This book strives to explain how a free people are more than able to provide for their own needs infinitely better than any conceivable government program. Within its pages I unveil my "One-Eight, One-Nine" plan to Empower People through Restrained Government. It's a two part plan which addresses both the function and finance of the federal government by insisting upon adherence to existing Constitutional provisions. Government leaders fear it. "One-Eight" deals with function. It refers to Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution which specifically enumerates the powers authorized to be performed by congress. The plan seeks to awaken the people of the United States to the enormous benefits to society derived from our extremely limited Constitutional government, and insist that the federal government adhere to and honor its specific enumerated duties. We accomplish this task by educating ourselves and monitoring those we elect to office to ensure they follow the Constitution. Those which don't must be voted out. "One-Nine" deals with financing. It refers to Article 1 Section 9 which specifically states that money may only be drawn from the federal treasury to pay for enumerated Constitutional functions. All spending outside this authority is unconstitutional. Implementing the Constitutional provisions of "One-Eight, One-Nine" is achieved through my "Negative Baseline" program. Current policy automatically increases annual spending on non-Constitutional programs through baseline budgeting. My "Negative Baseline" instead reduces this spending causing all non-Constitutional spending to simply fade away. Contrary to popular belief, I discuss how the reductions will be relatively painless. Unneeded federal employees, as well as those dependant on the federal government, will be enthusiastically absorbed by a revitalized free market. The only way to solve our nation's problems is through an educated electorate desiring

EMPOWERING PEOPLE

My Line in the Sand Empowering People Through Restrained GovernmentBy PETER KONETCHY

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Peter Konetchy
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-4797-9

Contents

One Peter Konetchy.................................................................1Work...............................................................................4Marriage...........................................................................6Building Our House.................................................................12Core Values........................................................................28Religion...........................................................................31Two: Why I'm Running for the Senate................................................32Three: Problems....................................................................50Education..........................................................................57Energy.............................................................................58Housing............................................................................59Economy............................................................................60Social Security....................................................................61Health Care........................................................................62Immigration........................................................................63Epa................................................................................64Baseline Budgeting.................................................................65Four: Solutions....................................................................66Proper Role of Government..........................................................70One-Eight, One-Nine................................................................75Negative Baseline Budget...........................................................78Take Effective Action T.E.A. 2.0...................................................87Five: Issues and Amendments........................................................90Constitution or Treaty.............................................................92Parental Rights Amendment..........................................................95Unconstitutionality of the Committee of 12.........................................99Balanced Budget Amendment..........................................................102The Human Life Amendment is Bad Law................................................105Marriage Amendment Weakens Marriage................................................110Federal Right-To-Work..............................................................115National Popular Vote..............................................................117Debt Ceiling.......................................................................121Enforcing Immigration Policy.......................................................124Six: Positions.....................................................................127Constitutional Greatness...........................................................128Abortion...........................................................................130Debbie Stabenow Supports Partial-Birth Abortion....................................132Balanced Budget....................................................................134Commerce Clause....................................................................137Free Enterprise—The Engine of a Free Society.................................140Education: Problems and Solutions..................................................143Energy Independence................................................................148Fairness Doctrine: Equates to Government Censorship................................154Health Care........................................................................157Problem: Over reliance on Third-Party Payments.....................................161Problem: Health Insurers Providing Poor Service....................................164Problem: State Mandates and Limitations............................................167Problem: Excessive Legal Costs Related to Health Care..............................169Solution: Free Market Principles...................................................172Federal Unemployment...............................................................177General Welfare Clause.............................................................182Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?...................................................184Immigration: Legal and Illegal.....................................................187Legal Reform: Loser Pay is a Great First Step......................................190What is the "Best" Social Safety Net for Society?..................................194I Support the Right to Keep and Bear Arms..........................................197The Fallacy of the Separation of Church and State..................................199Social Security: Fixing a Broken Program...........................................202Liberty and Taxes..................................................................206Term Limits—Good or Bad?.....................................................210Seven: The Konetchy Plan...........................................................214Eight: Zhanna's First-Hand Account of Life in the Soviet Union.....................217Introduction.......................................................................217About Me...........................................................................220My Parents.........................................................................221School Years.......................................................................223Pictures...........................................................................225Teachers...........................................................................233Freedom of Speech..................................................................235My Favorite Holidays...............................................................237Free Health Care...................................................................239The Internal Passport: Serfdom, Soviet Style.......................................241Three Socialist Myths..............................................................243Shopping...........................................................................254Getting an Apartment in the Soviet Union...........................................256Public Transportation..............................................................263How My Father Bought a Car in the Soviet Union.....................................265Soviet "Rice Fields"...............................................................268Insider look at the "Perestroika"..................................................272My Family History..................................................................281Conclusion.........................................................................291Appendix...........................................................................294The Constitution of the United States..............................................294Response to the IRS Regarding the Filing of Tax Returns............................324Letter to the IRS..................................................................328Galveston County: A Model for Social Security Reform...............................330The Success of Chile's Privatized Social Security..................................334

Chapter One

PETER KONETCHY

I know that God has a sense of humor. I've worn a beard since I was in my early twenties, because I have a very small chin, chubby face, and big nose.

Early one morning, about 15 years ago, I shaved my beard.

I went to the kitchen where all my kids were eating breakfast and started a conversation. Nobody noticed. My wife, Zhanna, walked in a few minutes later and started talking with us. She noticed my ear-to-ear smile, but not the missing beard.

After a few minutes I announced, "I shaved my beard!"

The unanimous reaction from everyone in the room was, "Put it Back!"

I have never shaved it again.

I've had a very good life.

It started in a small town in Massachusetts, Norfolk, a little to the southwest of Boston. Times were different then—no computers, Facebook, or Internet. Kids used their imaginations and played outside.

We were a typical American family with the national average of 2.3 kids rounded up to a whole three. I had two older siblings, Doug and Linda, and both my parents. When we were small, my mother stayed home with the kids, and my father worked for an insurance company.

My parents valued a good education. We were expected to learn, and they made sure we did. I remember many nights when all of us kids would sit around our dining room table doing our homework together under the watchful eyes of my mother.

Schools taught patriotism and government. I remember my high school civics teacher explaining that immigrants to the United States wanted to assimilate into our society and become Americans and to celebrate the distinctly American culture and values. He explained that this separated us from virtually every other nation in the world and made us strong.

I started to learn the value of work and money at an early age. My buddy and I wanted to earn some spending money, but our options were limited. Most of the families on our street had kids, so there wasn't much demand for cutting lawns or doing neighborhood chores. We decided to pick apples at a small, local orchard. The owner agreed, but never discussed our wages with us. My buddy and I picked apples all afternoon, all the while discussing the windfall profit we expected to make. The owner obviously had a different opinion regarding the value of our work and paid us a few cents per bushel picked. We ended up working all afternoon and earned a total of about 50 cents each. We never went back for more work, but learned the importance of discussing our wage prior to performing a job.

My dad decided to change careers. He quit his insurance position and Entered into a partnership with a friend who owned a small manufacturing company. He hired me for my first real job. I rode my bike several miles each afternoon to a small factory to mix powdered laundry detergent. We had a series of mixers into which we mixed a formula of various chemicals and perfumes, which would be packaged into containers varying from 5 to 100 pounds. I worked about 10 to 12 hours per week and earned good money for a 13-year-old.

A year or so later, my father's company acquired a home-based detergent manufacturing company in Michigan, and our family moved to Detroit. I attended a Christian high school and worked at my father's company during vacations.

I had the privilege of attending Michigan State University, earning a degree in Accounting. I received a great education, met good friends, and had fun.

Work

I worked at the family soap business throughout college and continued after graduation. Computers were introduced to small business in the late 70's, and we bought one to manage our inventory, sales, and accounting.

Prepackaged software didn't exist; everything had to be custom programmed. We contracted with a small, husband and wife programming team to help us develop and install the required software. I understood the information flow within our company, but had no computer experience. I learned programming by working with the developers performing simple tasks. Before long, I had enough knowledge to be able to perform the majority of the programming work. A couple years later, the installation was complete, and I decided to move on.

I was actually very good at programming and was hired as a contract programmer by the firm who helped set up my father's system. I worked with many different types of businesses, including property managers, vending machine companies, mortgage providers, manufactures, and law firms. Every firm had similar software needs, which needed to be tweaked to their specific industry. All needed basic accounting, receivables, check writing, receipts, general ledger, inventory, and productivity reporting, allowing me to combine my education with my previous work experience.

The computer systems back then were mid-range IBM and Wang computer systems using a now-antiquated programming language called RPGII. The systems took up most of the room and had just a fraction of the processing power of today's PC's.

I was single, doing well, making good money, and was debt free. I decided to pursue the American dream of starting my own company, being scarcely 25 years old, naïve, confident, and full of hope.

I found a niche working with law firms. I had many customers and developed custom software packages for the various types of law firms—defense, corporate, and plaintiff. I decided to develop a single software program that would meet the needs of all the various types of law firms I worked for.

I bought a used Wang midrange system, printer, and terminals, weighing about one thousand pounds, and installed them in my living room. I spent countless hours coding software into a marketable package I titled L.A.W.S.—Legal, Accounting, and Word processing System. Only large law firms could afford to purchase computer systems, and I was able to install my L.A.W.S. software in a good percentage of the large law firms in the Detroit metro area as well as in many throughout the entire state of Michigan.

Our basic package was well designed but was continually enhanced through the implementation of suggestions from users.

As with anything in the free market, computer equipment became smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, allowing us to service smaller firms. We migrated our software from the mid-range IBM and Wang systems to the personal computer and finally to the Internet where it resides today.

We were never a large firm and employed on average between 2 to 5 employees. There were times when we did quite well and times that were tight. Regardless of the situation, we persevered and things worked out fine.

Marriage

I strongly support the institution of marriage, and believe that it is between one man, one woman, and God, and that it is meant to last a lifetime.

Throughout my life I've been divorced, widowed, and happily married.

Divorced

I married my first wife shortly after I started my own business. We bought a nice house in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, and started a family. Not too many families had a mid-range computer system up and running in their living room. We did. (I did move into an office shortly thereafter and used the living room as a living room.) We both worked, and I was either out of the house, on the road, or in my office. My wife worked as a programmer at an auto supplier just outside Detroit.

My wife and I had two kids, Mark and Lisa. I never understood the meaning of absolute "Love" until I first held my firstborn son, Mark. I loved being a father. Whenever I was able, I would play with my kids after breakfast and before work for as long as possible. Since both my wife and I worked, we dropped our children off at daycare.

Being self-employed, we went through times of plenty and times of drought. I always had to meet my payroll and pay my other bills first, and then pay myself last.

After about seven years of marriage, we encountered a couple of years of drought. Money was tight, and, for a short time, we could not pay our bills in a timely manner and were delinquent on our property taxes. Needless to say, there was stress in our lives. Though we both loved our children, we had different goals and priorities and lacked a common focus. I'm unhappy to say that we decided to divorce.

I'm not proud of this divorce. I was young and stupid. It was a difficult decision to accept and very hard on the children. I would not wish divorce on any couple, and counsel anybody thinking about it to love their spouse, work through the hard times, and stay together.

Widowed

A couple of years after my divorce, I volunteered my time at a nursing home. My duties consisted of anything that needed to be done. I'd escort residents to and from dinner, empty the wastebaskets, and often just visit and talk with the guests.

I met a nurse at this facility, Lilly. We fell in love over the next several months and were married. She was the perfect woman—pretty, lively, fun, and conservative. Lilly loved my kids from my first marriage as she would love her own.

We bought a small house in Byron, MI, just south of Flint, which had about 10 wooded acres, an old barn complete with barn cats, and apple and pear trees.

We had the perfect life. We fixed up our little house, cleaned out the barn, traveled the country visiting family and friends, and generally pursued our happiness.

We both enjoyed the outdoors and wanted to purchase some land. We found some acreage "up-north," which had a small hunting cabin surrounded by state land teaming with wildlife. We bought it.

Lilly became pregnant with our first (my third) child shortly after we were married. She was ecstatic to be a mom. She was able to stop working, stay home, and grow her belly. My sister had two children at home using a midwife and cherished this birth experience. Lilly wanted to do the same. We contacted my sister's midwife, and she and Lilly hit it off immediately. I was more worried than anybody about possible complications, but was assured by the midwife that all would go smoothly. She assured me that at the time of delivery she would be in contact with the local hospital, so medical attention would be available if needed.

Lilly had regular visits with the midwife, and everything was progressing well.

The big day arrived. Lilly's water broke, and I called the midwife. Lilly was a trooper, walking around calmly while I frantically waited for the midwife. Early in the evening, the midwife arrived, but didn't feel very well. In fact, she had to lie on the couch through the majority of the labor while passing instructions on to me.

Around 2:00 a.m., our son was born. The midwife felt well enough to deliver our son, passed him off to me, ensured that my Lilly was fine, then again lay down. As I was walking around our living room, cradling our newborn son in my arms, the name that flooded into my mind was Nathaniel, meaning "Gift from God." It was the perfect name. Lilly agreed.

I passed our son to his mother and drew them a warm bath. The midwife was able to drive herself home, Lilly and our son took a nice, relaxing, warm bath while I changed the linens. In a few hours, we were all sleeping as a newly expanded family.

I must admit it was an unconventional birth, but precious and unforgettable. Lilly loved Nate. She was the perfect mother and the perfect wife.

About 8 months after Nate was born, Lilly became weak and sick. Her mom was able to provide care and comfort both at our home and at the hospital, but shortly thereafter Lilly passed on.

I was devastated that Lilly was gone. Nate was a barely 8 months old and not even walking, and he didn't have his mother.

Nate and I did as well as we could, and eventually, the good, silly, and fun times started to return. I remember bathing Nate, drying him off, and then letting him run, laughing and naked, back to his room to put on his diaper and pajamas. More than once, I would see a trail of turds on his path between the bathroom and his room. It was good practice for future pets.

We didn't have a dishwasher, so Nate and I would do dishes together. He would stand on a chair in front of the sink with his sponge, and feel proud to be helping his dad.

On my way to work, I would drop Nate off with a neighbor friend who would watch him during the day, and I'd pick him up at night. We were surviving.

Married

A year or so after Lilly's passing I read an article in the Flint Journal about a pen-pal service that allowed people to write to others throughout the world. It sounded interesting.

I started to write letters to different people in many countries. It was interesting and fun to learn about other customs and lives. One person in particular caught my attention—Zhanna.

How we happened to meet was a miracle. Zhanna sums it up in one word—Providence.

She was a widow with a small child who lived on the opposite side of the world—11 time zones away in Siberia, of all places. We wrote regularly, even though it took up to a month to have a letter delivered. We wrote about everything—the events in our lives, children, work, home, beliefs, and dreams.

I wrote to her in English using a printer, so my writing would be as clear as possible. I didn't realize until several years later the hardship Zhanna endured reading these letters. Whenever she received my letter, she would first need to translate it word-by-word into Russian, answer my letter in Russian, and then translate the answer into English.

After writing for over a year, I knew Zhanna was the one. I fell in Love with Zhanna through her letters—a very special and unusual way to meet. God works in mysterious ways and chose us for each other. He told me, "There's a special, wonderful, and good woman I want you to meet." I couldn't refuse. I scheduled a trip to Moscow and Zhanna flew there from Siberia. It was a great meeting. We had a good chance to talk and visited sites in Moscow such as the Kremlin, museums, churches, Saint Basils Cathedral, the Bolshoi Theater, and many other interesting places and restaurants. Zhanna had learned English in school, but it wasn't her native language. It was a pleasurable challenge communicating throughout the week, and by the end of the visit, we were experts in international communication.

The visit exceeded our expectations, and we decided to apply for a Fiancée Visa at the United States embassy to lay the groundwork for Zhanna to immigrate to the United States.

Upon my return, I had to decide whether to live in Byron or in the hunting cabin up north. I chose Roscommon. I gutted the cabin, installed insulation and all new windows, built kitchen cabinets, remodeled the bathroom, and added lofts to both kids' bedrooms. I replaced all the original drywall with tongue-and-groove pine, giving the cabin's interior a rustic look. It turned out pretty good.

My father-in-law, Lilly's dad Marcus, helped me build a pole barn to use for storage and as a garage. He never had much of a formal education, but is one of the smartest men I know. He has common sense. He always took care of his family, built most of the houses he and his sons lived in, and ran his own excavating business.

In August 1993, Zhanna and her 6-year-old-daughter, Lena, arrived in the United States. Lena didn't speak a word of English and was scheduled to start school in a matter of days. We talked to the principal to determine whether she should immediately enroll in school, or be held back for a while until she learned English. The principal gently insisted that Lena start at once.

Without knowing a word of English, Lena started first grade, sat in the front row, and listened. Several months later, around Thanksgiving, she told her teacher, "Good Morning," in English and by Christmas, Lena was fluent. The principal was right.

Zhanna and I got married in August and our fifth child was on the way shortly thereafter.

(Continues...)

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