Off the Editor’s Desk – 10-2-2013

IT CHANGED A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

One day last week I was listening to Vicki McKenna’s radio talk show out of Madison. She was talking about a move to have a Constitutional Convention address the 10th Amendment of the United States constitution.

The first ten Amendments (called the Bill of Rights) became effective on December 15, 1791. These are what insure the freedoms we should enjoy as citizens of this country.

 McKenna’s comment was that a number of people believe that the federal government has overstepped its authority granted to it by the Tenth Amendment. That Amendment is a one-line statement that simply states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

I blame Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson for signing bills that expanded the powers of the Federal Government. Then last week an article written by Rick Manning crossed my desk saying that it was the year 1913 that changed everything. Manning is the Vice President of Public Policy and Communications for Americans for Limited Government.

His conclusion is, “the United States economy was changed forever in 1913. Yet, few recognize the significance of the year that Woodrow Wilson became the 28th President, the U.S. Department of Labor was formed and the Panama Canal was completed.

Yet these were significant, but they pale by comparison to the decision to amend the Constitution for the 16th time allowing the imposition of an income tax. They also do not compare to the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed’s) by Congress.”

Manning continues, “the Fed’s ability to establish money lending rates to the nation’s private banking system allowed it to control the growth of the money supply and credit across the U.S. economy. The Fed owns more than $2 trillion of the $17 trillion dollars in United States debt, and another $1.3 trillion in mortgage backed securities, with purchases of $85 billion a month of both these assets continuing.”

Manning concluded: “While constitutionally, the founders gave the primary monetary policy to the democratically elected Congress, this principal has been replaced through the Fed by financial oligarchs only subject to the people through the presidential appointment. The Fed will be viewed by historians as an economic turning point as it inevitably led to the elimination of the currency’s value being tied to fixed assets (gold).”

Give a Politician a penny and they will take a dollar. The tax rate for income was from one to seven percent in 1913, but within six years it had risen to where the government was taking more than three-quarters of incomes above one million dollars. During World War II that rate became 91 percent on incomes over $200,000 and continued into the 1950s. Today the top rate is 39.6 percent.

Thanks for reading.

— Carlton

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DON’T SPEND THE MONEY ON A RECALL

Last week we all learned of a recall effort against Glenwood City Mayor John Larson and two members of the city council, David Graese and Nancy Hover. A group called The Glenwood Citizens for Legal and Ethical Representation is promoting the recall effort. Two Glenwood City residents, Deanne Schone and Julie Augesen, signed the notice for the petition drive.

This recall will cost the taxpayers of the city a thousand or more dollars to have and if successful will only change the faces on the city council for a couple of months. The way I see it is that a change could not take place before the middle of January of next year.

The city general election is in April and those three along with council member Scott Schone will face re-election at that time and that would be the right time for that group to present their anti-sand mining candidate. That would save the taxpayers of Glenwood City money that could be used in several other needed places.

I can see much confusion ahead if the recall is certified. First the normal time for circulating nomination papers for the April Election is in December. If there is also a recall election, those wishing to unseat the incumbents will also be circulating nomination papers in December. The incumbents are on the ballot automatically in a recall election.

In the news release that the group sent out about the recall one council member name was mention in that release. That was the name of Crystal Booth. Now comes word that at the special closed meeting the council had with Vista Sand last week, Booth walked out of the meeting. Crystal, what were you thinking? Here was your chance to inject your concerns and learn what was to happen and what you could do about it. But you missed an opportunity. Crystal you were one of those that spearheaded the recall effort against Mark DeBehnke, remember?

I am going to stay with the present incumbents on the city council including Mayor Larson. Apparently most of those people wanting the recall do not remember the financial mess that the city was in when Larson took over as Mayor.

For at least two years prior to Larson becoming mayor the council took somewhere near $150,000 out of reserve funds to present a balanced budget and then overspent that budget. Apparently for years under the direction of former Mayor DeBehnke the city overspent its proposed budget. The results were the city was broke.

At present the city finances are in very good shape. I attend many of the council meetings and note that Larson has the members of the council review the budget on a regular basis and he notes that incomes are what were expected and that the expenditures are what was planned for and if one item is being overspent, the council will make plans to make sure that those costs are covered.

— Carlton DeWitt, editor