An Interesting Slant on Things

 The world's largest army...America's hunters! I had never thought about this...

A blogger added up the deer license sales in just a handful of states and arrived at a striking conclusion:

There were over 600,000 hunters this season in the state of Wisconsin.   Allow me to restate that number: Over 600,000!

Over the last several months, Wisconsin's hunters became the eighth largest army in the world. 

More men under arms than in Iran. 

More than France and Germany combined. 

These men deployed to the woods of a single American state, Wisconsin, to hunt with firearms, and no one was killed*.

That number pales in comparison to the 750,000 who hunted the woods of Pennsylvania and Michigan's 700,000 hunters, all of whom have now returned home safely*.

Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia and it literally establishes the fact that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world. And then add in the total number of hunters in the other 46 states. It's millions more.

(*Correction-Disclaimer:  Actually, unlike 2010 and 2011 when there were no hunting related fatalities, there have been 2 firearm related deaths so far in 2012.  The same can generally be said of Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as other states where hunting is a very popular sport, but in relation to the numbers of hunters, the percentage of firearms related deaths is very low.)

The point?

America will forever be safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower.  Hunting.... it's not just a way to fill the freezer.. It's a matter of national security.

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That's why all enemies, foreign and domestic, want to see us disarmed.  Food for thought, when next we consider gun control.
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Overall it's true*, so if we disregard some assumptions that hunters don't possess the same skills as soldiers, the question would still remain... what army of 2 million would want to face 30, 40, 50 million armed citizens.

 

For the sake of our freedom, don't ever allow gun control or confiscation of guns.

(IF YOU AGREE, AS I DO, PASS IT ON.   I FEEL GOOD THAT I HAVE AN ARMY OF MILLIONS WHO WOULD HAVE THE ABILITY TO PROTECT OUR LAND AND I SURE DON'T WANT THE GOVERNMENT TAKING CONTROL OF THE POSSESSION OF FIREARMS)

Please feel free to copy and send this message on to your email contacts.  It came to me without attribution.  If you do decide to pass it on, please be mindful of the privacy rights of those on your contact list.  You can review a proper method of protecting the privacy of your contacts here.

When A Company Falls On Hard Times...

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers must find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. 

Wall Street and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and the board of directors gives upper corporate management big bonuses.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks. 

Therefore:
Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members. 
Reduce Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Then, reduce their remaining staff by 25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years (two steps/two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay/member/ yr.)

$437,100,000 for elimination of their staff. (Estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$108,350,000 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%. 

$7,500,000,000reduction in pork barrel earmarks each year. (Those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at$15 Billion/yr). 

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country! 

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (Telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note:
Congress does not hesitate to head home for extended weekends, holidays and recesses, when what the nation needs is a real fix for economic problems. Also, we had 3 senators who were not doing their jobs for the 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all accepted full pay. Minnesota survived very well with only one senator for the first half of this year. These facts alone support a reduction in senators and congress. 

Summary of opportunity: 

$44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$282,100,000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff. 

$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff. 

$70,850,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members. 

$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members. 

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members. 

$8,084,558,400 per year, estimated total savings. (That's 8-BILLION just to start!)

Corporate America does these types of cuts all the time.
There's even a name for it. 

"Downsizing."

Also, if Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits, taxpayers could save a bundle.

Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term. 
IF you are happy with how Washington spends our taxes, delete this message.
Otherwise, it 's time to "downsize" Congress

Please consider forwarding, if you agree. 

By copying and pasting it, I 'm sending it to you in hopes that you will keep it going and keep it clean. This is something I believe in and I hope you all read it all the way through.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 ... before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land ... all because of public pressure.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2012

1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past , present and future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/13.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

LET 'S FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree, you can do more than just pass it on, you can actually become a part of a NEW Message Acceleration System that will almost guarantee that everyone in America with an email box will have an opportunity to read the message and become a contributing member of a group of Americans who want to resolve the congressional deadlock that we are currently dealing with.  Go to this site to learn more about how it works.