In an Associated Press article on White House veto threats, Representative Rahm Emanuel, D-IL, said: “My view is that the country paid a huge price for a Congress that acted like it was not an equal branch of government.” He was referring to the premise that President Bush used his veto power only once in his first six years because the Republican Congress was cooperative.

Be that as it may, what I’m calling Emanuel on is his implication that Congress is an equal branch of government. We could debate forever the relative powers of the three branches of the federal government, but one thing is certain: none of them are equal. Their separate functions are much too complex for there to be any chance that any two are equal. To say that the legislative and executive branches are equal is like saying that cows and horses on a pioneer era farm are of equal importance to the farmer.

I consider Congress to be more powerful than the executive and judicial branches. Congress has the power to pass legislation over the President’s veto. The constitution cannot be ammended without Congress’ approval. The President can’t spend money without Congress’ approval. Congress can even remove the President from office. Congress can pass legislation that effectively overturns decisions of the Supreme Court. Congress should have the most power because it most directly represents the people (at least that’s what is intended).

OK, I know that Emanuel just didn’t choose his words carefully; he probably understands that they aren’t equal branches. He should have said ’separate branch’ instead of ‘equal branch’. I just wanted to point out that Democrats also misspeak.

Senator Mel Martinez clearly believes that the federal government should be in the housing business. On March 8 he released this announcement:

U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) today joined Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) in introducing the reauthorization of HOPE VI – a program that works to eliminate dilapidated and dangerous public housing, replacing it with new mixed income communities.

The senators should have taken a clue from their own announcement: “dilapidated and dangerous public housing.” Do you suppose they gave any thought to why public housing is dilapidated and dangerous? Let me offer a little help. There are two principal reasons. First, it’s run by government bureaucrats — the same kind of bureaucrats that operate the VA hospitals and try to keep illegal drugs and immigrants out of the country. Second, it’s inhabited mostly by deadbeats. That’s the reason they needed housing assistance in the first place. Putting a deadbeat in a new house is not going to mend his or her ways.

If the senators did take a clue, it seems to be that if we mix in a few non-deadbeats the deadbeats won’t be so obvious to the general public. They seem to want to hide the deadbeats among more responsible residents. But where are they going to find responsible residents who want to live on the same street with a bunch of deadbeats? Do they plan to bribe them? Perhaps they intend to integrate the deadbeats into existing neighborhoods. It’s not clear from the announcement.

“This reauthorization builds on the current program and makes it better,” said Martinez. “This isn’t just about funding the creation of public housing, it’s about community involvement. This bill requires a greater community commitment so that we’re not just rebuilding housing; we’re revitalizing neighborhoods and making them sustainable communities.”

Alright Mel! You go guy! Actually Mel, you’re beginning to look a little bufoonish. Do you really believe that a few assertions from you are going to make this happen? Have you ever seen a public housing area that didn’t turn into a ghetto within a few years? It will take more than pipe dreams to make this work.

With 14 HOPE VI grants, Florida ranks 2nd in the number of grants awarded in the nation and 10th in the amount of award dollars. Through grant awards and leveraged dollars, HOPE VI has generated over $736 million for the state of Florida.

Oh, I can see clearly now. This is about pork. You’re bringing home the bacon. The program doesn’t have to have any real chance of working as intended. It doesn’t matter if it’s unconstitutional. It has worked for you when it is approved and funded.

Before becoming a senator Martinez was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. That is, he has previous experience at creating ghettos. I don’t know why we even have a Department of Housing and Urban Development. Nothing in the constitution permits the federal government to provide housing to private citizens. Don’t bother pointing out the ‘provide for the general welfare’ thing. The emphasis there is on ‘general’; it doesn’t say ‘provide for the welfare of specific individuals’.

George W. Bush has used his veto authority less than any other President in recent history. His father used it more than most other Presidents. I believe that all Presidents should use it much more often. In fact, I believe that any law to be foisted on the American people should be compelling enough to gain the support of a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress. That is, a strong argument can be made that the President should veto every bill that reaches his desk — even those he likes. A possible exception is any bill that rescinds an existing law.

The country could manage very well without most of the laws that Congress passes. Many come from knee-jerk reactions to isolated incidents blown into impending catastrophes by the media. An example is the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act precipitated by the perception that ‘big money’ was taking over campaigns for national office. Unfortunately a veto-everything policy won’t protect us from all bad law; the Sarbannes-Oxley, Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, coming out of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, passed 423-3 in the House and 99-0 in the Senate.

The Senate already has rules in play that essentially require at least a 60 percent majority for a bill to be passed. It would only take seven more votes to make it a two-thirds majority. But the Senate could eliminate that rule and make it possible for them to pass a bill with a vote of 51-50 (tie vote broken by the Vice President). The house can pass a bill with a 218-217 vote. So laws can be passed that have a major impact on our lives by 269 members of Congress with 267 members dissenting.

Some might say that is the way a democracy is supposed to work — by majority rule. But our form of government is not a pure democracy; it is a constitutional republic. In a nutshell that means that we get to elect representatives by a plurality of the voters, but once elected they are on their own. Practically speaking, our only recourse then is to vote against them when they are up for re-election. As far as I know there is nothing in the constitution to prevent the President from vetoing every bill that comes before him, forcing the Congress to try to override the veto.

Florida Senator Mel Martinez sent me an e-mail boasting about all the pork he has delivered to his Florida constituents. He apparently thinks this is what most Floridians want — and he might be right. But it’s certainly not what I want. Here are his announcements:

• Florida will receive more than $63 million in homeless program grant funds.
• Four Florida Housing Authorities have received U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants totaling more than $1 million.
• The Department of Homeland Security has awarded the lease for a new immigration facility in Orlando (the funding amount was not given).
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded more than $8 million for hurricane preparedness and disaster relief grants.
• The Florida Division of Emergency Management in Volusia County will receive more than $2 million in federal funds.
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded $999,925 in grants to four Florida fire departments and rescue services.

Of all the above only the immigration facility is legitimate federal government business. But if we would do a better job of protecting our borders we probably wouldn’t need it.

Martinez needs to take a lesson from Representative Ron Paul* from Texas. He always votes against these pork earmarks and yet his winning margin has increased each time he is re-elected. You may be proud of yourself Mel, but I’m certainly no fan.

You can read more about his ‘accomplishments’ here.
_______________
* Ron Paul is running for President.  I’ll be giving him serious consideration.

Have you ever heard of the Congressional White Caucus? No? That’s because it doesn’t exist. But there is a Congressional Black Caucus and they don’t accept non-blacks as members. Not even one who represents a district that is 60% black. Read Jeff Jacoby’s column on the subject for more details.

If the CBC is interested in furthering equality for all blacks I would think that they would welcome as members those that represent a lot of blacks in particular and anyone sharing their goals in general. In fact, I would think that the CBC would be happy to speak for all the downtrodden regardless of race. I suspect that the CBC is more interested in enhancing its own power than in promoting equality for anyone. And that they might be interested in more than just equality for blacks.

Anyhow, why do the rules of Congress allow such a racist organization to exist? Does anyone believe for even a second that they would allow a CWC to exist? There is no Congressional Christian Caucus. But might there be a Congressional Muslim Caucus when more Muslims are elected to Congress?

Do you remember the member of Congress who crashed his car late one night in DC and told the police that he was on his way to the Capitol to vote? The one who somehow escaped having a Breathalyzer test administered? The one who soon announced that he was not drunk but just on medication? The one who checked himself into rehab anyway? The one who is the son of Senator Edward Kennedy of Chappaquiddick fame? Well, an overwhelming majority of the citizens of Rhode Island returned him, Patrick Kennedy, to Congress last month.

Apparently they were unable or unwilling to find a better person to represent them. I know RI is a small state but surely they could have produced something better than a supercilious drunk.

The Associated Press reports that University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer passed up a chance earlier this year to speak to Congress about the Bowl Championsip Series. They say that Meyer declined the invitation because he was too busy with recruiting. Busy with recruiting or not I would have declined because Congress has no bussiness involving itself in how colleges determine their national champions.

Congress also had no business conducting hearings into drug use by professional baseball players. I believe that Congress could find more important issues to concern itself with than how professional and college sports are run. We have millions of illegal immigrants invading our country while some puffed up toads in Congress investigate sports activities. Some of these illegals are assaulting and murdering our citizens. Others are insidiously destroying our culture of freedom. Almost all are consuming our limited resources for assisting our needy citizens.

But the toads have their own priorities. Apparently they have found a way to buy some votes with the BCS issue.

Although it’s slanted a little leftward, as most all Newsweek articles are, Evan Thomas has written a comprehensive account of the Mark Foley scandal. What struck me about Thomas’ article is how many gays are working as congressional staffers. About half of those mentioned are described as being gay. It could be, since the central figure is gay, that Thomas was biased towards seeking out known gays as his sources. Nevertheless, I got the impression that gays are over-represented on the congressional staff. Could this be the new magnet career for gays? Are the hairdressing, fashion design and interior design fields overstaffed, or losing their cachet?

The Associated Press reports that Dennis Hastert has again vowed not to resign over his office’s handling of the Foley scandal.  They quote him as saying “I haven’t done anything wrong.”  Well, Dennis, what about all the right things you haven’t done?

I read earlier this week that the congressional pages and interns are high achieving high school and college students.  I just finished reading some of the e-mails on the Mark Foley scandal published at Stop Sex Predators that supposedly are from pages and interns.  There is another scandal lurking in the background:  These students write like fifth-graders!