USA Today, in an article under the Susan Page byline, offers three solutions to fixing our broken Federal government. Here they are, real breakthrough thinking.
Redistrict to make districts more competitive. Second, change the rules. The only suggestion offers was to eliminate filibustering used by Republicans. Third, “meet the other side”. Shuffle seating so parties have to sit together. And, change the calendar so politicians who go home on Wednesday would be around on weekends.. Of course, they would be further out of touch with voters, but more in touch with the other party.
That’s it, that’s how we fix our broken government. You buying this plan? If so, I know a Nigerian prince who needs some money.
I feel so much better knowing we can fix all or our problems in Washington so easily.
I was thinking in more complex terms. Like new term limits so politicians weren’t in the pockets of lobbyists. So no more can become millionaires on modest salaries. It seemed like new blood coming in all the time would help from getting dug in on positions, either by belief or bribe.
I was thinking that campaign reform combined with term limits would help. Because of term limits campaigning would not be eternal. And, if you had to pay taxes on campaign contributions you might spend less. And, when you went out of office, you put that unspent money back in the pot, it might make it harder to become that millionaire. That might have kept Blago out of prison.
If we did these things, we could put greater trust in the actions of those we elected to reflect their mandate. They would be harder to buy.
But, bi-partisanship doesn’t address right and wrong. Over 70% of Americans want our government to cut spending. But, our President and many in his party want to play games with spending and scam the public. Like taking credit for Iraq and Afghanistan. Spreading token spending cuts over 10 years to make the cuts seem bigger. The public wants spending cuts and they want them now. Why do they have to be tied to tax increases? The public wants cuts.
So does one party owe it to the other party to betray the wishes of the public? I think not. All the gridlock everyone is concerned with revolves around the debt. Sometimes gridlock is good. Especially, if the wishes of the majority are met.
Back to getting some bipartisanship, do all of these who cite debt issues regarding gridlock, do you remember ObamaCare? Buying votes from senators seemed perfectly OK. Funny thing, those who sold out like Ben Nelson, are not expected to be re elected in 2012. Guess the public didn’t agree with the sellout.
But, term limits and campaign reform might send people to Washington who vote with the voters. That might cause more gridlock, but maybe that’s good.
