How about this:
House, senate. One term each. No perks, no pension. Graft conviction carries the death penalty.
My offer:
- Two terms in the house
- Disqualification if you can’t show your livelihood coming from a private sector job. 1040’s will be checked.
- Previous full-time elected positions and lawyers automatically disqualified.
- All laws passed must specifically apply to members of the federal government. No exemptions or special favors.
- No pensions.
- No amendment shall be added to any bill that is not germaine to the original bill. ( No more pork attached to bills for defense spending)
Either one is 100x better than what we have now.
Yes, all laws should apply to the people voting on the laws, no exceptions. Especially, the health reform laws!
Please add to that the following:
Committee selections will be done on opening day of the session. Each member will have his or her name engraved on a small white ball.
First up: House Ways and Means slot.
The balls roll around a giant tumbler, one pops out: Bingo!
I also support line-item veto for whomever happens to be President for an additional measure of accountability.
And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
All laws treat ALL Americans equally – that is no special groups or preferred interests. And of course ALL laws based on Constitutional authority.
Good ideas. I’ll only add that all are retroactive for 50 years back. None of them deserve anything else from the taxpayer. They should be thankful we haven’t put a bounty on the entire lot.
How about this: Members of Congress should be state employees. After all, they were elected to represent the people in a state. So they should be paid by their states. They should fall under the state retirement system, the state health system, the state ethics system and their salaries would be set by state voters. Bet they would straighten up in a hurry if they were unable to control their own salary. And hopefully, they would spend more time in their states/districts to ensure the people were heard. It’s time the fourth branch of government, the Voters, are properly represented.
I would like to see a Constitutional amendment that would require all laws to automatically sunset after 5 years unless re-enacted. No exceptions. That would allow for the efficacy of such laws to be determined and bad ones to expire. Plus it would keep Congress so busy arguing about which pet laws they want to keep that they’ll effectively be in gridlock most of the time save for the stuff they can all agree upon that are in the best interests of the People.
Matt- I’ve been advocating that point since I was in high school. The less they do, the better we’re off…
I still say what I said at Og’s: Kill them all, install me as Emperor. All hail Grau! (Insert maniacal laughter here)
I think that lobbyists should be outlawed. I feel that they are just a polite way of saying “Bribery” . Last I checked, was it not illegal to take bribes??
I like that Matt.
Need an exception from private sector employment for military service. Without that we would have got the likes of Duncan D Hunter (Capt USMC) in the 2008 election.
“Previous full-time elected positions and lawyers automatically disqualified.”
That is all that would really be needed to flush the toilet.
Then add what Paul and Matt said.
All full time elected positions will require that you give up all your money which you will have to earn prior to applying for government service, then you will have to take a test to see if you are: smart & ethical. then you will live in government housing, clothed and fed by the government, finances will be monitored by two private firms randomly chosen.
I’m thinking this is all too polite. The best solution would be a yearly tar and feathering of the worst Congress member. The winner/loser will be chosen by the general public and the event will happen on April 15 every year.
Lawyers in general ain’t so bad–cripes, we mostly spend our lives working out other people’s problems so they don’t wind up maiming or killing each other over a fender-bender or a bad roofing job. It’s the few high profile bastiches, like John Edwards, who spoil the profession for the rest of us. Every other suggestion offered, especially the one about making them state employees, subject to all state salaries, are excellent. Sunsetting all laws after 5 years would sho-nuff reduce the number of stupid crap on the books. One of my biggest issues with gummint is its seeming inability to repeal or reduce anything they start, no matter how ill-conceived. That, for instance, is the reason it’s so important to fight this Health Industry Communist Revolution that Zero is trying to ram through. Once it’s done, no matter how bad it is, it’ll be near impossible to get rid of and all the bureaucrats it creates and employs will forever vote/dance with them that brung ’em. Talk about screwed!
All bills must be available for at least 3 working days in final form before a binding vote can take place. Every edit or amendment resets the clock.