I am a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam and retired senior manager with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). I spent the last 11 years of my career at VA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as Chief of Policies and Operations and then as Acting Director of the HQ Health Administration Service.
In my role at VA Headquarters, I worked closely with U.S. congressional members of both parties in both chambers and White House staff on veteran legislation and concerns.
Those interactions left me with the firm opinion that far too many of our legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, as well as White House staff members, were not genuinely concerned with what was best for our veterans and, by extension, the citizens of this great Nation.
Those interactions further led me to believe that their primary concerns were to make promises to obtain veterans’ votes for re-election by promising to introduce legislation that would expand healthcare benefits that these heroes earned and deserve and to garner the support of veterans’ families for their re-election and doing so knowing that those promises would go nowhere.
I consistently tried to get their support on various veteran healthcare issues. However, I always seemed to end up with empty promises to support legislation that would truly benefit our veterans, primarily when they were campaigning for re-election.
Then, if and when they were re-elected, we would find ourselves in the same cycle of discussions, promises, and disappointments. The repetition of this pattern only served to deepen our frustration and concern for the treatment of our veterans.
Why the failed promises? You decide. Did they not feel any gratitude for those who served our country with honor and integrity, many in combat? Did they fear failing to pacify their party leadership who had other interests to champion? Did they fear anti-military, anti-war corporate pacifists whose campaign donations they relied on? Most probably all of the above.
Can you be assured that they did not act similarly when dealing with other federal government departments or agencies that American citizens depended upon?
Then, having unconstitutionally abdicated their constitutional authorities and responsibilities to the Administrative State (bureaucrats), they would deflect their failure to do the people's work onto those departments and agencies—entities that imposed unconstitutional regulations restricting who received what benefits under what circumstances. Bureaucrats, the actual governing arm of our nation, of which I was one, consistently fail our citizens while working to gain ever-increasing power within the federal government. All unelected officials and all done with absolutely no oversight whatsoever.
Even though members of Congress consistently fail to take back control of governing our Nation and do their constitutional duty, as they took an oath to do, and consistently fail to keep their campaign promises, their constituents repeatedly reelect them. With each successful reelection, these politicians became more emboldened as they realized that they would not be held accountable for their broken promises or their continuous failure to act in the people's best interest.
These politicians use the media to create divisiveness between us with accusations that all their broken promises, all their failures, and all our country’s problems are the fault of the other party, and as such, their hands are tied.
Legislators in Washington have lost touch with their constituents, who, because of distance, have little chance of interacting with them to confront their failures and broken promises. We need a solution that will let "We the People" of this Nation go around the Washington political establishment and rein in the out-of-control federal government "permanently."
There is a solution: convene a "Convention of States" as allowed under Article V of the Constitution with restricted authority to propose only amendments that will address 1) fiscal irresponsibility, 2) unconstitutional power over and overreach into state affairs, and 3) impose term limits on members of Congress and the leadership of the Administrative State.
If you agree that our government is out of control and needs to be reined in, please go to https://conventionofstates.com/event_petitions and sign the petition calling for the convening of a Convention of States under Article V. Know that an Article V Convention of State has only the Constitutional authority to add amendments to the Constitution, unlike a Constitutional Convention which has the power and authority to change or even eliminate our Constitution.
Only we the people can force the changes needed to save our Constitutional Republic. Together, we can return our republic to what our founding fathers envisioned for this great nation. Please go to https://conventionofstates.com/volunteer_application to become a volunteer activist to help change American politics.
Please share with your contacts and visit my website at americaninsanity.org. Sign up as a subscriber and member of my blog to stay informed about government overreach and corruption and the Convention of State movement.
Thank you!
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