A few years back, when Congressmen created Medicare Part D, they did so because they grew weary of debating each year for each budget to pay for prescription drugs for Medicare recipients. Since Part D, no longer do Congressmen need to debate this as the program gets funded automatically, regardless of cost.
Americans now see the fiasco that is Obamacare, from the whopper of the Big Lie of "If you like your plan, you can keep it," told by Obama to the failed sign-up web site.
Americans are awakening to the reality that it is Congress who wrecks everything for Main Street Americans. Americans now see that rather than working for them, Congress works for luxury-living Manhattan and Beverly Hills Americans who, through lobbying and campaign financing, gain unearned profits at everyone else's expense.
Both Obamacare and Part D yield good examples of what is wrong with the U.S. Congress.
Fixing the design of Congress would force only the most important legislation to the top, with the greatest effect for the most people, if not all.
As it is, being in Congress is a full-time party. Nearly all these guys get paid nearly $200,000 a year and when you throw in their perks, it at least doubles their pay!
Back in 1790, there were 659,114 adult males (more or less) in the newly formed United States of America. The states with state legislatures that ratified the constitution which took effect March 13, 1789, sent 66 representatives to the House of Representatives. That means there was one representative for every 9,987 adults in America.
Rare it is that I call for amendments. Yet, as Americans, we need to protect ourselves from members of Congress.
Above all, we need restoration of popular representation to the House. We need the ratio of representatives to voting-age persons living within their respective districts codified as amendment to the Constitution
To protect us further from Congress, we need an amendment that does these:
• ban all taxes dedicated to fund specific programs
• ban all automatic funding of programs
• ban all closed-door legislative hearings
• require all meetings held by legislators to be streamed over the Internet, regardless of who is in attendance and for what purpose is the meeting
Each year, there should be contentious fighting by members of the House and Senate as to what gets funded and by how much.
Legislation should be hard to come by. Everything should be a contentious fight among legislators. Legislating should be a pain-in-the-ass, a hard job, so hard that only the most important issues should be debated and decided upon. It should be so hard that only the most tenacious and thoughtful persons should be attracted to do the work.
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Americans now see the fiasco that is Obamacare, from the whopper of the Big Lie of "If you like your plan, you can keep it," told by Obama to the failed sign-up web site.
Americans are awakening to the reality that it is Congress who wrecks everything for Main Street Americans. Americans now see that rather than working for them, Congress works for luxury-living Manhattan and Beverly Hills Americans who, through lobbying and campaign financing, gain unearned profits at everyone else's expense.
Fixing the design of Congress would force only the most important legislation to the top, with the greatest effect for the most people, if not all.
As it is, being in Congress is a full-time party. Nearly all these guys get paid nearly $200,000 a year and when you throw in their perks, it at least doubles their pay!
Back in 1790, there were 659,114 adult males (more or less) in the newly formed United States of America. The states with state legislatures that ratified the constitution which took effect March 13, 1789, sent 66 representatives to the House of Representatives. That means there was one representative for every 9,987 adults in America.
Back in 1913, wily Congressional critters froze House membership to a permanent 435. Later, in 1929, skunks like them passed the Reapportionment Act, which established the method of shuffling about these same 435 jokers.
Also by 1913, 17th Amendment amendment conjured up by wicked ones with nefarious purpose, the 17th stripped states' legislatures from choosing their senators. This change along with freezing the house membership, effectively ending the design of the Constitution.
No longer would senators act as ambassadors of their respective states. No longer would citizens have popular representation. Overnight, Americans went from living in a confederation of sovereign states in union to a national government, with states becoming little more than giant-sized counties.
Today, sadly, for every 520,589 adult Americans, there is but one House member (see table below). That isn't popular representation. The Founders' design has been destroyed.
To have popular representation in the way the Founders designed the government for Americans, we would need a whopping 22,676 House members!
To have popular representation in the way the Founders designed the government for Americans, we would need a whopping 22,676 House members!
You can be sure that with such a high head count, no one could gain capture of the House. Legislation would be hard to come by. You would be living in freedom rather under the jackboot of Officialdom.
America would be the land of prosperity and the envy of the world. There would be no terrorists wanting to attack us.
The net effect of having a Congress consisting of a House of 435 members (and three non-voting members) and a popular-vote Senate has created a super-senate with 87.5% of whose membership stands for re-election every two years. Under the system in place since 1913, it has become quite easy to buy 51 senators and 224 house members.
America would be the land of prosperity and the envy of the world. There would be no terrorists wanting to attack us.
The net effect of having a Congress consisting of a House of 435 members (and three non-voting members) and a popular-vote Senate has created a super-senate with 87.5% of whose membership stands for re-election every two years. Under the system in place since 1913, it has become quite easy to buy 51 senators and 224 house members.
Rare it is that I call for amendments. Yet, as Americans, we need to protect ourselves from members of Congress.
Above all, we need restoration of popular representation to the House. We need the ratio of representatives to voting-age persons living within their respective districts codified as amendment to the Constitution
To protect us further from Congress, we need an amendment that does these:
• ban all taxes dedicated to fund specific programs
• ban all automatic funding of programs
• ban all closed-door legislative hearings
• require all meetings held by legislators to be streamed over the Internet, regardless of who is in attendance and for what purpose is the meeting
Each year, there should be contentious fighting by members of the House and Senate as to what gets funded and by how much.
Legislation should be hard to come by. Everything should be a contentious fight among legislators. Legislating should be a pain-in-the-ass, a hard job, so hard that only the most important issues should be debated and decided upon. It should be so hard that only the most tenacious and thoughtful persons should be attracted to do the work.
