Posted by
Patrick Henry on Friday, March 20, 2009 3:25:40 PM
It is, by now, glaringly apparent that Barack Obama's promised change has far more to
do with changing capitalism to socialism, Rebublican ascendancy to Democrat domination
and careless spendthriftiness to insanely unprecedented government waste. Those are not
quite the changes many Americans had in mind when they elected him to the nation's
highest office. The status quo in Washington continues to be politics as usual, only
meaner and nastier, with a bankruptcy bound fiscal mentality that threatens to spend the
nation into oblivion, undertaking a one trillion dollar deficit for at least the next ten years.
So what's the cause, and what's the fix?
To even begin thinking about a real fix, one has to understand the cause. And it may
come as a surprise that the root cause of America's problem in Washington is neither
the Republicans nor the Democrats. It's both! The problem is the career politicians
who, once in power, will do or say anything to stay there, who take massive financial
contributions from companies and lobbies over whose interests they exercise oversight
and who acknowledge responsibility to their constituents only during election
campaigns. These politicians are so in love with themselves that they presume their
election a mandate to enact their own vision for America, rather than to craft
new and innovative solutions to American problems through collaboration, advice
and consent from those who elected them. The fact is that 75% of the private sector
malfeasance leading to the fiscal meltdown was either directly caused by or slyly
winked at by both Republican and Democrat administrations, the U.S. Senate and
the House of Representatives. In other words, politics as usual and politicians in
general are the cause of the problem.
So, how do we fix that? When you can't teach old dogs new tricks you replace
them with puppies. The first fix is to impose strict term limits on legislators that
allow only a single 6-year term in the Senate, and no more than two successive
terms in the House. Couple that with a mandatory 2-year waiting period before
a legislator completing a term can run again, or run for a seat in the other chamber,
and we will minimize or nearly eliminate "career politicians" whose obsessive self-
aggrandizement is the cause of much of the current malaise.
Second, strict controls must be exercised on the powerful lobbies that assail the
legislature each session with promises of campaign contributions, gifts or support,
or threats of political reprisal. The Supreme Court has generally protected these
parasites from real limitations because of their First Amendment rights to "free
speech." So the key is to more tightly regulate those whose congressional votes
they seek to buy or coerce. No sitting legislator should be allowed to accept ANY
money whatsoever from an interest over whose sector they provide oversight. That
includes campaign contributions. EVERY contact whatever between any elected
official or administrative appointee and a lobbyist or other representative of the
"special interests" should be made a matter of public record, and legislators who do
not religiously comply should be ejected from their offices. No gifts or gratuities,
including "sweetheart" loans, cut-rate real estate purchases or gratis services should
be permitted during, or for a three-year period after an official's period of service.
Violations should be treated as crimes on both the part of those accepting and
offering them, and should be punishable by fines at least equal to the amount
of the gratuity AND prison terms. This, coupled with strict term limits, will work
wonders toward cleaning up Washington.
Third, America needs REAL election law reform. Caps, adjusted annually, should
be placed on how much a candidate for office can spend on his or her campaign,
regardless of the sources of funding. This will deprive rich candidates of their
advantage over poorer ones, and will give voters some insight into how well they
can manage the resources allotted to them. Offices that can be bought (most of them
under current law), can also be sold. And it doesn't make much difference whther it's
Rod Blagojevic selling Obama's Senate seat for cash, or Nancy Pelosi selling her soul
to the unions. The end result is the same. Candidates for president and vice-president
should be compelled to accept public campaign funding, and strictly limited to only
that. This will, again, give voters a window into their fiscal management skills, while
creating a truly level financial playing field for the candidates.
Fourth, a cabinet level office of ethics in government should be created as a watchdog
on the behavior of administrative officials, and staffed with non-partisan employees who
are accountable to lawmakers and the public as well as the administration, and who
provide regular and public reports of their deliberations and the results of any inquiries
they conduct. Similarly, a joint Senate-House ethical watchdog committee should be
created, made up of an EQUAL number of members from each of the two major
parties. Such a body should have the power, by majority vote, to recommend the
discipline or dismissal of any member from either chamber caught in an ethical
violation. It would be nice if we didn't need such tools. But the plain fact is that
we do!
Finally, we need to reject politics as usual as a way of life, and begin thinking
about sending problem solvers with real world experience to Washington instead
of career bureaucrats. It is a lead pipe cinch that a group of teachers and school
principals could do a better job of setting national educational policies than
those in Washington who seem committed to simply sticking another crutch under
a crippled and failing system. Ditto for a group of farmers and processors who will
do a far better job with agricultural policies, old soldiers who understand what the
military needs and the awful costs of war, retired spies who really understand the
intelligence business, successful, honest businessmen who have a firsthand grasp
of commerce, labor and trade issues, and so forth and so on. Such people are far
more likely to provide practical, real world solutions to American problems, and
to view their term of service more like a Peace Corps stint than a career.
These are sweeping and drastic changes to the current state of affairs, and will
be resisted tooth and nail by the political establishment. But how many voters
really like the current state of affairs? When the house is filthy and infested with
disease and decay there is only one real solution. CLEAN IT! And as American
voters only WE have the power to do it.