The Senator

Prologue

…Washington, D.C.

…United States Senate Chamber

…3 January, 2015

…10:01 a.m. EST

I am ready, Mr. Vice-President.

"Place your left hand on the Bible, raise your right hand and repeat after me: I … your name…. do solemnly swear….

"I, Sarah Paige, do solemnly swear…"

.. that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…

"…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…"

…that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…

"…that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…"

…that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion…

"…that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion…"

…and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter…

"…and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter…"

…So help me God.

"…So help me God."

***

Welcome aboard, Senator Paige.

Thank you, Vice President Biden. And thank you, Senator Alexander for being my escort.

Ms. Paige…Sarah, if I may, it was my pleasure. We certainly expect a lot out of such an exceptional fellow Senator from the great Volunteer State.

Shall we move to the old Senate Chamber for the photographs? The Vice-President asked. I’m sure the folks back in Tennessee are eager to see you being sworn in.

Yes, Senator Alexander…

Lamar, please, Sarah. After all, you are a Senator yourself.

Fine, Sen… Lamar. Let’s get the show on the road.

***

At the beginning of a new term of office, every senator-elect takes his or her oath of office from the presiding officer in an open session of the Senate before they can begin to perform their legislative activities. From the earliest days, the senator-elect—both the freshman and the returning veteran—has been escorted down the aisle by another senator to take the oath from the presiding officer. That officer is usually the Vice-President of the United States, or in his absence, the President Pro-Tem of the Senate. Customarily, the escort who performs that ritual is the other senator from the senator-elect’s state. Occasionally, the senator-elect chooses a senator from different state, either because the same-state colleague is absent or because the newly elected senator has sharp political differences with that colleague. Such public displays of these differences do not go unnoticed by journalists.

A ban on photography in the Senate chamber has led senators to devise an alternative way of capturing this highly symbolic moment in their Senate careers. At one time in history, the Vice President would invite newly sworn senators and their families into his Capitol office for a reenactment for home-state photographers. Beginning in the late 1970s, following the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber to its appearance at the time it went out of service in 1859, reenactment ceremonies have been held in that deeply historical setting, resplendent in crimson and gold.

House Chamber

Tennessee State Capital Building

600 Charlotte Avenue

Nashville, Tennessee

26 February, 2015

21:00 (9:00 p.m.) CST

"My fellow Americans and my neighbors here in the great state of Tennessee. I believe that you know me, but for those who do not recognize my face, I am Sarah Paige. I am a United States Senator, in fact, I am the Senator representing the eastern part of Tennessee. At least, primarily the east, although I feel that I and my fellow senator, Lamar Alexander represent the entire Volunteer State as well as the other states in this great nation of ours.

It is altogether fitting that I address you from this House Chamber of the Tennessee State Capital Building, a site where the memories of three Presidents of the United States of America—Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk—echo through these hallowed halls. Where homage is paid to revered heroes from Tennessee’s history: Sergeant Alvin York, Sam Davis and Edward Ward Carmack. Where many honorable citizens came to serve their fellow man, giving of their time, their talent and their treasure to make the Volunteer State—our beloved state of Tennessee—a shining example to the world. I am humbled to be in the presence of such magnificent personages.

The speaker stood behind a podium in the front center of the stage at the front of the room. The charcoal-grey two-button suit jacket she was wearing was unbuttoned, revealing a tailored, pale pastel blouse. The skirt of the business suit was flounced, reaching just to the bottom of her knees. Sarah Paige, with the help of her personal maid, had deliberately chose the attire because it was the kind of an outfit that a moderately successful female would wear, not too dressy but still indicating success.

Sarah continued. "It is also fitting that I address you today on February 26, the anniversary of the date that I announced my candidacy for the United States Senate, and that I now speak following the State of the Union speech by the President, who—I’m afraid—offered a slightly different message than I bring; a different view of the United States than I carry; a different version of the state of our Union than I see. I appear before you today to honor the solemn pledge that I made to you when I asked for your vote in my campaign for this seat in the United States Senate, the seat that was held by my uncle before he was ruthlessly slain along with his longtime secretary. I made a commitment to you — I promised that I would undertake a close examination of the status of our Country and our government and I would report back to you with the truth, not feed you some sugar-coated pill to make you feel good. Instead, the truth, the real truth—no matter whose toes it was necessary to step on or whose feelings were hurt. I vowed to bring the truth to you because, unlike the majority of the people in our government, I believe that you, my fellow citizens, can handle the truth, and even more important, I believe that you deserve to know the truth. However, before I begin the report, let me take a moment to recap the reason that I decided to run for Congress. This conversation may take a little while, so I suggest you pull up your most comfortable chair and have a seat. A hot cup of coffee wouldn’t hurt, but I prefer a cup of tea.

Sarah paused, hearing the expected chuckles from many in the audience, and took a sip from the cup that had been placed on the podium earlier; a cup that did indeed contain still-warm tea. No one noticed, not even those sitting in the front row, the slight nervous tremor in her hand as she looked at the auditorium packed to overflowing.

"Before I arrived at the point when I made the decision to run for a seat in the Senate, I had become absolutely fed up with the status quo. I was tired of my government misleading me with false and manufactured information. I was turned off by the political spin the Administration and Congress put on everything and I had become sick of the lies, the half-lies, the half-truths and the twisting of facts to make us believe that we were better off than before. Or—so as they attempt to shift blame—if we are not now better off than before, it is our own fault, not theirs. Think about it for a moment. The government—this government—our government—was and is still trying to pretend that our economy is doing better and that we are climbing out of a deep recession. The fact that they caused the recession and they are even yet stifling the recovery is being ignored or covered up. They have forced punitive laws on us in the name of safety; laws that eroded the rights endowed on us by our creator, call Him—or Her—God, Allah, Jehovah, the Great Spirit, what you will—but there is undeniably a superior entity out there somewhere causing us to be here now and endows us with certain inalienable rights, rights protected by the Constitution of the United States, the greatest document outside of the Bible and—like the Bible-was deity-inspired. But those rights were—and are yet—being taken away from us one small bite at a time.

"I was—and I still am—disgusted with our politicians, catering to foreign nations, supporting governments around the world; governments that only want our money and our supplies and when our benevolent nation provides that assistance, those very same governments turn their people against us, and in doing so they are—as my uncle would have said—biting the hand that is feeding them. I found it hard—and still do—to accept that those very nations—who are so much like welfare recipients that never seem to get enough—will actually use the munitions that we provide to them for their defense to attack us and kill our soldiers, our sailors, our Marines and our airmen and women. And then blame the United States.

"I could no longer accept the constant upward spiral of government actions causing food prices, gasoline prices and cost of living to rise; rise without check or without limit, constantly eroding the purchase power of the average citizen’s paycheck. But there was nothing the average citizen—like you and I—could do about it. I was not willing to believe that I could not be safe in my own country, within my own land or house—a house that the government could take away from me or you—if they thought a higher and better use could be made of it that might generate additional tax revenue.

"I could go on for the rest of today about the evils I see within the government, but most of you recognize the same monstrosity that I see and you chose to allow me to try to battle that – that multi-headed monster, that wants to eat us one bite at a time. They want a new world order. We cannot allow that. I accepted the challenge and must regretfully inform you that I failed.

Not that I failed to examine the inner workings of the government, but I failed in my puny attempts to make a change. I found the abyss that is Washington to be a chasm without bottom, a void with no limits, the infernal Black Hole" that scientists refer to in their study of the unknown. Without any excuse, without an apology, without shame, I must admit the truth: I failed—and I am failing—because no one person—or even two or three people—can conquer the dragon that is Big Brother…our government.

"In order that you might understand what we—not just Tennesseans but all American citizens—are facing, let me set the stage for you.

"I said our government is a ‘dragon’, but I should have used a different animal. Our government is a pig. A gigantic hog, if you will, but a pig none the less. A pig that is insatiable. A pig that never gets enough food—meaning your and my tax dollars—and will eat so long as there is food available and then grunt for more. Like the pig, our governments spends every dollar it can raise, every dollar that it can borrow and then clamors endlessly for more and more and more.

"To understand our government grew so large and so invasive isn’t easy. The Constitution of the United States called for three separate but equal branches of government, the Administrative branch—composed of the President, the Vice-President and the Cabinet; the Legislative Branch—the United States Senate and the House of Representatives; and the Judicial Branch—the courts and the United States Supreme Court. Let’s take a closer look at each branch.

"First, the Congress of the United States. The House of Representatives has 435 members. Each member has a staff of employees paid for by taxpayer dollars. The staff is headed by the Congressman’s Chief of Staff. Most of the staff works for one politician until the politician is not re-elected or until he—or she—retires, then the staff moves on to another politician. Each Representative has eighteen full-time and four part-time staffers—or employees. This adds up to seven thousand eight hundred and thirty full-time and one thousand eight hundred and forty part-time employees, But that is not all. Additionally, each committee in the House and every sub-committee has additional staffers.

"Without belaboring the point, the Senate replicates the situation. And, yes, that includes me as well, I’m part of the hog, because I am a member of the Senate.

"A short fourteen years ago there were eleven thousand six hundred and ninety-two personal staff members, two thousand four hundred and ninety-two staff members, two hundred and seventy-four leadership staff members, five thousand and thirty-four institutional staff members, three thousand five hundred staff members in the Government Accounting Office, and two hundred and thirty two in the Congressional Budget Office. This totals twenty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty-four staff members as well as four hundred and thirty-five Representatives and one hundred Senators. That was in 2000, and I’m sorry to say that the number of staff workers are double that today.

"And that is just Congress. With like numbers in the Judicial branch and in the Administrative is there any wonder that our nation faces a disaster. And the situation is even bleaker.

"There are over thirteen hundred departments—that is over one thousand three hundred different department—in the federal government, each of them staffed with hundreds and thousands of employees, clerks, secretaries, mangers, janitors, etc. And every one of those thousands and thousands—make that hundreds of thousands—produce…. absolutely nothing. Their job is to create regulations, enforce regulations, get around regulations, monitor what you do, watch what I do, and all the time, they are feeding from the trough of our tax dollars. Quagmire? You had better believe it, it is a quagmire filled with quicksand into which America is sinking and no one is offering a helping hand. Not only do they not offer a helping hand, they are continuing to load burdensome regulation after restrictive laws on the shoulders of the average American citizen, increasing the rate at which America is sinking into that quagmire.

"So, my fellow citizens, and as a warning to the people around the world, my report to you is quite stark and frightening. Our government is in a mess and hopelessly heading toward a catastrophe not seen since the fall of the Roman Empire. Our nation is headed toward a total collapse and will likely take the rest of the world with her. And that will lead to total chaos not seen since the dark ages. Anarchy will displace democracy and freedom will be a thing of the past. In plain language, our government is a train totally out of control, recklessly careening on its way to the most devastating train wreck in history, and no one has his hands on the brake.

"And now you have the truth. That is the true state of our Union, not the sugar-candy stuff being fed to you by the politicians in Washington. I would that it were different.

I see we still have a few minutes, so I’ll take any questions?

Among the crowd of people who filled the Tennessee Capital Building were several members of the news media. For a long moment, they sat—as citizens who had come to see their favorite senator—in stunned silence, completely overwhelmed by the stark facts exposed by Senator Paige. After a lengthy silence, a reporter from the local daily newspaper, The Tennessean rose.

Senator Paige?

Yes, sir.

"Tom Carson of The Tennessean. Surely, Senator, things in Washington cannot be as bad as you indicate."

Tom, I’m afraid you miss the point. Not only is the situation as I described it, it is even worse. With a government running out of control, spending every dollar it can squeeze out of the American citizen and giving little in return, and spending every dollar it can borrow from anyone that will lend money to a sinking nation, how can this nation dig its way out from under the burden of some seventeen—no, make that nineteen trillion dollars in debt—and growing every minute; most of it owed to enemies of our country?

But our leaders tell us that things are improving.

Tom, have you checked the average American’s bank account lately? Have you looked at their savings, their retirement account—for those lucky enough to have a retirement account? Have you filled up your car with gasoline and paid for it with your own money? Have you looked at what it costs to feed, house and clothe an average family? And have you noticed that the average paycheck for a worker is less now than it was just six months ago? Have you checked the number of housing foreclosures and personal bankruptcies? Or businesses shutting down, laying off workers and filing bankruptcy? You are a reporter, check me out.

From the second row a female reporter stood.

Senator Paige?

Yes, Ma’am,

Shirley Bevins from TV-8, Public Broadcasting. Senator, why do you say our government is out of control? Isn’t the administration doing all that it can under the circumstances they inherited?

"Ms. Bevins, the current administration has been in control of the Administrative branch of the government for seven years. Don’t you think it is about time they take responsibility for