Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "YOU REALLY WANT TO DRAIN THE SWAMP.......
The fact is that if you really want to drain the swamp, the political swamp of corruption in Washington DC, it is not enough to make a few changes here and there.
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The fact is that if you really want to drain the swamp, the political swamp of corruption in Washington DC, it is not enough to make a few changes here and there.
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You need to make fundamental changes in the way things are being done.
Currently, Washington resembles Paris before the revolution.
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Currently, Washington resembles Paris before the revolution.
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Dominated by lobbies, being there requiring lots of money from special interests, and lots of companies locating there to gather around the centers of power to influence them – for favors, for contracts, for positions.
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Washington has become one of the most expensive places to live in the nation, just as Paris did 200 plus years ago and for the same reasons.
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President George Washington warned against having political parties that would put their interests for power ahead of ther welfare of the people, and use fundraising to enforce member discipline. He was right. We see it every day.
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A CHANGE IS NEEDED IF WE ARE TO DRAIN THE SWAMP OF PRIVILEGE AND CORRUPTION IN WASHINGTON AND A BEGINNING to support candidates for Congress and the Senate that support the following principles:
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1. That there should be no ‘career politicians’, meaning we need strict term limits, a no revolving door policy, and an end to Congressional Pensions that reward career longevity.
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2. That all legislation must be composed by congressmen themselves with the help of staff, meaning no legislation written by lobbies and their attorney-employees.
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All legislation should be no longer than 3 typewritten pages and in plain understandable English so every bill presented can be read and understood by all members and the public before votes are cast. (as originally suggested by one of the Founders, George Mason).
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3. A new and more realistic set of ethics rules that prevent members of congress from circumventing normative ethics standards by finding employment...
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and financially lucrative deals for family members with agencies and organizations and companies which may benefit from their position, efforts, and votes in Congress. And these new rules of ethical behavior need to extend to all appointed upper level Federal employees.
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4. A ban for 7 years on appointed Federal employees and legislators seeking positions outside government in businesses that lobbied or hired lobbies to influence legislation in areas of their government responsibilities. No revolving door allowed.
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5. Full disclosure in a public forum of all campaign contributions above $100.00.
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6. A ban on all political contributions and campaign activity from public sector unions and any organizations or companies receiving Federal funds or contracts. There are solid reasons why President Franklin Roosevelt opposed Public Sector Unions.
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7. All legislation must apply to all Americans. No exemptions for Congress. Congress is not to be some privileged class that does not live under the same laws as it imposes on the rest of us.
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8. Congressional office staff needs to be reduced to the level of 1960. Costs saved to be used for other things such as congressional housing.
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9. No more exemptions from libel and slander laws for politicians. It is time to clean up the process and eliminate false accusations and derogatory characterizations.
I can hear all the objections already. So, allow me to answer some of them in advance.
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I can hear all the objections already. So, allow me to answer some of them in advance.
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A. if there are term limits, does that not create a Congress that gets nothing done as there will be few with sufficient legislative experience to run things smoothly?
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Answer. Very little gets done today in a Congress that is filled with career politicians whose first loyalty is to party because the party controls a lot of the funds they need for their next campaign.
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Term and/or their contributors Limits mean at any time there will be some members that have been there for a while, who can lead, so not all will be, at any given time, novices.
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The shorter tenures, and the reduction in campaign money, will cause members to actually work harder and get more done so they can show some accomplishment to their constituents.
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B. The high cost of living in Washington DC plus the need to maintain two homes will be prohibitive to all but the wealthy?
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3. A new and more realistic set of ethics rules that prevent members of Congress from circumventing normative ethics standards by finding employment and financially lucrative deals for family members with agencies....
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and organizations and companies which may benefit from their position, efforts, and votes in Congress. And these new rules of ethical behavior need to extend to all appointed upper-level Federal employees. See. Mason.
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C. The complexity of life in the USA requires more complex laws, so such simplification is a bad idea.
Answer: In every era, people think their time is the most complex possible.
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Answer: In every era, people think their time is the most complex possible.
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The number of problems facing Americans in 2018 is no greater than the number of problems facing Americans in 1960, and probably less.
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What has changed over the years is the effect of the legal community and lobbies in writing legislation that obscures rather than illuminates what our rules are and the virtual transfer of responsibility, for more and more of American life to Washington,...
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in fact, most often duplicating what the states are already doing. Complexity has been created. It is time to shear away duplication and the kind of complexity that hides corruption.
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Finally, on the subject of campaign contributions, yes, I know the Supreme Court has established that Corporate and Union political contributions are the same as if these contributions are given by a person and constitute free political speech.
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That is absurd reasoning. It is not “free speech for the union member whose dues are mandatory with the payor having no say in how they are spent and cannot easily refuse to pay those union dues if not happy with the leadership’s political choice.
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It is not free speech when stockholders in a mutual fund or even those who directly purchase shares have money that would be their dividends, being given to candidates, not of their choice. So, let’s be real. The court was wrong and needs to revisit the issue.
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Note that just because a Supreme Court makes a decision, does not make that decision permanent. If it were, Dred Scott would still be the law of the land."
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