Richard Mondale Loc: Montana

Everyone needs to have four abilities.
This is true for everyone, people, businesses, families, farms, and governments.
1 You have to be able to think and make your plans.
2 You have to be able to get the stuff that you will need to build your dream.
3 You need to have or be able to hire the sk**ls required to put it together.
And, 4 you have to have an income so you can pay your bills. No one will work with you if you don’t pay your bills.
This list is basic. Every entity has these abilities if it is successful.
And, that is what our Founding Fathers wanted. They wanted to create a new entity that they hoped would be successful. The United States of America was given those four abilities.
Every Government needs them. It doesn’t matter what kind of Government it is it needs these abilities.
A monarchy needs them. A democracy needs them. A plutocracy needs them. And our representative democracy needs them.
But, a tyranny also needs this same list of abilities.
What the American Revolution was all about is getting away from tyrants.
Our Fore Fathers h**ed tyranny. They wanted Freedom.
They did not want to bring to this new continent, the bad things of the old world, namely tyrants.
There are all kinds of different tyrants. Kings, emperors, and tsars are autocratic tyrants. Committees, councils, and Property Owner Associations are plutocratic tyrants. And Democracy is always tyrannical.
You have all heard the story about two wolves and a sheep v****g on what to eat for lunch.
In a democracy minorities always lose. The Founders wanted to protect minorities. They did not like democracy.
But, so, that is all of the ways to set up a government.
If none of these work, then what can we do, to avoid tyranny?
A tyrant needs the four abilities I listed up above, so let’s not put all four into any one office.
The Framers of the Constitution divided the Government into Branches, and they divided the ‘powers’ between the Branches.
This is the brilliance of the American Revolution.
You all knew that, right? Simple isn’t it?
• I don’t like the term power because it can be used in several different situations. There is police power, military power, the power to tax, the power to legislate, and the executive power. So, I prefer to use the more specific term ‘abilities’.
So what are those abilities and how were they divided? Who got what?
Well, let me start by saying that the Framers of the Constitution, in their brilliance added a new one. They said it would be real nice if the Government of the United States had Good Judgment.
So they set up a whole separate Branch that is not involved with the day to day operation of the Government. Its only focus is Good Judgment. That is the Supreme Court.
• I submit it should extend to the entire Court system. I farther submit that the Police should work under the direction of the Court system. But, they don’t. We have a mess. The Police involve themselves with enforcing obedience, and Courts inflicting punishment. That treads very close to tyranny. We will have to change this horrible system. It is the domain of tyrants, in my opinion.
The four basic abilities were divided between two active Branches.
These active Branches operate the Government.
The Constitution says that the Executive Branch gets all of the Executive abilities.
So, we all know which ones they are, right?
The four are Planning, Buying, Hiring, and Paying.
Of those, which ones are Executive?
No one knows and this is important. George Washington, who chaired the committee that wrote the Constitution and who operated it, as President, successfully for eight years, said, if they got blurred or usurped then the freedoms of the people would suffer. He called them Constitutional Spheres.
Well guess what folks. They got blurred. They got usurped. They got exchanged and traded, and the result is that we are suffering.
It is because politicians didn’t like their assigned abilities, so they remixed them to get full control over money flow.
They have k**led the American Revolution so they could spend the money.
They have made us no better than a tin horn dictatorship.
-So, why don’t we know what powers go to each Branch?
Well, we are the victim of foreign interference.
You all know that America used to belong to England. Well England wanted us back. They wanted to own us again, or failing that they wanted to eliminate our Revolutionary ideas about the Government working for the good of the people instead of the people working for the good of the Government.
So they invaded our capital, and burned the Library of Congress, in order to destroy the documentation that described how to avoid tyrannical takeover.
They inflicted a mortal wound. We are dying from it.
We must discover the proper division of powers, and we must do it soon.
Now, the Heritage Foundation erroneously lists all of the enumerated powers as being those divided between the Branches. Things like set up a Commerce Department, a Patent Office, and a Post Office are, according to them, existential abilities.
Of course they are wrong. None of those things appear in the list of four abilities that any entity needs in order to be successful.
That list is: you have to be able to think, you have to be able to get what you will need, you have to have the talent to use the material to make your dream reality, and you have to pay your bills.
The first sentence in the Constitution, right after the preamble, says, “All legislative powers, herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress.”
Oh, so there is a list in the Constitution.
They call them “Legislative Powers.” They are things that a Congress can do.
Well, a Congress can v**e, they can debate, and they can agree, or not.
What else? Is any of that on the list of basic abilities? Are any of the basic abilities granted any where?
I found an interesting aside in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson and sent to James Monroe.
• Jefferson was recommending that one generation should not be allowed to impoverish the next by borrowing more than they would be able to pay. He said this would go well with what they had already put into the document. He then specified that he was talking about where they had taken the power to declare war away from the Executive and gave it to the Congress. He reminded Madison that they had done that because it is the people who pay the cost of war, both in cash and lives lost, so if their Congress wants to go to war, then that is their business. He said, “from those who can spend (to buy weapons); to those who can (and have to) pay.”
Paying is one of the Existential Abilities. It is one of the Constitutional Spheres. Jefferson says it was given to Congress, he says it is different and separate from buying things. Spending is assigned to the Executive. So, according to Jefferson, Spending is an Executive ability. That would make Congresses Annual Spending Bill illegal.
In other words the two things you can do with money are separated between two Branches. The one has the ability to Spend and the other has the ability to Pay.
Is there any testimony supporting that in the Constitution? Yes, Article One; Section 7 starts out saying “All Bills for Raising Revenue shall originate in the House.”
So, by raising revenue Congress has the ability to pay.
• I submit also that those bills are for services rendered, and thus the Government is supposed to be self supporting. That would make it considerably different from other Governments, but then that is the point.
After saying that Congress can Raise Revenue in Section 7 the discussion moves to the dynamics of the interaction between Congress and the President. This is an important discussion, but it acts as a distraction from the main purpose of Section 7 of Article One.
That said, the third paragraph says that there are three other actions that Congress can do. That is a total of four. They are able to pass: Orders, Resolutions, V**es, and Bills to raise Revenue. All Orders, Resolutions, and V**es are to be treated the same as Bills.
‘Bills’ granted Congress the power to pay, so what power might be contained in Order Resolve and v**e?
Orders are, well, orders. They constitute command and control. Resolutions are a way to remember things of importance. And V****g is a great way to decide an issue. That is an important point. I will say more about it later.
Decision making, memory, and command together constitute thought, so Congress is supposed to do the thinking for the Government, and pay for things. Those are two of the Existential Powers.
So, we can now answer the question, “What are the Executive powers?” They are: Buy the materials needed to carry out the plan, and Hire the talent needed to assemble the project.
I submit that the President is the Commander in Chief of the Bureaucracy, including the Army, but the Congress is the Commander of the President.
I submit that the way it is supposed to work is: The Congress debates what to do. They put that plan together with wh**ever money is available and sent it, as an Order to the President. He will look at the practicality of it, and will obey orders if he can.
The two active Branches of Government are each reliant upon the other because each is only half of a person. Each has only half of the abilities that an entity needs to be operational. The one does the Doing and the other does the Thinking. The one Raises Revenue and the other Spends it.
That is simple right? What could go wrong with such a simple system? Congress debates what the Government should do. They make a decision and tell the President how much money is available, and he does it for that amount.
You will recall that I said that V****g is a great way to make a decision, right? It is almost magical. A point is debated, a V**e is taken, one side wins and the other loses, and nothing more is said. The point is decided. This v****g system is part of the foundation of parliamentary governance, so it is good, right?
Sure, it is a wonderful way to make a decision. The question is should it be used to choose who will Represent us.
We are a Representative Democracy. We send someone to do the Legislative work for us. We are busy living our lives and should not, and cannot be adequately informed on all of the issues. So we send someone to do this for us. Who should it be?
It should be someone that agrees with you and will v**e the way you would if you were there, right?
He should definitely fight for the things that you need. And, you also want a fair deal. He should work for you, right? He should be your Representative. Does V****g get that for you? Who feels well represented by the Zoo in DC?
The fact is that when you take your list of needs and desires into the V****g Booth, you are confronted by two boxes with names next to them. Neither one lists your needs. You really have no idea which to pick. So, you v**e and one of them wins. Maybe it is the one you v**ed for that wins. Will he work for your needs? No, how can he? He doesn’t even know who you are.
• I submit that if someone is going to work for you as your Representative, he should know your name.
That is not the case. When we v**e the winner gets more than half, and the loser gets less than half. That is all they know, but the winner takes all.
What has he won? The District consists of a geographical area. It contains a uniform portion of the total population, so he won you. He owns you, and the dirt under your feet. He doesn’t know or care what you want. He owns you.
• I’m insulted by that.
Our best Representatives go to DC and do the best they can. The worst ones do the best they can for their crony buddies who fund them and profit from their efforts.
We all condemn that, but wouldn’t it be nice to be on the DC gravy train? Wouldn’t it be nice for us all to have maximum return on minimum input of taxes, tariffs, and fees? Wouldn’t it be nice if the Government was helpful, and not tyrannical?
That is what the Founders wanted.
So, why aren’t we there? Well, I submit that it is because your Representative has no idea who he is working for. There is a disconnect between him and his constituents. The basis of this disconnect is the use of V****g to Choose a Representative. You will remember I said V****g is a great way to make a decision, and it is, but choosing a Representative is a choice, not a decision. The Framers of the Constitution made a mistake. Oops! They were not perfect.
• So, that developed into us having politicians.
In 1820 a paper, I think it was the Federalist, surveyed the Founding Fathers to see what they thought about the Government they had created. They were unanimous in their disappointment of Congress.
And, this mistake is the reason why.
The framers thought the people who populated the Congress would be araldite, educated, and contemplative, but what they got was the owner of the trading post, because everyone knew him.
Popularity and funding are really the only things that matter in a political campaign. The candidate must be popular and well funded.
Well, if those are your concerns, then both of them can be satisfied, well, in several ways, but the easiest way is to bring home Booty!!!! Government Largess is always very popular. Its free money!!!
Are you all aware that? Smoke filled rooms and back door deals are the mother’s milk to politicians. What did your Representative do for you this year? They all have to do something. Bring home booty!
There are 534 Congressmen and Senators. Each needs to bring home lots of money to give away to supporters. Can there be any doubt as to why we are 24 Trillion dollars in debt?
Or, why our Government has promised to pay 250 Trillion dollars worth of obligations. There are two ways to ens***e a free people, the sword and massive debt, said John Adams.
We are in debt, people. We have a choice. We can work our way out of this, or face foreclosure.
But, first we have to survive.
The best way to that objective is the Constitution written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. We must at least try it their way, before we die and liberty perishes from the face of the earth.
Written by Rick Mondale