As I ponder options and make preparations, many things bubble through the brain as regards the flaws in our way of doing business. Here are some ideas I’ve come up with:
1. Term limits – one term and you’re out. And then at least two years must elapse before you take another federal office.
2. Perhaps modify the terms of office – Representative to 4 years, Senator to 8 years, President to 6 years. Stagger House elections so only half the members are up ever two years.
3. Add 100 members to the House. We’ve been with 435 members for a century or so now – and a century ago our population was less than a third of what it is now. The House is supposed to be directly responsive to the will of the people, and I think that with districts approaching 690,000 residents, this is not possible.
4. Break up some of the States in to smaller entities. California with nearly 37,000,000 people has two Senators. Vermont with 621,000 people has two Senators. It makes sense that a Vermont Senator can represent the whole State as it is a fairly compact unit where most citizens share the same general concerns. Do the concerns of San Francisco even remotely resemble the concerns of Santa Ana? The concerns of Los Angeles, are they even in the same ballbark as those of Daly City? Such modifications would, of course, require State consent, but common sense dictates that the people of California north of San Francisco/Sacramento would prefer Senators committed to Northern California rather than beholden to groups in Los Angeles and San Francisco directly hostile to the aspirations of the people of Northern California.
5. All legislation coming to the President must be contained on no more than 10 type-written, 8.5×11 inch pages. If it takes more than ten pages to tell what you’re doing, it shouldn’t be done.
6. Make it illegal to be in fact or in form a lobbyists without a clear declaration of such employment. Allow no lobbyists to reside within 100 miles of Washington, DC.
7. End all pensions and health benefits for elected officials.
8. Remove all controls on campaign donations and expenditures. Make it illegal to expend money on a political campaign more than 180 days prior to the election.
9. With the National Guard essentially the ready reserve of the active military, States lack a military force at their disposal in case of emergency (when the emergency comes, it is very likely that the US government will call up the Guard, leaving the State with, perhaps, insufficient military resources) – create State militias made up of older men and women (preferably former service members) who can never be used outside of US territory, but who can backstop the Guard when it is called to active duty and provide an armed security force for static defense (such as guarding ports, airports, bridges, tunnels, etc during a time of external threat to America, itself).
10. Make it illegal for the federal government to ever take more than 30% of a person’s annual income.
What would you add, take away or modify?
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