National Capitol Move

I first published this in April 2009.  I'm republishing it because I still believe it could cure many of the ills that plague us as a free people.

The Capitol and the White House have been located in Washington DC since 1791 and I suppose in many peoples minds it might seem it has always been so. Congresses have met in at least eight different cities, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lancaster, York, Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton and New York City.

Article I Section 8 of the Constitution (1789) gave congress legislative authority over "such districts as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States.” In 1788 Maryland and 1789 Virginia both ceded land (ten square miles). In 1790 Congress passed the Residence Act. In 1791 President Washington chose Maryland's property and under the provisions of the Act selected three Commissioners to oversee the design and construction of the Capitol City and Government buildings.

Another Congressional Act can solicit states, re-establish commissioners, and arrange to move the Capitol, the Presidents Residence, and other necessary government buildings to another place at a site chosen by another President. A previous President chose the current place; a current President can choose a new one, in concert with a legislative act.

In other nations the site of the capitol changes from time to time, often by conquest or overthrow. Our overthrows take place in an orderly election and our ruler is a leader with a certain term and limited powers, but none have attempted to relocate the Capitol.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not proposing moving everything, just congress’s meeting place and the president's residence. The current White House, the monuments, the museums and other governmental buildings can stay where they are.

Why, you might ask, should such a folly be undertaken?

The time has long past since there was any benefit to the rest of the nation from this location. When our nation was a small North East Coastal country, 10 square miles in Maryland was fairly centralized. The Nation is now a larger entity. Washington DC is not central to the nation geographically, socially or economically. It's only central to itself and those who feed off the delusion that it’s the focus of a whole nation. It’s time to change its view of itself, and the easy familiar access of those from the tired, old, myopic, Euro-centric, northeast.

Relocate the Capitol and the President to any other city with modern communication and transportation infrastructure, preferably west of the Mississippi River. While you are at it, drop the 200-year-old idea that Ohio is mid-west. Utah or Nevada is mid-west, not Illinois or Iowa. The Capitol has been in the same place, an inconvenience to most of the country for 210 years. That's long enough.

Some might say the effort is too expensive, some might say it's racially motivated, the east coast media might characterize it many ways to protect their long held easy access and unearned influence. Some might say just moving the capitol wouldn’t necessarily change that. They may be right, but it will provide a different prospective and different players, and some tired old ideas will be lost.

If nothing else, the old lobbyists and old media people would have to move to the new territories, assimilate a new culture, learn a new language, develop new insights, modify their values, restore their faith and judgment, I think these sound like worthwhile objectives. The nation would gain all this and the Easterners would lose nothing but a little time to take a slightly longer plane flight to the Capitol. The people of the west would have shorter flights and a renewed interest in remaining part of this great union.

Pick a city, any city west of Ohio. I don't care where; Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Reno, Helena, Fargo, Sioux Falls, Topeka, Denver, this isn't a campaign for a place, it's a campaign for a new view and new behavior. Recovering the energy, spirit, courage, innovation, and individual involvement that once made this nation willing to act upon its beliefs, instead of one hamstrung by legal precedents that ignore our values. One where academics ponder instead of inspire, officials procrastinate instead of permit, and some people try to hold everyone back instead of helping others to reach new heights, and some people willingly accept that which they have not earned.

Health Care Insurance; it’s not a Right.

The Unaffordable Care and Tax Act isn’t anything I want.  I worked for 50 years and saved money whenever I could, scrimping all my life so I would have enough money for housing, food and medical care when I would no longer be able to work.  Even though the Government took my hard earned money for 50 years supposedly for a retirement insurance supplement (Social Security Act); and for 37 years without any benefit to me, and still to this day take my money for Medicare which I didn’t ask for, never wanted and don’t need but must pay for this poor quality, badly managed, heavily regulated, government mandated insurance.   

I didn’t and couldn’t save enough to provide FREE health insurance to anyone else, who likely contributed nothing or very little to their own well-being. 

Health Care Insurance is not a Constitutional, nor a Human Right!  And it should never be.

It has nothing whatever to do with Social Justice; whatever they claim that means now or next. 

I have paid for decades and continue to pay today for health care for people I don’t know and will never meet; people not even from my neighborhood, town or state.  

I pay for emergency care at many hospitals, for social security eligible surviving children, military members and families, veterans, military and civilian prisoners, poor children, single mothers, Medicaid recipients, handicapped, crippled, mentally ill, and the severely infirmed.  Oh, and, I forgot foreign visitors and workers, and legal immigrants and illegal intruders (you can’t be any kind of immigrant unless you are here legally) and invaders. 

Intruders are just bad mannered; invaders come here intending to take our jobs, our benefits, and our property (including money) or do us physical harm and more.  

Everyone, citizen or non-citizen, in our country for any reason can get medical care at any true hospital; they must treat you, it’s the law.  No one in our country has to go without medical care. 

No person has to have health insurance.  It’s a farce created by insurance companies and conniving politicians tricking the ignorant into wasting money or voting for a lying corrupt public parasites.

Every person, legally here or not, can save money for health care in a bank savings account or in a shoe box.   Citizens can create a tax free Health Savings Account (HSA) from which any legitimate medical expense can be paid in cash. 

Every legitimate medical treatment or urgent care can be financed and paid for incrementally by honest responsible individuals.  And if not, there is the Bankruptcy process to escape debts you are not sincerely capable of ever paying.

The reason health care is so expensive is Health Insurance and government interference.  If people would ask, “How much does this cost?”  Then decide whether or not it would be worth it to them to have another X-ray, blood test or Stress test, if you had to pay with your own cash.  Offer to pay your Doctor in cash in advance what Medicare or Insurance will pay minus the costs of billing them.   You will be shocked how much less you could pay than the Government/Insurance billing price. 

  

No one is entitled to medical care for FREE, or at anyone else’s expense.

No one is entitled to FREE Medical Insurance paid for by me or any other citizens under threat of criminal punishment by our Government.  Nor should any free citizen ever be forced to pay for or forced to accept any kind of insurance, poor quality government or high quality private, for which we have not individually and freely consented.

Health Care is not a Constitutional Right.  And it should never be.

Equal Taxation, Equal Liberty, and Equal Justice for each citizen must be urgently restored!