Dakota Beacon

I have long argued that taxpayers should not allow Congress one penny more than is necessary to carry out its Constitutional duties.  I have said we should demand that our delegations to Washington vote to end all spending for anything which Congress is not REQUIRED to do by our Constitution.  This would mean shutting down whole cabinets, such as the Department of Education or the Department of Energy, for example.  This week a small budget item has attracted the nation’s attention.  It seems that the eruption of complaints against Senate candidate Roy Moore has opened the floodgates to a torrent of revelations comparable to the unsavory stories coming out of Hollywood.

While members of our federal legislative branch have been shunning Moore and abandoning him to his miserable fate, whatever that may be, many, unnamed, have been beneficiaries of a secret slush fund managed by Congress to settle complaints against its members by staff, interns and the like.  The system set up strongly favors the perverts who have been harassing them.  

It works something like this:  The Office of Compliance was created in 1995, a creature of the ironically named “Congressional Accountability Act”.  The first step is mandatory counseling for the complainant, lasting up to 30 days.  If this requirement is met, then and only then can the complaint proceed to mediation, which can also take 30 days.  If mediation fails to resolve the complaint, then a hearing process commences.  If the victim has the stomach to continue through this process (while presumably still working in the office of the pervert) and finally, should the decision go in favor of the victim, CONGRESS, not the Congressman, makes the payoff.  You heard that right.  The perpetrator is off the hook in any case.  You and I, the taxpayers, pay this.   

If this were not enough to frost the private parts of a brass monkey, these victims who are paid off are sworn to silence by virtue of a confidentiality agreement they are forced to sign in order to avail themselves of this whole dubious process.  Non-disclosure forms?  In order to obtain hush money - the only “justice” on offer? This not only corrupts the victim - who now becomes an active enabler, shielding this perpetrator and his behavior as others are victimized, not only the perpetrator - now enabled to continue his pattern of abuse unhindered (at NO COST to him) but the entire United States Congress which has institutionalized abuse and we, the American taxpayers, now made silent and ignorant funders of this rot.

So much for the “Congressional Accountability Act”.  Undoubtedly the work of a bunch of rotten Democrats, right?  A cabal of lousy liberal left-wingers, right?  Um, no.  This handiwork was the first legislation to go through the first Republican House in 40 years.  We can’t pick sides that way!

A lot of this is reminiscent of the ugly scandals involving Catholic priests that were systematically covered up by the Church hierarchy.  In other words, is is more than just rogue congressmen or priests.  The tacit approval of the system itself in this vice is what compounds it.  It doesn’t smell any better in government than it does in the Church.   It has to a great degree damaged the Church; so, too, will it destroy government by the people.What makes this so terribly evil is that in the case of Congress, you and I are and have been unwilling enablers of sexual abuse.  

Thus far we have enabled rogue congressmen to the tune of over $15 million.  Do you think maybe it’s time to go back to funding JUST THOSE FUNCTIONS OUTLINED IN THE CONSTITUTION?   JUST MAYBE?!!  

The bottom line is every single dollar these people get their hands on is completely lost to us.  Yes, we do need to defend our borders (we aren’t), we do need to balance our budget (we aren’t), we do need to protect our people from terrorists (we aren’t).  We don’t need Congress in our schools, in our parks, in our offices or factories or pretty much anywhere else, and above all we do NOT need to pay for a bunch of old perverts’ bailouts for their abuse of young  women (or boys) while on the job spending our money.  Instead of promoting a convention to rewrite our Constitution, let’s try paring down our criminal congressmen’s allowance.  Enough is finally enough.

We might be thoroughly disgusted by the allegations of Roy Moore’s behavior, but maybe we owe him thanks.  Without RINOs' and Democrats' real fear that Moore might be elected  we might not know about the Congressional hush-up slush fund.  And we could keep coasting along, not knowing that we are funding this abuse.  It might be time to give your congressmen and senators a wake-up call.  They all had to know about this!  Let them know that you will vote against them - regardless of their party - unless they act now to stop this.  You see, this scandal and the institutionalized cover-up of unacceptable misconduct - intentionally keeping voters at home from knowing what their representatives are up to in Washington  - as hideous as this is, is only a symptom of something worse - the mishandling our money that belongs to the taxpayers.  If there is money for this we know there is more abuse going on.  We just stumbled upon this through the stupidity of some people in Washington trying to keep Moore out and thus giving us a look at it.  Now, at least, we can decide whether we WANT to be a part of this system willingly or whether we will demand that Congress be stripped of all excess money.  And please don't suggest we hand this off to an "ethics committee".  When was the last time that meant anythng?

Back to reality for a second.  We have a national debt of over $20 trillion.  Why are we spending anything to bail out obscene congressmen who can’t behave like adults?  And why do we dream that they are interested in responsible government?  And what does this say about the state of our culture?  Indeed, defending borders and building walls, which is what the Republican party’s candidate staked his campaign on, only has meaning if we are defending a way of life, not some daisy field.  Our borders are important only with respect to our integrity as a nation, and when those in the highest offices can’t keep their zippers up long enough to consider public policy, what use are borders?  The real enemy is within.