The Original Charley Reese "545 People"

Received an email today titled "Why Vote in November". It contained a "rant", pro-ported to be written by Charley Reese of the Orlando Sentinel, placing the blame for all our governmental problems on the 545 Congressmen, President and Supreme Court Justices that have the Constitutional power to govern.

Research shows that Charley did in fact write the original piece in 1985 and it was published in 1995, but is still valid today. Over the years, many liberties have been taken in the circulated email, so I thought you might want to see the original text, which you can read here.

Excerpt: Congress is the originator of all government problems and is also the only remedy available. That's why, of course, politicians go to such extraordinary lengths and employ world-class sophistry to make you think they are not responsible. Anytime a congressman pretends to be outraged by something a federal bureaucrat does, he is in fact engaging in one big massive con job. No federal employee can act at all except to enforce laws passed by Congress and to employ procedures authorized by Congress either explicitly or implicitly.

Partisans on both sides like to blame presidents for deficits, but all deficits are congressional deficits. The president may, by custom, recommend a budget, but it carries no legal weight. Only Congress is authorized by the Constitution to authorize and appropriate and to levy taxes. That's what the federal budget consists of: expenditures authorized, funds appropriated and taxes levied.

Both Democrats and Republicans mislead the public.