A Collapse; not a Cave-in
 Eric LaMont Gregory

John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives

 A front page story, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 23 December 2011, by Associated Press writer Laura Kellman reads, ’House caves in, ends payroll tax deadlock.’  
 
In my opinion, a more correct interpretation of the events surrounding the sudden reversal by the House of Representatives might read, “House yields, ends payroll tax deadlock’, or perhaps ‘House collapse, ends
payroll tax deadlock’.

The idea of a cave-in suggests an unexpected dramatic event, whereas the words yield or collapse denotes the failure to resist an outside pressure that was known or anticipated. 
 
It is a maxim of security that to maintain peace, one ought to be prepared for war.  In other words; victory loves preparation. 

In a radio interview with Ron Ponders, WHBC 1480, on the 19th of December I was asked, "As a Senator, how would you vote on the payroll tax extension which the Republican leadership has vowed not to pass."  My response was, "I assure you (Ron) the Republicans will change their minds, (and vote for the extension)."

There was never any doubt that the extension of the payroll tax cut was going to be approved, albeit for two-months, and that a further extension will be approved when Congress with its current leadership returns  after the Holiday Season break.

Though, our country, is in trouble.   Millions of our citizens are unemployed and millions more are under-employed.

Our leadership in the House has from the beginning of this administration been one of staged obstruction and brinkmanship, only to collapse, yield at each and every turn under pressure. 

It is time for real leadership in the House and Senate, leadership that can restore confidence in our legislature and the legislative process.  And, the best confidence building measures are to put Americans back to work, and restore the wealth of our seniors.  Wealth that was stripped away from them by the inability of our legislature to rein in the most risky behaviour of our financial institutions.  Not only did the legislature fail to adequately protect its citizens, but that same legislature bailed out a runaway Wall Street with the little savings that our seniors had left and by placing an onerous debt on their children.  

Stop borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund.  Stop the Federal Reserve from lending money to domestic and foreign institutions and leaving the American public to pick up the tab.  Stop printing debt-laden Federal Reserve Notes, United States Notes from our own Treasury will serve us nicely, thank you.  Stop allowing China to import its goods into the United States at 9%, while our goods are taxed at 30% by the Chinese at their ports.

Stop foreclosing on the homes of honest hard working Americans.  If you can structure loans of 1% to Wall Street, surely you can structure a 1% mortgage.  Understand that a 1% mortgage would allow even those whose jobs you have helped export to stay in their homes until we have a Congress wise enough to manage the American economy in a way that creates economic security for all Americans from the result of their labor, and not from the entitlement culture that this and previous Congresses have expanded to a point where nearly half of all our citizens are living on entitlements.

The founders of this great nation understood the importance of work, jobs.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  The meaning of happiness to those great and scholarly individuals derived from their study of the ancient Greeks, where happiness was defined as the 'full use of one's powers along lines of excellence'.  They understood the necessoity of having an occupation, and embraced the idea that the citizen garners much of their sense of self-worth from their work.

McKinley also understood the importance of having work, and suggested that, it is the interest of the working man with which this nation must be concerned.  Capital can take care of itself'.  When we work, we save, and when we save, we invest.  And, when the American people work, save, and invest, America prospers.

It is not leadership when we bailout capital and bail on the American citizens' pursuit of lives of excellence. 

The Constitution gives to the Congress of the United States the responsibility to conduct the affairs of the economy of the United States.  

The best way, perhaps the only way for the members of the House and the Senate to restore confidence in our legislature is live up to their oath of office, that oath in which they willingly and without mental reservation swore to support, defend and bear full allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.  

Boehner's staged obstruction tactics three days before yeilding to pressure to
extend payroll tax cuts