Category: Politics

Every Government Office and Agency Actually Mentioned in the Constitution

So, this is meant to give some perspective. A lot of the government offices we count on and see as “normal” are created after the fact. A few that are perennial targets are Constitutionally mandated. You are welcome to double check against any copy, but I’m using the version up at the National Archives.

Article I.

Section 1: the Congress, including the House of Representatives and Senate.

Section 2: Representatives, “electors” (now known as voters), and taxes. Regular “enumeration” of citizens (the Census), and a Speaker of the House.

Section 3: Senators, the Vice President, and President Pro Tempore. The President, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Impeachment are also mentioned here, but more on them later.

Section 5: Congressional records. Of course the Founding Fathers never envisioned TV, but C-SPAN is an interesting way of supplementing those records.

Section 6: Ok, nothing new is created here. I just wanted to point out that you can’t arrest a member of Congress on his way to a session unless it’s for “Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace.”

Section 7: Bills and laws.

Section 8: This is a really meaty section on what Congress can do. They create money, regulate commerce and immigration, declare war, make laws, etc. Agencies created here include the Post Office, roads (so mail can be delivered), courts under the Supreme Court, the Navy, and the “Militia.” It’s worth noting that by the time this was written, the Marines were already a well established thing.

Article II.

Section 1: The President and Electoral College are officially created here.

Section 2: The Commander in Chief is also the President.

Section 3: The State of the Union address.

Section 4: Impeachment. Huh, pretty short Article here.

Article III.

Section 1: The Supreme Court and “inferior” courts.

Section 2: “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls” are mentioned.

Section 3: Treason is a thing.

Article IV.

Section 2: Interstate extradition is a thing.

Section 3: How Baby States Are Made.

Articles V, VI, and VII

Constitutional Amendments are a thing. The National Debt — yes, really. Ratification.

Please note how few things really spring directly from the Constitution. No law enforcement agencies whatsoever: no FBI, Federal Marshals, or anything of the sort. Taxes but no tax agencies. Immigration but no immigration offices. Not a word about any sort of schools or colleges. While the Interstate Highway System or Department of Transportation isn’t mentioned, one can argue that they stem from the postal road system. No political parties.

I hope you have found this interesting reading.

Biden Their Time

Or, “Oh no, say it ain’t Joe”

As I write it seems pretty clear that the Democratic Party is hell-bent on ramming Joe Biden down our collective throats as the “Be Reasonable” candidate. This would prove that they learned absolutely nothing from 2016. There are literally thousands of reasons for millions of people to vote against Joe, however much political experience he has.

Biden’s role in criminal “reform.” Joe was instrumental in passing the 1994 crime bill. You know, the one where the Clintons were refering to “Super-Predators”? It’s also the one that made the United States the leading producer of prison inmates. Even Joe himself is no longer proud of his role in that. At least one opponent calls for repealing it altogether.

Biden’s role in bankruptcy “reform.” Joe actually cast the deciding vote on this one, doing the bidding of his Delaware corporate masters well. This bill made it hard to discharge credit card bills in bankruptcy, and impossible to discharge student loan debt. We have millions of people buried under debt due to these changes. Think they’re lining up to vote for Joe? Think they’re lining up to vote for any status-quo “Be Reasonable” candidate?

Biden’s role in health insurance “reform.” No mistake, I knew that health insurance reform was largely doomed early on, when The Powers That Be decided that they didn’t need any help from the one guy that had seen health insurance from every possible angle and gotten universal health care for every kid under 18 in his home state. But Joe actively tried to undermine contraceptive coverage in Romneycare 2.0 Obamacare.

So yeah, anytime Biden and “reform” come up in one breath, it sure seems like something bad is coming.

Biden and women. Ok, fine let’s say you want to overlook the whole contraceptive thing. If a picture really does say a thousand words, then there are many thousands of words said about Joe Biden having his picture taken with uncomfortable looking women. Dude is so stuck in the past that he still thinks it’s a brother’s job to defend his sister’s honor, or at least “keep the guys away” from her. As if she can’t say “no thanks, not interested” or accept a date on her own. This is not a big step forward for women in America, and non-penis owning Americans know it.

Biden and race. Recently his Freudian slip was showing when he said that poor kids were as smart as “white kids.” Oops, he apologized for saying what he seems to actually believe.

Biden’s continuing Foot In Mouth disease. G7. Two characters, three syllables, he managed to mess that up. Heck, he’s even willing to crack jokes about how he messes stuff up. One progressive source has compiled a list of some of his more choice, uh, statements.

Even Obama says don’t do it. Really, enough said.

AOC and Trump

Wow, that’s a funny combo, right?

And yet, the Democratic Party needs to learn the same thing from the success of both of them. And they need to hustle, because 2020 is closer than those of us outside politics like.

Both of these politicians, and the Tea Party before them, rose to power on the frustration of the American People. Voters — the people who actually decide who wins elections — are tired of being told to pipe down, be reasonable, grown ups are talking, and eat what your mother made I don’t care if you’re allergic to it.

We’re tired of being told the economy is doing great because after all look at the DJIA, when many people are barely scraping by. We’re tired of being told that employment is low, when wages are stagnant, benefits are shrinking, and our net worth is going down. Sure, unemployment is down, but so is the ability to pay the rent and buy groceries.

If you want to win elections, you need votes. And that means you have to actually address the issues that are important to normal Americans. Don’t tell us everything is fine and be reasonable. The people who voted for Trump and the people who voted for AOC are both tired of being told to be reasonable.

Some Random Election Day Thoughts

 

In Nevada, we have early voting. A lot of votes are long since cast. In fact, 40% of our votes are already done. We have some races with national impact, so please indulge me.

Multiple candidates have ads running against them that basically say “Votes like Pelosi.” Hmm, maybe my thoughts that Pelosi is part of the problem with the modern Democratic party have some merit.

Let’s just talk about Dean Heller for a minute. Last year, the President said “He wants to remain a Senator, doesn’t he?” This implied that he would tow the party line or else. The ironic thing is that in kowtowing to the party, he alienated all the centrist and mostly-but-not-rabid Democrats that had voted for him in 2012, all the people who had said “well, he’s done a decent enough job for Nevada so far.” This race is a toss-up.

One candidate for Congress is Republican Danny Tarkanian. Notice the long list of times he’s tried to get elected — including twice in 2018. Now look at the long section on legal issues. As nearly as I can tell, the only good thing this guy has done in his entire life is be born the son of a popular basketball coach. Oddly enough, this race still appears to be a toss-up too.

And that brings me to the concept of The Perfect Candidate. I first noticed this problem in the 2016 elections, and it’s gotten worse. The New York Times encourages us to “vote anyway.” Democrats are already being warned to suck it up and vote for the chosen one whoever it is or else. Oh, for completeness, here’s the other version. Well, ya know, maybe if the Democrats didn’t insist that they had the right to rig primaries they could have had a better shot in 2016. And stop with that “most qualified candidate in history” nonsense. The so-called “most qualified candidate in history” forgot that only electoral votes win Presidential elections, a mistake that no high school government student with a passing grade would make.

So I guess what I’m saying is I don’t need a perfect candidate, but I do need a good enough one. I don’t want to hold my nose to vote. I don’t want to “Be reasonable and vote for who we tell you to.”

And let’s just not get started on the mud-fest that is our Governor’s race.

America and Immigration

What an interesting intersection today’s post is: Neil Diamond is retiring, the State of the Union is tomorrow, and immigration “reform” is on most political minds.

So I thought I’d highlight a few things going forward. Today I am talking about permanent immigrants, not people on temporary work or tourist visas. I can’t see addressing that anytime soon.

  1. Caps. Right now, legal immigration is capped at 675,000 permanent residents, using a complicated formula you’d almost have to be an immigration attorney to fully understand. For context, there’s roughly 3,600,000 DREAMers and 800,000 DACA recipients. So even if all we tried to do was normalize their status under the current limits, it would take over a year just for DACA kids and more like 5 years if we wanted to address all the DREAMers. There’s  a case for and a case against, and I’m not going there today. That’s not even dealing with the backlog of mostly legal immigrants trying to to things right, and it’s certainly not dealing with the estimated 11,000,000 “illegal” or “undocumented” immigrants — which word you use depends on what you think about them. It’s like drinking a gallon of milk with a teaspoon. So the short version is that any immigration “reform” that does not address the cap being too low is at best a band-aid and at worst pure hypocrisy.
  2. Merit based systems. A merit based system sounds great, doesn’t it?  Of course the first item on any merit based system would have to be “speaks English.” Obviously we want immigrants who have a basic grasp of our language, right? Unfortunately, this builds in an unmistakable bias in favor of immigrants from nations that either speak English or teach it in their schools. It in practice it could be just a tweak racist. In fact it’s a laughable since the majority of both legal and illegal immigrants comes from a Spanish speaking nation, Mexico.
  3. Jobs. I’ve seen a disturbing resurgence of the “Jobs Americans Don’t Want” line of thinking. I truly thought Mike Rowe had laid that canard to rest by showing us Americans doing the dirtiest jobs out there. It isn’t the job Americans don’t want; it’s the fact that the job often pays sub minimum wage, has no benefits, few safety protections, and so forth. Some of them are very close to outright human trafficking. What, you didn’t think that employers who break one employment law mysteriously follow all the others, do you?

So a real immigration reform bill would include raising the caps, enforcing existing employment law, and simplifying the system so it’s simply easier to do it right. We must be very careful with the idea of merit based systems. Of course, we aren’t going to get any such thing. In fact, it’s possible we get nothing at all.

Remember When

Think back to when you were a kid.

Didn’t have much control of your life, did you?

Dinner was what mom cooked. If you didn’t like it, you had the option of going hungry. That’s if you were lucky. Some of you lived in households where you were cleaning your plate whether you like it or not.

You didn’t have any say over whether mom and dad had money for the latest cool toy. Strictly speaking, you didn’t have any say over whether mom and dad had money for shoes that actually fit you.

And you sure as heck had no control over where you lived. You lived where mom and/or dad said you would live. Doesn’t matter if it’s a nice house, a cheap apartment, a rat infested tenement, or wherever.

So this is why I support a clean DACA bill to give a clear path to citizenship to kids whose parents decided they would live in a foreign land. Those kids did not ask to be brought here illegally. They certainly did not have any say in the decision, no opportunity to persuade their parents otherwise. I also still support comprehensive immigration reform that involves greatly simplifying the process, raising immigration caps, and stiff penalties for employers who don’t like following the law.

But while we’re on the topic of stuff kids can’t control, they also can’t control whether there’s enough money for health care. Unfortunately, Congress is continuing to drop the ball on renewing CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. That’s despite the fact that it has bipartisan support. That’s despite the fact that no Congressman is brave enough to come out against health care for kids who can’t afford it. Imagine the campaign ads against him!

Remember this when your Senators and Representatives come up for re-election.

In Closing: Poverty in America; Joe Arpaio just won’t go away; they missed #6, Democrats can win if they actually run better candidates than the competition.

Democratic Folly

The Democratic Party has decided to double down on Superdelegates. In short, that means that the Party will decide who you will vote for without any pesky interference from voters, thank you very much. They do not see how anointing a candidate could possibly have contributed to What Happened. They do not see how tired many people are of holding their nose and voting for The Chosen One because hey, who else are you gonna vote for?

Many years before I was born, a science-fiction author named Robert Heinlein wrote a book called Take Back Your Government. One of the things he advocated was to get involved in your local party politics. And further, he reminded us that if what you thought was “your” party turned out not to be anymore? Join the other one and work for what you believe in there.

I have heard from reliable sources that the local Democratic Party isn’t any more open to opposing viewpoints than the national organization. I mean heck, they turned their back on Nevada’s gubernatorial candidate because… well because “none of the above” actually won the primary (not complaining; Sandoval has been a decent Governor). But they aren’t above supporting people awaiting indictment.

In Closing: net neutrality; it will be interesting to see how the “gun control” argument changes post Vegas; confiscating assets is big money; cannabis and opioids; potentially, the end of an era in Japan.

The Blame Game

I know this is not a popular opinion on “the Left”, but here it is. The DNC and Clinton supporters need to stop blaming Comey and the Russians. Why?

Because the only reason Comey and the Russians mattered is that they themselves were doing stupid stuff. The DNC rigged the election to ensure Hillary’s coronation nomination — and now they want to argue that they had the right to do so. The DNC and HRC (both as Secretary of State and as a candidate) put stupid stuff in emails. Clinton’s people are the ones who used ridiculously bad internet security — and at one point turned it completely off in a virtual welcome sign to hackers. Don’t do stupid stuff and you don’t have to worry about getting caught doing stupid stuff. Funny how that works.

Blaming Comey and the Russians? Bobby Brady broke the vase by throwing his football in the house, but you want to blame Cindy Brady for tattling!

Furthermore, the Democrats refused to address the issues important to most Americans — hint, it’s still the economy, stupid — instead focusing on fluffy social issues to the point where many white men I knew were saying that clearly there was no “inclusion” meant for them. The bottom line is that if the Democrats choose to double down on politics as usual and to hell with actual progressive ideas, they will lose more elections. Oh, and let’s not forget Huma and Weiner. The popular vote? Oh please, not knowing that you need electoral votes to win a presidential election is just plain political incompetence.

And finally, can we please stop pretending that Obama was any kind of progressive or liberal? For pity sake, he’s more conservative than Nixon.

In Closing: Believe; poverty; I should never have looked at this recipe; PayPal.

A Prediction

First of all, I’d like to start by saying that the name of the proposed legislation to “repeal and replace Obamacare” is called “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” That’s a seriously great title, folks.

So my prediction is as follows: there will be enough voices on the Left saying it does not go far enough and enough voices on the Right saying it doesn’t go nearly far enough that no bill will be passed. Afterwards, each side will congratulate themselves on thwarting the other.

The fact remains that any plan that depends at all on employer coverage will never cover all children. That’s because children don’t have employers. And — I will say this every time it’s brought up — don’t tell me we can’t have true universal single payer coverage for children, because Howard Dean did it in his state.

In Closing: vouchers; I guess most-mortems are easier than admitting that Hillary could possibly have lost without outside help; yoga; right; Alcoholics Anonymous; and I don’t even know where to begin about the stupidity of a “day without women.”

Taxing my patience

So Slate has this article about how the Republicans are trying to kill something called the Mortgage Interest Deduction. Other sources are piling on to this interpretation, spurred on my my least favorite economist, Lawrence Yun. For those not familiar with the tax code, that’s the bit that allows people who are paying on a mortgage to deduct the portion of the mortgage payment that is interest on the loan — not the whole payment. Technically, you’re also allowed to deduct certain other fees and property taxes.

Here’s the problem: it’s not at all true. The actual proposal is to almost double the standard deduction to $24,000. If you actually have more than $24,000 in deductions, you’ll still be able to claim the Mortgage Interest Deduction. However, for most people this standard deduction is high enough that they won’t need to itemize. Even Slate admits that some experts say this will benefit roughly 38,000,000 taxpayers!

The first benefit is that most people will have simpler taxes. No more complicated deductions to figure out. No more keeping track of documents from the mortgage company and all those little slips of paper you got from donating to charity. Congrats, your taxes may well be reduced to one document and an hour with TurboTax.

The second benefit is a little trickier. The 2016 poverty line is $24,300 for a family of four. This higher standard deduction means that families near the poverty line will not be taxed into poverty. It means that they can spend more of their income on goods and services rather than taxes. That benefits the family and the economy. A win-win situation. Don’t tell me poor people don’t pay income tax, because that’s a lie.

Hmm, where have I heard this idea before?