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Dear Mr. Berko:

Dear B.D.:

I think you’ve been eating Twinkies under the power lines for too many years. I have frequently excoriated management and unions in this column and in speeches around the nation. However, you can’t blame the collapse of Chrysler and General Motors only on management and the unions. Yes, they share some of the blame, but the overriding blame must be attributed to the wonderful 535 men and women you elected to Congress.

You can blame the collapse of the banks and brokerage firms on homicidal management. But I would put the principal blame on the very caring 535 men and women you elected to Congress. You can blame the implosion of the mortgage industry on glutinous management, and that’s cool. But the real blame belongs to the conscientious 535 people you elected to Congress.

You can blame Wall Street’s cupidity for the 50 percent decline in retirement account values, or the business cycle for our 10 percent unemployment numbers and the home builders for crashing home prices. They are all culpable. But truth be told, the alpha and omega of those and other domestic problems rest with the dedicated 535 politicians you elected to Congress.

Charlie Reese, who used to write for the Orlando Sentinel and is known for his paleoconservative views, once remarked, “Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.” Reese once asked: “If both Democrats and Republicans are against deficits, why do we still have deficits?” The only answer is because the 535 members of Congress want the United States to have a continuing deficit. It’s politically very profitable, but not for the 300 million citizens who must pay it back. Think about it.

If millions of Americans believe the tax code is unfair, then why do we have a tax code that is unfair? The only answer is that the 535 Democrats and Republicans in Congress want it that way. Our army is still in Iraq because 535 members of Congress want our boys in Iraq. Social Security and Medicare are in serious trouble because 535 members of Congress want Social Security and Medicare to remain in trouble.

The cost of prescription drugs in the United States is six times the cost of the same drugs in Canada, the United Kingdom, France or Germany. And our drug costs are higher because 535 members of Congress want it that way.

This is the Lord’s honest truth. There is a small group of wealthy, privileged Americans who profit from high drug costs, an unfair tax code, a burgeoning deficit, etc., and you know whom they represent.

The Constitution still is the final arbiter of every law in the nation. It gives the House of Representatives the legal authority to originate, approve and implement those laws. And it’s important to note that members of the House, not President Barack Obama, can approve any budget they choose. And if the budget is vetoed by Obama, Congress can override a presidential veto if it wants to. It’s that simple. The president proposes and Congress disposes; a play on a much older apothegm, “Man proposes but God disposes.”

Again I quote Charlie Reese: “It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of (319) million people cannot influence 535 congressmen who stand convicted — by the facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem … that is not traceable directly to those 535 people.”

If you understand that those 535 powerful congresspeople run the government, then it must follow that whatever the government does, 535 congresspeople want it to happen. And my dad would ask: “What then can be said about politicians that hasn’t already been said about hemorrhoids?”

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 8303, Largo, Fla. 33775 or e-mail him at mjberko@yahoo.com.