The following essay was originally written by a former Orlando Sentinel columnist named Charley Reese.  His original piece was titled 545 People, and dealt with the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.  His words are sharp and right on.  I have changed the essay a bit so that it is appropriate for Rhode Island's current situation.

THE 113 PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR RHODE ISLAND'S WOES

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against high taxes, we have high taxes?

Thirty eight senators and seventy five congressmen - 113 human beings out of the one million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the problems that plague Rhode Island.
 
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They should have no ability to coerce a senator or a representative to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  Rhode Island's political class has shown a discouraging propensity to allow the special interests and lobbyists to exert a phenomenal level of control over our legislative process.

No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he or she votes.

A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY - Those 113 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of our legislative leadership to fast track legislation regarding legalizing ultimate fighting or sealing convicted criminal's records while burying Separation of Powers legislation in legislative purgatory or failing to control our wild over spending.

The governor can only propose a budget. He cannot force the legislative branch to accept it. The legislative branch has the sole responsibility for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.  Just a select few members of the legislature do much of this work, and virtually all of it is done in secrecy.
 
The Democratically controlled legislature can approve any budget they want. If the governor vetoes it, they can and do pass it over his veto.

REPLACE THE SCOUNDRELS

It seems inconceivable to me that a state of one million people cannot replace
113 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can't think of a single state-based problem, from a tax code that is strangling our economy to out of control spending, which is not traceable directly to those 113 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 113 people exercise the power of the state government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is destroying our economy, it's because they have implemented it. If spending outstrips revenue, it's because they can't rein in their profligate ways.  If $1 billion in tobacco settlement monies are wasted in covering up for years of unbalanced budgets, they are to blame.

There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 113 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 113 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess.

 

The only thing standing between us and a better state government is us.

 

Get involved.  The time is now.