way. Our army is still in Iraq because 545 members of Congress want our boys in Iraq. Social Security and Medicare are in serious trouble because 545 members of Congress want Social Security and Medicare to remain in trouble. The cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. is six times the cost of the same drugs in Canada, the U.K., France or Germany. And our drug costs are higher because 545 members of Congress want it that way. And this is the Lord's honest truth.

There is a small group of wealthy, privileged Americans who profit from high drug cost, an unfair tax code, a burgeoning deficit, etc., and you know whom they represent. Unless there have been structural changes in the last 20 years, the Constitution still is the final arbiter of every law in the nation. It gives the House of Representatives the legal authority to originate, approve and implement those laws. And it's important to note that members of the House, not ex-president George W. Bush or President Obama, can approve any budget they chose. And if the budget is vetoed by Bush or Obama, Congress can override a presidential veto if it wants to. It's that simple. The president proposes and Congress disposes; a play on much older apothegm:

"Man proposes but God disposes."

Again I quote Charlie Reese: "It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of (319) million people cannot influence 545 congressmen who stand convicted -- by the facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people." If you understand that those 545 powerful congresspeople run the government, then it must follow that whatever the government does, 545 congresspeople want it to happen. And my dad would ask: "What then can be said about politicians that hasn't already been said about hemorrhoids?"

Address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 8303, Largo, FL 33775 or e-mail him at mjberko@yahoo.com.

Seems no one wants to face reality and debate the FACTS. Congressmen. Period.

Overlapping government in every state. I recently joined the political party, just to get my "piece of the pie". All I have to do is declare loyalty, get on the payroll, donate toward a particular politician, and whambo, I'm "in"!

Won't be hard, since I was the secretary to the Office of Personnel Managment and former sec'y to the Labor Relations Department, at 219 South Dearborn, and quit for "ETthiCAL" reasons.

Something the politicians lack today..however, I never burned my bridges.

I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people." If you understand that those 545 powerful congresspeople run the government, then it must follow that whatever the government does, 545 congresspeople want it to happen. And my dad would ask: "What then can be said about politicians that hasn't already been said about hemorrhoids?"

What Say YOU, Americans?

UrRight wrote:

What Say YOU, Americans?

I say that is difficult to take seriously anyone who doesn't even know that that there are 535 voting members of the House and Senate, not 545. And for the record, this is recycled populist tripe lifted from a Reese column originally written in 1985.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Reese

For whatever reason, this Berko dude has edited Reese's original column, but as written, it makes Berko look like a total idiot. I sure as hell wouldn't take any financial advice or contemplate any "insights" from somebody who doesn't even know something as frickin' basic as the number of members of the House and Senate.