Tim Daneliuk wrote:
NoOne N Particular wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
Charlie Self wrote:


How about just making congress a part time organization of say 90
days a year? The rest of the year they have to be actually IN the
district they represent and they have to talk to the people in that
district. They have too much time to screw us as it is now. The
president would have the power to call them to session at times of
emergency.

Make all PAC's and organizations like them illegal. No
contributions
from any organizations at all. Just from citizens, and put a limit
on that too. Need to get the government back in the hands of the
people.

Take every lobbyists and stick a huge pole up their ass and then
display them in front of the congressional headquarters buildings.
Hopefully they won't actually like it.

Then, change the voting rules so that only people within the middle
class income range can vote. Only income from actual work counts.
Interest, dividends, stock sales, etc. don't count. No more
freeloaders and no more richies. Just the so-called "average joe".

Wayne


Step One
--------

How about *two* houses of Congress one to pass, and one to repeal
laws. In each case, one passes laws but requires a 2/3 majority to
do
so.
The other corresponding house only has the power to *repeal* laws
requiring only a simple majority. Require that all laws
automatically sunset after 5 years and must go through legislation
again to remain in law. Any law deemed to be so important that
it should be permanent (i.e., override the sunset) should require
100% consent of both houses and a Presidential signature.

Step Two
--------

Instead of salaries, allocate the current amount spent + 50% for
legislative compensation. Each member of the legislative bodies
gets a minimal "base salary". They collect a "bonus" quarterly
based
on how much the government remains in the black and how many laws
they manage to pass (and do not later get repealed) or,

No. No incentives for passing laws. Go down to the library and
_look_ at the US Code on the shelf. Seeing it online doesn't have the
same impact. One problem with this country is that there are so many
damned laws that not even the lawyers can know them all.

correspondingly, on how many laws they repeal. Repealers get a 2:1
incentive compared to law passers. Law passers have a term limit of
one, six year term. Repealers get two such terms. No one gets any
money if the government runs a debt that quarter.

Not sure that penalizing them for deficit spending is necessarily a
good idea. Sometimes that helps the economy.

Step Three
----------

Instantiate a flat tax like the Fair Tax via a Constitutional
Amendment that forbids the institution of *any* other kind of tax.

So no protective tariffs on foreign trade even if other countries do
enact such tariffs? The "Fair Tax" proposal seems to be a 23% sales
tax, which is a "soak the poor" scheme.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)