Fireworks

Alternative Column: Another Fourth of July has come and gone. One more Municipal Band concert to go until the members can squeeze in other summer activities on Tuesday nights. Just think, 97 summers of Municipal Band concerts. All the turnover of band-mates and appreciative listeners over 97 years reminds me of a good sourdough.
What a great community we have here. But we need to remember that there are other great communities just like ours across the world; all of them are being assaulted by people who claim the other communities are seeking to take advantage of them. The reality is that we are all just trying to get by.
After the concert came a fantastic fireworks display. Thanks to some other community halfway around the world in China we were entertained for a time while thoughts were going through our heads about how exceptional we are.
We should take a step back and shoot for some objectivity. We spend $409 billion per year in complying with the federal income tax. Eight point nine billion hours are spent doing something besides growing food or building roads. The tax code contains 2.4 million words. Those numbers don't even account for the taxes paid in this system, and they have little to do with enabling Americans to get around and conduct the business of life.
Sen. Charles Grassley had a column in the Hampton Chronicle recently explaining how hard it is to maintain payment limits according to income in the farm bill. He opened the column by claiming farmers need the safety net.
Grassley is a good example of every representative we have in Washington. He watches out for his constituents by grabbing as big a piece of the pie as he can. They all do, so they can get elected.
Their goals are not a country where ambition and creativity can improve Americans' lot in life. Being elected is paramount. They can't carry out the good deeds promised so many years ago if they aren't elected. So, elect them.
I'm not saying all of this just to get it off my chest, but to point out a cause. The cause is dishonesty rewarded with getting elected. Our representatives take an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution. But it is explicitly forbidden for them to enact a bill like the Farm Bill.
Mr. Grassley explained to me once about how all these tasks taxpayers fund are there because the courts incrementally allowed more and more government based on precedent. That is, a case is not judged by its standing constitutionally, but by how previous cases were judged. Once a farmer is helped to weather a tough time it eventually leads to a single mother working at McDonald's handing money over to a billionaire farmer she doesn't even know.
Compare that to my donation to the fireworks display going to a factory worker in China.
Any opinions on this column are welcome at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com or through a letter to the editor. The blog is updated almost daily at www.alternativebyfritz.com. Try it. You’ll like it.