Marsune, 8/16/2008 - 10:56am "Below is an article regarding the way the House Ways and Means Committee of our House of Representatives are NOT representing we the citizens of the USA.
Profiles in Cowardice
House Ways and Means Committee
There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. Currently, 41 representatives serve on the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee has been around from the very beginning of our government in the late 18th century. The Constitution requires that all tax bills originate in the House of Representatives and the House rules have evolved over time so that tax bills must be approved by the Ways and Means Committee before they may be presented for debate and passage by the entire House membership. This gives tremendous influence and power to Ways and Means. It was not always so. In the beginning the entire House voted on the merits of a proposal and the Ways and Means Committee wrote the bill. This is the way it should be. Alas, we now allow less than 10% of our Representatives to control taxation. This is the way it should not be!
If a bill is introduced that represents an epic change in our federal taxation practices, the Ways and Means Committee should send it to the House floor automatically. Let it be debated publicly by the full house. Let all Americans see what the legislation entails and what position their representatives take on it. It is grossly unfair for a small group of politicians to sit on a bill of such import and let it languish indefinitely “in committee.”
Just such a bill has been stuck in the Ways and Means Committee since 2005. Known as the FairTax Bill, it is represents a great deal more than some minor changes in the Tax Code. It would revolutionize the way the Federal Government is funded. A non-partisan and non-profit organization spent 12 years and $22 million researching and developing this plan. It represents the hopes of millions of Americans who have joined a rapidly expanding grass roots movement to enact this legislation. They deserve to have their bill presented to all 435 members of the House. It is grossly presumptuous of the Ways and Means Committee to pretend they know better what is in our best interests than we and the full House do. Even committee members who are against the Bill should allow it to go to the full House out of respect for the will of the people they claim to represent. It is too important to too many Americans to be denied full House debate and consideration.
Why is House Ways and Means sitting on this Bill? What is it that they fear? It is us that they fear. Passage of the FairTax would constitute the largest transfer of power from the government to the people in our history. Knowledge of the FairTax is spreading like a wild fire across the USA. Soon politicians will rue the day that they stood blocking its path. If John Kennedy were alive to write a book about the Ways and Means Committee he could aptly title it, “Profiles in Cowardice.”
From the: Roll Call/Congress.org (http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=11800466&content_dir=ua_congressorg&mailid=custom)
Please go to http://www.fairtax.org for more information."
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