Vail Daily letter: Too much privilege

Were I to aspire to the office that Jared Polis holds in my district (U.S. House of Representatives), and were I to be evasive enough to be elected, I would secure the following blessings for me and my family:

(1) A pension plan that would enable me to retire after two years of “service” with benefits equal to 100 percent of my congressional salary, and to commence upon leaving such office; e.g., age 27 and so on.

Yet I and my fellow oligarchs would have foisted or legislated upon the average citizen a pension plan to commence upon reaching the advanced age of 67 that would pay out a paltry sum necessary to guarantee serfdom for millions of Americans, and all the while pilfering untold millions from this Social Security fund to the detriment of those impoverished Americans under the guise of a Ponzi scheme (aka, “deficit spending”).

(2) I would enjoy a Cadillac health insurance policy for a life term that would pay all hospital, medical and drugs at no cost or premium charged to me, yet I would have been one of the authors of that infamous “Obama health care” plan that demanded tribute from the underprivileged and private sector of Americans to pay for such a token policy of dubious

quality.

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(3) I could also claim responsibility for the passage of the “stimulus” bill (TARP), the effect of which would secure the votes for my re-election. My corporate contributors and donating interest groups (AIG, Goldman Sachs, GM, UAW, etc.) that received the bounty from such bill would hopefully remember my affirmative vote.

(4) I would enjoy numerous vacations at taxpayer expense under the facade of “fact finding” missions or junkets, maybe even have the use of my own private jet and crew. It would be the good life.

(5) Finally, and provided I could conceal my derelictions and dispense the necessary disinformation about my elitism, I would have a career as a U.S. representative rather than just a servant of the people. No term limits for me, if you know what I mean!

Were we to revisit the Constitution, we would discern that all Americans should enjoy the equal protection of the law – no exemptions, no bailout favoritism, no special legislation for the benefit of a private few.

With the above congressional benefits and perks in place, Polis, for example, has become more equal than the rest of us. Or to put it another way, he is protected from the inequitable legislation that he and his ilk have fomented.

As I eschew hypocrisy, self-indulgence and greed, I do not aspire to Polis’ elected office.

However, I now recognize the importance and necessity of term limits for those in such elevated positions.

One of the founding fathers of this nation, Richard Henry Lee, viewed the absence of legal term limits to tenure as “most highly and dangerously oligarchic.”

George Mason propounded that “nothing is so essential to the preservation of a Republican government as periodic

rotation.”

Term limitation may occur by way of constitutional amendment or by the will of the people through the electoral process.

So in November, reflect upon the inability of those incumbents in office to see the above inequities that I have delineated.

Have Polis or Bennet ever addressed these issues? Did they even read the legislative tomes that they endorsed?

Have they renounced their governmental privileges and returned to the people they allegedly represent? Their silence is deafening!

Fredric Butler