The bankers and power-brokers created an institution that today is more powerful than Apple, Wal-Mart, IBM and every S&P 500 company combined.

It pays no income taxes and it enables unelected individuals to control America's currency system...

I’m talking about the Federal Reserve.

And while most Americans believe the deceptively named Federal Reserve is a government agency acting on behalf of its citizens, it’s not.

The Federal Reserve is the most powerful private corporation in the world. And frankly, it’s about as "federal" as Federal Express.

As far back as the 1930s, the Honorable Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, tried to warn Americans of its true power…

“When the Federal Reserve Act was passed, the people of these United States did not perceive that a world banking system was being set up here. A super-state controlled by international bankers and industrialists acting together to enslave the world. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government.”

As Senator Barry Goldwater went on record to say, "The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States."

And according to the popular book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, the Fed was founded - by a small group of the world’s richest bankers, including the Rothchilds of Paris and London; Lazard Brother of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb, and Warburg of Germany; Goldman, Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York…

(a) Income tax: Flat 20% on incomes above $100,000 (no tax under $100,000; an income of $150,000 would pay $10,000)

(b) National Sales tax of 5% on everything but (real) food, processed foods would be taxed.   Possibly require that all foods be grown organically.   Families with under a certain income (around $40,000) could get a type of pre-bate (allowance for necessities, healthcare, etc.) that they would have to register for - which would eliminate the need and expense of chasing illegals.   This sales tax would insure that everyone would pay a fair and appropriate amount of tax.

A SURE FIX for CONGRESS, THE ECONOMY, HEALTHCARE, ETC., and overcoming banker & big money control:

Proposition: "Congressional Reform Act of 2010 (or 2011)"

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

2. No Tenure. No Pension: A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. (The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators. They serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. Serving in Congress is an honor & a privilege, not a career. Service is supposed to be for the benefit of the people & country, not themselves.)

3. Congress (past, present & 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 should be tied to the average worker's pay.

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

7. Congressmen can NOT receive any other pay, compensation, or favors of any type, from anyone, especially lobbyists, while in office.

This indeed would separate the men from the . . . slime, and would eliminate much of the need for a lot of the petty legislation on many superficial issues, and even term limits, etc. We could trust legislators to establish intelligent and fair laws & policies, if they were in there for the right reasons, and with the more practical policies proposed here (eliminating the wrong reasons) it would be much more likely they would be there for the right reasons.

If enough people would contact their representatives and push them to propose and support these sorts of policies, this could be a strong impetus to some positive changes.

If we do not start to turn things around soon, because of the current overwhelming debt (waste & corruption), there will be no avoiding major crisis, if it is not too late already.

If everyone would pass this on to all of their contacts, it could not take very long for congress and the president to get the idea.

We need LESS GOVERNMENT, fewer pan handlers and more workers / producers & responsible people.

We need LESS GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER PERSONAL LIVES, and more basic controls over big business, and should NEVER CONSIDER "TOO BIG TO FAIL" or BAILING OUT ANY BUSINESSES - ESPECIALLY THE BIG BANKS THAT SHOULD BE BROKEN UP ANYWAY, AND ESPECIALLY AFTER THEY HAVE COMMITTED FRAUD AND SCAMMED THE PEOPLE!

We need to "END The FED" - and fractional reserve banking, artificial interest rates, money from nothing, (circumventing / destroying the supposed to be, FREE market) and all the clandestine deals with bankers around the world - bailing out their buddies, collapsing others, etc., - - and THEY ARE STILL NOT EVEN AUDITED!!!! Any congressman NOT getting behind Ron Paul and his efforts to audit the FED (and those who voted for the bailouts) should be voted out ASAP, if not impeached, if not tried for treason.

"As Religion declines, Government grows." -- Dennis Prager

*What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. - - Edward Langley, Artist 1928-1995

*When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. - - Boyd & Winona Farr

*Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. . . . . but I repeat myself. - - Mark Twain

*We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. - - Winston Churchill

*A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. - - George Bernard Shaw

* A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. - - G. Gordon Liddy

* Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. - - James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

* Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. - - Douglas Casey, Classmate of W.J.Clinton at Georgetown U. (1992)

* Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. - - P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

* Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. - - Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

* Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. - - Ronald Reagan (1986)

* I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - - Will Rogers

* If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. - - P.J. O'Rourke

* If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist. - - Joseph Sobran, Editor of the National Review at one time (1995)

* In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. - - Voltaire (1764)

* Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. - - Pericles (430 B.C.)

* No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. - - Mark Twain (1866)

* Talk is cheap-except when Congress does it. (Unknown)

* The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. - - Ronald Reagan

* The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. - - Winston Churchill

* The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. - - Mark Twain

* The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - - Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

* There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress. - - Mark Twain

* There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. -- P.J. O'Rourke (1993)

"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." - Henry Cate, VII

* "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office" - Aesop

* "If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven." - Will Rogers

* "Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato

* "Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. " - Nikita Khrushchev

* "When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it." - Clarence Darrow

* "Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you." - Author Unknown

* "If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates." - Bruce " Utah " Phillips

* "Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other." - Oscar Ameringer

* "I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech in 1952

* "A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his county." - author unknown

* "Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so." - Gore Vidal

* "I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." - Charles de Gaulle

* "Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks." - Doug Larson

* "Don't vote, it only encourages them." - Author Unknown

Congress – Legislature(s) – Governments (everywhere) – are too busy playing politics and trying to stay in office and gain power, that they leave behind moral concerns and lose the vision that they should have of doing what's best for the greatest number of people in the long run.