The UNITED STATES of America


James Fox

Reform will never happen in Washington. Reform must start right here in the 1st. District -- the 34th District, the Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley, and Adelanto city elections. Who we elect, how closely we hold them accountable, and what goods and services we are really entitled to; relative to what we are willing and capable of paying for, without freeloading off some other folks in other parts of the state or nation. These are the first step required to obtain true reform.

The closer each level of local government comes to attaining autonomy, with the help of the people, a sound fiscal economic policy, and a growth plan compatible with our environment and lifestyle philosophy; the sooner we can regain our dignity and integrity and the closer every state can come to regaining the level of sovereignty intended by our founding fathers.

California is larger than most European countries, in fact most of the states are also as big as or bigger than many countries in the world; yet each acts like their economies would collapse if they didn't receive federal subsidies. It's all a matter of conditioned thinking.

Think about it from this perspective: Suppose that the State Governors held a conference and unanimously decided to become fiscally responsible and pay our goods and service providers in Washington for only the "goods and services" that were required under the Constitution and that the state couldn't provide.

What if we didn't send our payroll tax dollars to Washington or any other federal taxes that the private citizen normally pays?

What if we sent the same amount of money to the state government in Sacramento? Money that is spent supporting a bloated bureaucratic Ship-of-State that spends more in support of itself than the total California budget.

There are 14 administrative departments working directly for the President. They have a total of 112 top level bureaus and departments under them, and a multitude of second-tier departments below that. The Administration has an additional 37 "Independent Agencies" -- from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the Federal Reserve System (FRS), to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK), to finally the Peace Corps.

We haven't even got to Congress yet, but by now you must be getting the picture. AMTRAC has been losing money, big time, for years. 1999 losses were projected at $120 million, some lines were losing $60 per passenger, yet even after the GAO recommended putting the AMTRAC system into bankruptcy, Congress voted to give them $90 million to dump down that rat hole in 2000.

If a candidate for the Presidency would be required to layout in some detail his complete platform, His stance and plan for coping with current real issues, his core beliefs on domestic and international policy. Then if we subsequently elected that person, our populace and our representatives in Washington could have no doubt what our unified "National Agenda" was, and to work in opposition would be grounds for recall.

The work of Congress would be clearly defined, no need for partisanship, or passive resistance. The states would chose the services they would subscribe to. If they choose to co-op, then their representative in Washington would work to organize a group of state representatives to share the cost of that service. They would broker and administrate that area of outside service. The Congress would be like a market place for goods and services from the private sector.

The only departments of the Administration kept would be those outlined in the Constitution, or demanded by modern day world affairs.