Balancing The Issues

CHECKS AND BALANCES,

AND SEPARATION OF POWERS

I loved to teach this lesson because it would drive traditional government instructors nuts.  Most teach this as a simple one day lesson about the checks and balances each of the three branches of government have on one another.  It is so much more complex as defined in our Constitution.

Inherent in the US system of checks and balances is the press.  Inasmuch as there is no free and body politic oriented press in the US, the part played by the press in checks and balances is now officially dead.  The sad part about this is, with an investment I believe to be of about $100,000 a true free and body politic oriented press could be started on line and in a few years make the owners billionaires.  If just a handful of all the unemployed journalists understood ethics and capitalism, they would no longer be unemployed.  They would own the most successful online newspaper in the world.

A simple example - a big deal is being made about Romney stating he loves to fire people who work for him.  In a world where ethics matters in journalism, journalists would have added to the narrative that what he was saying in substance was - he likes to fire people who do not perform.  You know what - me too - and so too should the American people when it comes to our elected officials.  The comment was about accountability, not some deep seated psychotic need to fire people.  What real journalists do is get into the substance of the comment and not the isolated words.  That did not happen with Romney's comment

The other comment which got Romney in trouble is not worrying about the poor.  Real journalists would have gotten into the substance of this comment.  They did not.  Instead they simply used the shock value behind the statement rather than allow it to be a starting point  for policy discussion.

Romney's argument was the poor have a safety net.  As a true socialist, and as someone who actually knows what the ideology of socialism is all about, I have always despised the welfare state of President Johnson and as executed by the Democratic Party.  A civilized society must have a safety net, but not a built in addiction to that safety net.

Quick side note - I do taxes for free for a lot of people this time of year.  This year I have done several wherein the head of household is not only not paying one penny in taxes, but because last year they had a baby, they are getting back over $5,000.  No matter how you look at it, this is a welfare payment.  What really bothers me is, last year the taxpayer paid the bill for the prenatal care, birth, and post birth care of the baby.  These bizarre policies have us paying poor people to have babies.  There is no dignity in this.  Here is my deal.  If you have children on medicaid, then you should not be allowed the child tax credit.  That money should be used to pay back the cost of health care for your child.   Social policies which create an addiction to the safety net must be abolished.  Conservatives can argue budget policy  for the reason to stop these payments, socialists can argue human rights abuses.  In my view it is a human rights abuse to addict poor people to the safety net.  It encourages poverty and a lessor quality of life.

BACK TO THE ISSUE:

What the press failed to do in response to Romney's statement about the poor is look to the policy implications of his statement.  If the safety net means we do not have to worry about the poor, then in fact he is saying he sees no reason to cut the budget by removing parts of the safety net.  This should shock true fiscal conservatives.  He is also saying he is not worried about government institutionalized poverty.  This should shock everyone.  The true shock in his statement is not, not worrying about the poor, but in the policy implications of his statement.

This is what the American press is missing.  This is what the American people are looking for in their press.

The power of the press at one time had the ability to take down a presidency.  Today the press could not take down an ass wipe.  The reason for this is the decision by the press to keep news in soundbites.  The press no longer reports the entire narrative behind the story.  The press looks only for shock value, while dismissing the narrative behind the words.

Key to our freedom is a free and independent press.  Corporatism now directs our press.  In effect what the corporatist approach to journalism has done is remove an important check on our government.  The end result has been a government less accountable to the people.