Sunday, November 1, 2015

Dragoon Charlie Graham's Recent Column "Consider Future Generations in Budget Decisions"

Charlie Graham 

COLUMNIST 

- Montgomery Advertiser, 30 Oct 2015, p. 8A

Presidents come and go. Who makes a mark and what kind? There are always the die-hard political party pleasers. Then we may be blessed with one that deviates.


The Democratic platform routinely comes with promises of more government bloat and overreach, inexorable debt and no intent to pay. Americans, other than those living off of the government, care about the precipitous unfunded liabilities, deficits and debts of government at all levels.


As per our Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, in order to form a more perfect union, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, we do ordain and establish this Constitution.


All government officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Notice that the Preamble states that all objectives and obligations apply equally to ourselves and our posterity. Our posterity means all future generations of people. Obviously the vast majority of our citizens and politicians feel that there is no relevance between the framers of the Constitution and the current more sophisticated society of today, and their asinine inference of extending our implied covenant with future generations, is fatuously ludicrous.


An interesting note revealed by columnist Steve Flowers recently is that our U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, in each of his 29 years of tenure, has introduced a bill that would mandate a balanced budget each year. Thanks to Democrats, including the president, Congress can only muster budget parcel approvals and raise the debt ceiling.


Constitutional repudiation has been the accepted practice since the beginning of the War Between the States. They had to call it a Civil War in order to give credence to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus through which he incarcerated the majority of Maryland’s legislature, without stating charges, precluding a vote to secede. He did the same with numerous newspaper editors who printed anything anti-Lincoln. He went out of his way to refer to the South as states in rebellion, which he felt allowed him to scratch habeas corpus and orchestrate the war without Congress. The South did not rebel, it repelled.


After the War most of the South became Federal chattel. It was stripped and decimated by the War and placed under military rule for twelve years. Most prominent Southerners fought in the Confederate military and were therefore denied any voting rights or political activity. The federal government, carpetbaggers and scalawags exploited and speciously acquired property.


I don’t think that Northerners ever want to bother themselves by vetting the changes in their lives since that epoch in history. They lost their individual freedoms and states rights just as the Southerners did. All of the useless constitutional rhetoric about the people delegating powers to the government went up in smoke with each Union cannon blast.


Whether they make sense or not, the political platforms of the parties have emaciated our fiscal health.


It is clear the legislative branch of the government should make all laws. But currently our laws are made by Obama executive orders and the U.S. Supreme Court’s bizarre applications.


You can forget any wholesome consideration for future generations with an advertised burgeoning $18.3 trillion debt which Truth In Accounting says is actually $82 trillion. Our politicians don’t kick cans, they kick snowballs.


Every time that I read about another federal grant, I cringe with two thoughts. If this money is needed here, why didn’t it stay here, and in consideration of the national debt, how did it get appropriated?


One thing is sure about this presidential election, if Democrats gain control of one House or the White House, I doubt that divine intervention will be efficacious.

Charlie Graham writes from Prattville. His column usually appears on alternate Thursdays. Send email to grahamchalie@gmail.com.


No comments:

Post a Comment