New Rule - #26-01 - Federal Funds and Services to the American Citizenry

 All the monies budgeted and in use by the United States government, regardless of source, belong to the American people.

The United States government and all of its branches exists to serve the American people.  This is all in our Constitution.

Taxes paid by the American people and collected by the United States government is for the purpose of providing services to the American people.  It is logical and understandable that there are expenses incurred in providing those services:  salaries, office, buildings, various supplies and mechanisms, etc.

Rule #26-01, in concept, used to be a rule and criteria for grant issuing not-for-profit status but has since disappeared but should be reinstated.  In the case of federal funds:  85% of all monies collected by the United States government, except for capital projects, must be spend in the provision of services to the American people, not through corporate administrators, but in direct distribution of services to individual American citizens; the total expenditure for administrative costs cannot exceed 15% of any individual program, departmental or budget segment.

This used to be the norm for budgetary criteria in IRS regulations for not-for-profit status who distributed grant funds.  It was followed, without difficulty, for decades and is, therefore, doable.

Service organizations, such as public libraries, schools, hospitals, that provide services in the form of services by people to other people, have much greater costs in providing those services than programs that simply distribute funds. The budget differences may be as much as reversed, with the 85% being the administrative costs and the 15% being incidents; but, those administrative costs must demonstratively translate into direct services to individual American citizens.

In some cases, those administrative costs may vary depending on the provision of services such as, military pay may vary depending on whether or not staff is actively engaged in military operations in defense.  The pay scales of those actively engaged in service would differ from those not directly engaged in service.  This would hold true of all services of the United States government; the military only being a service where there is a clear and obvious difference in active and non-active service.  

Pay scales are complex and are not specifically addressed here.  Pay for the service of elected officials is also not addressed here.

Thinking Out Loud - Democracy

 Building on my thoughts in the last blog post, it's been increasingly occurring to me that most of us are thinking wrongly, as Americans.

We are, I believe, each of us, thinking that we, each of us, is the example of an American.  We're egocentric in our thinking about almost everything but, certainly, about our being American.  And, I can tell you that I, personally, am just as patriotic as anybody who needs to call themselves a Patriot.

What we forget is that our Constitution is for ALL Americans, not just for me or for you.  It's for every single person that sickens you.  It's for all the Karens in the country.  It's for all the noisy neighbors.  It's for all the neighbors who have noisy and dangerous dogs.  It's for everyone who can't afford to keep their property maintained.  It's for everyone who has multiple junk cars in their yard.  It's for men and women.  It's for black Americans.  It's for Jewish Americans.  It's for evangelical Americans.  It's for atheist Americans.  It's for trans Americans.  It's for Mexican Americans.  It's for Iranian Americans.  It's for liberal Americans.  It's for conservative Americans.  It's for rich Americans.  It's for poor Americans.  It's for Democrats.  It's for Republicans.

The Declaration of Independence says: "all men are created equal,"  Of course, that's not literally true and it goes on the clarify that we all have certain "inalienable" rights:  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Life is fairly obvious; liberty and the pursuit of happiness; not really.  It's, more or less, saying to 'live and let live'.  The Constitution aims to "insure" defense, liberty, welfare, union, tranquility, and justice.  Quite a tall order and we have, or the majority has had, for nearly 250 years that.  But, there will ALWAYS be born individuals who want to think themselves above everyone else, better than everyone else and they have lead and are leading our country into division.  This direction will be the end of democracy and this country.

The Truth is, Democracy is for EVERYONE.  It isn't democracy unless it is for everyone.

It's been occurring to me, more and more frequently and, more and more obviously, that our divisions will destroy us eventually and the fracturing has been speeding up; mostly because there is nobody in leadership who is truly democratic.  The parties each have ideology contrary to the opposition.  It's no longer possible for the country to operate that way.  We have to get back to real democracy.

The Vision of America that I had as a kid is still possible but it means sacrificing the "me first" thinking.  

Some version of "The Golden Rule" exists all over the world, in every country, on every continent, because it's about the attitude of individual human beings about other human beings.  It's about fairness and goodness and decency.  One simplified version is:  Treat others as you want to be treated.  It's really the attitudinal basis for democracy.  We have to get back to that.

Right now, in this country we're being lead by men who want just the opposite; who want to be above everyone else; who want to control everyone else.  What's really insane and ridiculous, is that each and everyone one of them would screw each other if they got the chance; if it meant they would end up on top.  They should be considered insane; pathological.

Right now, in this country, American citizens are being rounded up and shipped to other countries or put in detention facilities run by highly paid corporations who want to have more money and be treated better than the citizens they are detaining.  Children are being kept from their parents and are not protected from abuse by their jailors.

Right now, in this country, our government is doing the opposite of what our Constitution insures for We The People; and have become our greatest enemy.

This country has to return to Democracy where citizens are the most respected and the most important class of person in this country and where officials understand that their role is to SERVE their fellow citizens; ALL of the citizens.

Republicans and Democrats are not better than each other; they're just citizens; they're just people.  The Trumps, Musk, the Koch brothers, millionaires and billionaires are not better than anyone else; they're just people, regardless of what they might think.  Christians are not better than anyone else regardless of what they've come to believe; nor is anyone of any other religion.  

I'm not better than you and you're not better than me.  We each have the right to live our lives and be left alone while doing that.  Every person I despise, for whatever reason, has every right to live their life and for me not to interfere with that - as long as they live within reasonable laws and do no harm to me or anyone else.

We have to get back to people having respect for each other and understand that our government is for each and everyone of us regardless of how we feel about that person.  Obviously, those who do harm to someone else must pay the consequences.

We need to get back to thinking of our Constitution's basic function which is to ensure that each of us can live our life as we want without interference or harm from anyone else, including from those in government.

Vision for America

 Have you ever heard anyone ask presidential candidates what their vision is for America?  Is their vision for America the vision that we should follow?  Whatever happened to government of, by and for The People?  I think it's been hijacked by the political parties who are defining for their members what that vision should be.  That's why I'll never join a political party again.

There's a scene in some movie or in the West Wing where it's said that democracy is hard and this is my take on that:  Democracy is hard because, as it says in our Constitution, it's for ALL the people, even though at the writing that simply wasn't the truth.  But, we've worked hard to get closer to the ideal that our democracy is for ALL.

So, the political parties are not democratic because they define ideologies that are only supported by their own members.  That's why our country is so divided now.  There's nothing in our Constitution about political parties or only serving some Americans, even though the reality, at the time, was that large numbers of Americans were not served and not even considered Americans.

So, let me offer a vision for America that, as a little girl, I thought was what America is all about:

You're head of an American family, father or mother, with 2 to 6 children.  Maybe you're a "skilled laborer"; in other words, an artisan whether a mechanic, an electrician, a fire fighter, a farmer, a chef, a baker or some other work that requires having learned something and having skill and talent.  Maybe you're an artist or a musician.

You work full time meaning you work a lot.  In some cases, you work for a business or have your own.  In some cases, part of your work is finding customers for whatever you do.  In either case, you spend a lot of your week working trying to make enough money to support yourself and your family.  If you work in that way, you should be able to live in a decent place whether you rent or own.  You should be able to have a healthy diet.  You should have some free time to spend with your family and friends just enjoying yourself.  You should be able to go to the movies, or camping, or fishing, or to a local fair.  You should be able to afford transportation.  You should be able, over time to save for life improvements like a larger home, a newer car.  You should be able to meet most of your expenses because you've been working for them.

Our Constitution says "...promote the general welfare,..."; I think that one thing that means is that in the case of catastrophe, whether for a single person, a family or a group of people, the government should be able to step in to help; isn't that one of the things our taxes are for?  So, if a town is flooded, something can be done to help.  That's why I'm OK with paying taxes.  Taxes are for street lights, curbs and gutters, sewer systems, public water, to pay police and fire, for parks, for libraries, for public schools, for paved roads and for reserves for disasters.  Don't you think?

Americans are all different.  I grew up in a very, very white Waspish town. (look it up; the meaning of WASP).  As a child, I was completely unaware that there was anyone different from me and my family members.  We didn't know (or so I thought) anyone different.  As I reached high school age, I began to be aware of some differences.  My father played golf with a man who was Jewish.  I had a couple of cousins who were Catholic.  There was an elderly black man who attended the same church I attended and an adult man who had Downs Syndrome.  I had a classmate whose sibling had hydroencephalitis and died very young.  I had cousins who behaved, more or less like we did; but I also had cousins who were loud and obnoxious and destructive.  I had an uncle who was cruel to the point of being sadistic.  I found out about people who were thieves.  I grew up in a relatively happy household and I learned that there were people who were not happy.  I learned that people sometimes were in conflict with each other; think neighbors who have different ideas of what is acceptable noise.  

Conflict resolution is one of the things that government and laws are for: "...insure domestic tranquility,"; from local town government to our federal government.  Just think for a few minutes of all the people you know; especially the people you don't like or don't get along with.  Regardless of what you envision; I don't want to live in where I have to fight, every day, just to live.  I don't want to live in the "Old West".  Most of us have evolved beyond that kind of combative behavior.  We don't have to do battle constantly to be alive; we should all be able to walk down the street in peace and not be attacked for any reason.  It is absolutely possible to live peacefully with other people.  There is nothing in our Constitution that says that the government is for those whose party gets elected.  The concept of "majority rule" is outdated; it means that somebody is always out.  I don't believe, for one minute that's necessary.  I STRONGLY believe that we can all have most of what we want all at the same time without unnecessary conflict.  Some of us may need to evolve more but there are plenty of us who have lived most of our lives without doing battle with others.

The difficult thing about democracy is that, because we're all different, the government, all levels of government have to understand that it must attempt to satisfy the needs of ALL Americans.  It will fail because there are so many of us and we're so different, but it must try to be for ALL of us.  That doesn't mean that it's responsible for making all of us happy but it must provide certain basics that make our lives decent; that includes a vision of what a decent life is; certainly infrastructure, laws, defense, education and OPTIONS.

Choice is one of the key components of peace; I think.  That's my vision for America:  People living their lives in RELATIVE comfort and peace with a shared government as backup when things go wrong.  The Citizen is the center of it all and we are, each and everyone of us, a Citizen.

Notes on a Variety of Subjects

Immigration:

• We need a constant influx of workers.
• Immigrants should probably be sponsored by employers or individuals, including family members who have specific responsibilities; the idea is integration and assimilation..  Bringing in masses of people who bring their problematic cultural and social habits with them is not a positive thing.

Exile:

We currently do not have laws, regulations or options to permanently exile someone from the United States.  I think we need that option.

Citizens United/Corporate Citizens:

This was a huge mistake and has to be reversed.  I don't have the time, at the moment, to explain why it's such a problem but it has to be reversed.  Corporations are NOT benefactors; they are beneficiaries.  They have to be controlled.  The Citizen is the unit of greatest importance in this country and that is an individual person; not a corporation.