"No Labels" Movement - Getting the Job Done

According to Beth Fouhy, The Ticket a political activist movement formed in 2010 who have called themselves No Labels is disenchanted with the present two-party political system –

…to encourage problem solving over ideological gridlock.

No Labels motto: Committed to Fix Not Fight. Presently presenting a petition to Stop Fighting and Start Fixing. They are reaching out to the political centrists who would rather fix the problems facing the United States rather than quibble about party lines.

Launched in New York, No Labels lacks a clear agenda as well as grassroot support is holding a conference on January 14^th in New York. It is about something other than the Tea Party movement versus Occupy movement, the conservative versus liberal partisans. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and former Republican Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman, chair the group.  Huntsman recently declared that the Republican Party is devoid of a soul. He also stated that a decision will be made for him to run for office of the president in 2016 sometime this year. The organization has also launched a congressional Problem Solvers’ Group consisting of 12 Republicans and 13 Democrats who have begun meetings to work out reform measures.

Representative Scott Rigell told Yahoo News:

It would be a mistake to characterize this as a centrist group. That is pigeonholing us in a way that isn’t accurate.

According to the No Label “Who We Are” web page:

No Labels is a growing citizens’ movement of Democrats, Republicans and everything in between dedicated to promoting a new politics of problem solving. We are unlike any organization in America. The most powerful interest groups in our nation’s capital work to push our leaders and our political parties apart. No Labels is working to bring them together to forge solutions to our nation’s problems. We welcome people left, right and everything in between as long as they are willing to collaborate with one another to seek a shared success for America. This new attitude is what No Labels is all about. No Labels promotes its politics of problem solving in three ways: by organizing citizens across America, providing a space for legislators who want to solve problems to convene and by pushing for common-sense reforms to make our government work. … To help empower these problem solvers in Congress, No Labels is focused on breaking down the structural problems that push our leaders apart. Toward that end, we have released two comprehensive action plans that are as straightforward as their titles: Make Congress Work! and Make the Presidency Work! 

Here is one part I like about a proposal to be reentered into the 113^th Congress:

These plans are gaining traction on Capitol Hill and beyond, with one of our proposals, No Budget, No Pay, which already received a hearing in the Senate in 2012 and will be re-entered as a bill in the 113^th Congress. In 2013, No Labels will continue mobilizing our grassroots to help turn No Budget, No Pay into law, while also pushing other proposals like our Annual Fiscal Report and the Five-Day Work Week for the House and Senate.

They also want to see long-term solvency for Medicare and Social Security.

Generally one gets the notion that they believe that once the campaign for office is over, leave politics for next campaign and do what they are paid to do. The object is what is best for the country not political clubs. That also interests me.

Nothing mentioned about the flurry of anti-firearm politicians and zealots set to ban firearms that have not worked before, but instead searching for viable solutions that match the problems, like ensuring that people of mental instability or those on prescribed or illegal drugs are in the background check system required before purchasing a firearm.

Based on the overall premise that these elected officials within No Labels project is more concerned with results rather than ego and power of a political club, I feel some are finally getting it. However, no mention of what the gist of the problem and problems that have developed over the past three or four decades with government today is – lack of adherence constitutional law which should be the foundation of everything that government does in legislation, judiciary, or executive actions. It does not address the problem that the check and balance system created by the Founders, through the Constitution, is closer to invalid. It is commendable that politicians have finally gotten the idea that bickering and stubborn political campaigning continuing after elected and that the solution is more important than putting the blame on each other. Instead solutions can be found by insisting that the important limited powers of government clearly prescribed in the Constitution be considered in the solutions planned to solve problems that legislative, judiciary and executive elements in government created. No Labels certainly has an important agenda in the importance of a working annual budget plan and if lawmakers cannot perform that important aspect of their job, they certainly do not earn their yearly salary.

It is important that elected officials know the reasons they are elected and why a government exists – for the country, the United States; and that no nation exists without the People, for which the government serves and not the other way around. That government has a contract with the people and a defined set or rules that it must abide by and the separation of powers and the check and balance system is there for a very important reason. Negotiations and compromises can be accepted, but compromising the Constitution and its amendments is out of the question; unless an amendment is altered or added by a two-third majority vote of Congress and ratification by the states of the Union. 

In reference to the fiscal crisis: All politicians must accept the fact that the national debt will never become a manageable figure by adding $41 of new taxation over $1 of budget cuts. Spending is the problem requiring action, not the amount of taxes being the solution. The only thing the so-called Fiscal Cliff bill achieved was raising taxes and continuing the same spending pattern that caused the crisis in the first place - and that conundrum's fault is placed on both sides of the political aisle, whatever "label" is provided for their political ideology. There would be no labeling if those in our government based their ideologies upon the firm foundation of the constitution designed to be used for a republic.