Dear Ms. Kayser-Sherman,
I came across your Amercian Chronicle article while doing a Google search for Bill Fleckenstein. I really enjoyed it. I'm including a copy of a letter I wrote about Social Security insolvency to Send Kent Conrad (which contained a letter I wrote to the Comptroller General of the U.S.). In the letter to Mr Walker (the Comptroller General), I included a copy of an "Updated Version" of the Declaration of Independence I wrote in 1985 for a college paper. I hope you enjoy it.
Douglas E. W
Asbury Park, New Jersey
_______________________________________________________________________________________
HONORABLE KENT CONRAD
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
RE: SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE – GOOD START
Dear Senator Conrad,
Your appearance with Senator Gregg on C.N.B.C. this week was unexpectedly refreshing. Normally when I see politicians from Washington talk about “Protecting” the future of Social Security & Medicaid/Medicare (without any real substantial changes to the program structures) and at the same time “Promise” that they hold the key to maintaining and improving America’s economic vitality, I want to stick an ice-pick in my ears.
You and Senator Gregg approached the subject of our impending financial disaster with: 1) courtesy & respect for one another, 2) a sober non-partisan grasp of the danger of inaction and 3) the strength of character to tell ALL American’s that this will not be easy but that the alternative to action is unthinkable. I wish there were more politicians like you in my home state – corruption and largess central – New Jersey
Included with this fax is a copy of a note regarding Our Future that I sent to the Comptroller General of the United States. Feel free to use it. I hope you enjoy it.
By the way, I am a lower-middle class 45 year old working man and my “Contribution” to the Solution to Social Security (and American) Insolvency is that I am willing to forgo ANY SOCIAL SECURITY benefits as long as I generate the equivalent of 100% of the Poverty Limit at my retirement age from my own Assets. If I make more than that on my own, NO BENEFITS TO ME. Make the program NEEDS BASED and adjust retirement ages for Modern Day Life Expectancies. Also, give my so called entitlement to a fellow elderly person who was not far-sighted enough or lucky enough to plan his or her own retirement.
Take care and best wishes.
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Dear Mr. Walker
I heard about your reference to America resembling the waning days of the Roman Empire on C.N.B.C. a few weeks ago and then I read an account of your comments in David Panzner’s book “Financial Armageddon”. These prompted me to read your actual speeches and releases on the subject of our country’s precarious (and potentially depressing) future.
After reading your thoughtful apolitical analysis –which shows your love for and dedication to the United States- I (a lowly citizen and taxpayer) wanted to Thank You for your efforts at being a modern day Paul Revere. I only hope you can get the word out to as many people as possible, so they will make informed wise (not emotional 30 second sound bite motivated) decisions on who to elect to truly lead our country through the challenging difficult times we face.
In 1985 when the United States Senate was passing an increase in the federal debt limit (to $2 Trillion), I wrote an updated version to The Declaration of Independence to highlight the incredible dysfunction created by: 1) the malignant and obsolete organizational structure of the federal government; 2) the explicit and implicit corruption inducing electioneering system for federal officials and 3) a disinterested citizenry that has yet to experience the discomfort and explosion in taxation and inflation caused by short-sighted policies and inefficient governmental operations. This was originally part of a college paper and was designed to foster thoughtful discussion on the challenges facing the United States in the future.
Good Luck Sir and take care.
Respectfully and with Gratitude
Douglas E. W.
COPYRIGHT © 1985 by Douglas E. W.
Declaration of Independence – Part II
Monday, September 16th, 1985
When in the Course of Human Events, it becomes necessary for Individuals – and thus their commercial enterprises, charitable groups and local & state governments – to Dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with their national government and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and Superior Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold the Truths to be Self-Evident, that All People are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty of the Spirit & Mind, Ownership of One’s Own Productive Efforts, Freedom from Intrusive governments, Economic Freedom of Choice, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, governments are instituted among Individuals, deriving their Just Powers from the True & Informed Consent of the Governed, that whenever ANY form of government becomes DESTRUCTIVE to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to Alter or to Abolish it, and to institute New Government, laying its Foundations on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem MOST likely to effect their Individual Liberty, Economic Freedom & Security, Physical Safety and Spiritual Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for Light and Transient causes; and accordingly all Experience has shown, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, While Evils (like government encroachment into the private affairs of
individuals & businesses and embarrassingly poor government administrative, operational and financial performance) are sufferable, than to Right themselves by Abolishing the forms of government to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of Government Abuses of Power, Usurptions of Individual FREEDOMS, Increasing Financial Extractions, Regulatory Suffocation, and Bureaucratic Ineffectiveness, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under Absolute Economic, Social, and thus Political DESPOTISM, It is their RIGHT, it is their DUTY to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for Their Future Economic, Individual (and thus Societal) Security, and Ecosystem Preservation.
Such has been the patient Sufferance of the People of the United States; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to Alter Our Former Systems of Government. The History of Congresses & Presidents – 1933 to the Present – is a History of repeated Federal Government Expansions, Excesses and Ineptitudes, all having in Direct Result the establishment of Oppressive Economic Control over the People of the United States. To Prove this, let FACTS be submitted to a candid WORLD.
MEMBERS of CONGRESS and PRESIDENTS (1933 to the Present):
-Have, with the best of intentions (and sometimes without), continually tried to Artificially manipulate the Economy of the United States. This manipulation – designed for the purposes of bringing about improved living standards, greater societal cohesiveness, and Domestic Tranquility – Resulted in: an unjustifiably High Level of Taxation, a Schizophrenically Paradoxical and Complicated Tax Code, Astronomically High Levels of Bankruptcy Threatening Government Debt, Increased Risk of Government Debt Monetazation Induced Debasement of the Purchasing Power of Our Dollar (INFLATION), Increasing Levels of Government Intrusion into the Lives of Our Citizens, Greater Amounts of Suspicion, Antagonism and resentment between members of different Socio-Economic Groups, and – MOST IMPORTANTLY – a Stagnation in the Evolution of Our Natural Socio-Economic Interactive Abilities. All this has been done by Federal Officials who, for the most part, have no stated or inferred CONSTITUTIONAL Authority to operate the Federal Government in such a fashion and who lack sufficient understanding of THE ECONOMIC LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE. These Financial/Economic – and resulting individual, family, societal, political and international relations- WEAKNESSES have left Our Union exposed to all the Dangers of Propagandistic Invasions from without, and Economic, Psychological and Societal Convulsions from Within;
-They have created a situation which has subjected Us to a jurisdiction foreign to: the Ideals, Intentions, and Goals that formed Our DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; fueled the Fires of Our AMERICAN REVOLUTION, and are the very Essence of Our Nation’s Birth;
-They have diluted the strength & meaning of Our CONSTITUTION by passing thousands of obscure and complicated pieces of legislation; thus effectively abolishing Our Most Valuable LAWS, and altering fundamentally the form of Our Government from the WISE Designs of the Original Architects of the Government of the United States;
-They have unjustly declared themselves invested with the Power to legislate for Us in All cases whatsoever. Congress with its Inglorious Plethora of committees and sub-committees AND the Executive Branch with its innumerable departments, agencies, commissions, councils, services and offices, work together to actively “HELP” the People of the United States Live THEIR LIVES; the result of this Ungodly collaboration has been an unprecedented proliferation of laws, regulations, and taxes, which have combined to make it Mathematically Certain that even the most Honest Individuals, businesses and local governments amongst Us will break a good number of Federal Dictates;
-They have created a Multitude of new government agencies, commissions and departments and sent hither swarms of bureaucrats to Harass Us and TAX OUT OUR SUBSTANCE (using direct, indirect, regressive, progressive, income, excise, fuel, toll, property, inflation, marriage, and FUTURE FEDERAL DEBT REPAYMENT TAXES). Our alleged representatives have told Us that We must make do with Less Money because they WANT – without genuinely attempting to adapt the government to less revenue – MORE OF OUR MONEY; We are expected to accept – in a Slave-like Fashion – the unspoken fact that WE THE PEOPLE (the farmers, workers, savers, investors, teachers, entrepreneurs and consumers) of the United States serve one purpose relative to the Federal Government – TO PAY, Unquestioningly and Involuntarily, for the Services Provide to, the Aggravation Inflicted on, and the Economic Instability Forced upon Us by the Federal Government;
-They have – by using Socio-Economically Divisive Rhetoric, Simplistic and Vague Campaign Slogans and Speeches, Confusing & Equally Meaningless Statistics and by placing party politics and political gamesmanship ABOVE Our Nation’s True Current and Future Needs – incited the development of Factional Divisiveness with Our Society;
-They have created Oceans of DEBT which threaten to Drown the Happiness of Future Generations of Americans and with this DEBT, they have backed themselves into a Financial and Political corner – from which the only logical long-term escape (given their past Taxing, Financial, & Operational Performance Record) will be Higher Tax Extractions & Inflationary Debt Monetization. This monetization will bring forth a Tidal Wave of Inflation; and this Inflation will result in an Unrestrained and Indiscriminate Financial Genocide of the Value and Wealth contained in Our Paychecks, Bank Accounts, Insurance Policies, Stock and Bonds, Cash, & Government Debt Securities. Paper Money will – as it has in Our PAST – “Pollute the Equity of Our Laws, Turn them into Engines of Oppression, Corrupt the JUSTICE of Our Public Administration, Destroy the Fortunes of the Millions who have Confidence in it, Enervate the Trade, Husbandry, and Manufacturers of Our Country, and Will Go Far to DESTROY the MORALITY of OUR PEOPLE;”
-And they have – in general – behaved in a manner totally Unworthy of Solemnly Sworn Stewards of a GREAT & FREE ECONOMIC POWER.
This Documentable pattern of Knowingly & Wantonly Shattering the American Dreams of Individual Economic Self Determination and National Prosperity, for reasons of personal political ambition, financial greed, foolishness, and/or weakness of will power, CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED. And for their parts in this Historically Criminal Act, Members of Congress and Presidents (1933 to the Present) – whether active participants or passive acquiescers – WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN by the People of the United States or by the Posterity of the World.
In every stage of these increasing Economic Oppressions, we have PETITIONED FOR REDRESS in the most humble terms; Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Federal Government, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is Unfit to Protect and Govern a FREE PEOPLE.
We, therefore, the Citizens of the United States of America, in General Agreement, Assembled with the Combined Force of each Individual’s Will, Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of Our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Our Own Authority, solemnly Publish and Declare, that the Individual Citizens of this Country – and their Commercial Enterprises, Charitable Groups, and Local & State Governments – are, and of Right Ought to be, FREE and INDEPENDENT from the Current National Government, that they are Absolved from All Allegiance to Financially Insane, Politically Reckless and CONSTITUTIONALLY UNJUST AND INVALID Federal Government, and that all political connection (except to the Department of Defense) between them and the current legislators and executives of the Federal Government of the United States, IS and OUGHT TO BE DISSOLVED; and that the Free and Independent State Governments have Full Power to Reorganize the Federal Government of the UNITED STATES in accordance with the; Precepts contained within Our Original DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, Preamble Objectives & Laws contained within Our Original CONSTITUTION, and Principles of Sound FINANCIAL and OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT; to Establish Financial, Economic, and Environmental Conditions conducive to domestic and international commerce, and to do all the other acts and things which Independent States may of Right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Devine Providence, We mutually pledge to each other Out Time, Abilities, Full Effort, and Our Sacred Honor.
NOTE: I wrote this on the night of September 16th, 1985 as a way of venting my frustration with the fact that the U.S. Senate was raising the Federal Debt Limit to $2 TRILLION ($2,000,000,000,000.00). At the ripe old age of 22, I thought this event was a disaster (joke was on me haha). I haven’t read this in almost 20 years. Given our current economic and political situation, I think its content holds up pretty well. I hope you enjoyed it.
By the way, the Federal Debt Limit is being RAISED to $9.815 TRILLION ($9,815,000,000,000.00); That’s $32,716.66 for Each American, all 300,000,000 of us. Plus we as a Nation have a ZERO PERCENT SAVINGS RATE and We (America) are borrowing 800 BILLION a Year ($800,000,000,000.00 Per Year or $2,191,780,821.90 per day or $91,324,200.90 Per Hour or $1,522,070.02 Per Minute) From CHINA, O.P.E.C. Countries, RUSSIA, and everyone else we can hit up to finance our spending binge. PLUS, the U.S. Government has “OFF-BUDGET / IMPLICIT LIABILITIES of $38.8 TRILLION ($38,800,000,000,000.00) see GAO-08-241CG – that’s another $129,333.33 Per Person. NOW, Add that to your credit cards, car loans and mortgages and do you really think we’ll ever see a Social Security check that’s actually worth anything?
This document is (was) designed to be a late-20th Century reflection of the precepts contained within the original UNITED STATES DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. It is intended to provoke constructive thought among members of the general population, the academic community, the business community, the U.S. Congress, the Judicial Branch and the Executive Branch. It IS NOT meant to be considered a policy statement of ANY individual or group(s) of individuals.
Douglas W. Friday, October 5th, 2007
