by Jack
Wouldn’t it be great if government fixed one major thing that [WE] wanted every year they are in office?
Just imagine what great things government could accomplish if they reformed one major thing a year! How long have we been waiting for them to fix the IRS with an easy to fill out tax form or a flat tax or something other than this overly complex system we have now? How about this enormous deficit spending or immigration reform, how long does it take to get something done that, we the people, really want? These issues and many others have dragged on in endless debate and nothing gets fixed! That’s more than frustrating, it’s wrong and the system needs to be shaken up. Because it’s (gov) is so lethargic, we’ve become acclimated to failure and politicians have become experts at making excuses. Ironically they use these same un-fixed things, that we call hot button issues, to themselves get re-elected! How crazy is that? Something needs to change.
Okay, here’s my idea, I propose the things Washington must fix should be assigned to them by us (voters) during the general election. Here’s how it works: There would be (4) four of our most important issues (call them federal mandates) on the general election ballot and those mandates would be selected prior to the election by independent polling across the nation.
Election time rolls around and you vote for your candidate/party like always, but then you cast a vote for the issue/mandate nearest dearest to your heart and you rank them in order of importance. The votes determine which of the those four issues are handled first. Washington must then solve in order of priority one issue per year.
Under the new rules politicians are mandated by us to solve one voter approved federal issue per year! Before anything else gets in the way they’re tasked to fix this years mandated federal issue…period. And if they don’t, well, there will be consequences…read on, I have a surprising, if not novel, idea for a consequence.
Solving just one issue in a whole year is not too much to ask is it? We the people may not be calling all the shots, but at least we are calling 4 of them! We’re telling Congress here’s the problem we want fixed, now fix it! Isn’t that empowering?
Questions:
1. But, what if they don’t fix all 4 issues, what then? Okay, some issues can take longer to fix than others, it might take another year to get it fixed, so let’s be reasonable. Let’s let them take a bye on one issue or take 2 years on one issue, but only on the condition that a bye (pass) gets rolled over to the next election cycle.
They absolutely must fix 3 of the 4 mandated federal issues or… and here’s the part I think you will like best…. or they are not eligible to run for re-election! They have failed to deliver – they didn’t do their jobs – so they’re gone! It doesn’t matter which party is in power, if they can’t work together to fix a minimum of 3 major issues in 4 years, those who were present during that period of time are not worthy of being re-elected. This is how it must be and it’s the way it works in the private sector every day.
2. What happens if we (the voters) don’t like their fix to a federal mandated issue? Okay, then it goes right back to ballot until a majority of voters are satisfied! We will not let these rascals in Washington escape their duty to us; they can’t pass crappy laws and claim they fixed what we demanded, no sir, not anymore! We’re the bosses, they’re the employees. They either do their job or we’re going to fire them and hire somebody who can do the job. We’ve got them, they can’t weasel out of it, they had a mission and they either complete the mission or they are gone. This is called accountability and it’s something sorely lacking Washington. Fixing mandated issues should be fairly easy when their careers are on the line, don’t you think? That kind of accountability will buy a whole lot of cooperation in Washington.
3. Do they have to work on the federal mandate before they can move on to other issues that need reform? Not necessarily, both houses are set up to work on a multitude of issues concurrently. We’re just saying, you politicians have a deadline to meet, ya better spend your time wisely or there will be consequences!
I like it.
“Before anything else gets in the way, they’re tasked to fix this years federal issue…period.”
No add-on’s either, not before nor after the bill is signed by the President!
Jack, you really make me laugh, no offence or anything.
The politicians don’t want to fix anything. That’s not why they are in DC. They are there to enrich themselves and special interests and to increase their power and that of the government.
Why people look to the District of Criminals to fix anything is beyond me. Asking them or expecting them to fix anything is asking for trouble. Just look how they fixed healthcare.
The tax code will never be simplified because there are far too many special interests who get rich off it.
The only way anything is going to get fixed is for the entire system to implode and maybe then people will learn the true nature of government and we can start over with true liberty.
But that will be very painful and the sheeple will probably demand the gummit “fix it.” And the politicians will be more than happy to fix them good and hard.
Bob, of course you are right. Government is too far gone to ever correct itself and the people (sheeple) are too acclimated to accepting the new tyranny, such as pervasive invasion of privacy, unconstitutional government invasions by the IRS, as in tax seizures without due process, using the NSA to spy on American citizens without probable cause, using the IRS to target political enemies, and more, much more. It will take an Arab Spring kind of mob action to topple the government, hang a few lawmakers from lamp posts and start government over from the ground up. Then we may last another 100-150 years before it’s necessary to do it all over again. However, in lieu of that blood bath, a person like me can dream of a better way…and I think my idea is workable if we the people had the mind to do it. Yeah, I know… we don’t and we are too willing to accept the status quo.
I guess I’m a tortoise by nature. The way I see it the ideas of the progressive left have brought us to this ugly place. They did it over a period of seventy or more years by gradually inserting themselves into positions of power in our institutions and by constant, inch by inch, gains made through the use of propaganda, divisiveness, redistribution, threats, enticements…and gaining control of the messages put out to our children. They have won by undermining morality and reason.
We can attempt the bloody revolution; we can also just continue to work to take the country back to the principles of her founding. It does require a lot of work by every citizen that cares. There are many signs that the people are taking this method to heart…teachers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, business people, people of various religions and disciplines who believe in our fundamental freedoms and a much smaller federal government are thinking, talking, and working daily to enroll others behind this noble cause.
The politicians will have to keep up or stand aside. I know, it seems like an impossible dream, but so did coming across the big ocean to find freedom in a new and wild land…so did risking everything to establish a new nation. Every generation faces a difficult task…so what if this one seems monumental?
Nothing is lost by having another idea. This one may never come to fruition but it does express the frustration and fatigue of a nation fed up with its leaders.
keep pounding away, day after day, in any way you can think of Jack…it’s all good.
Jack, no offense but I don’t think government can be fixed because of government’s very nature.
There is nothing voluntary about government. By it’s very nature it is coercive. You MUST obey every law, ordinance, regulation, edict, code, mandate, measure, statute, and decree that every politician and bureaucrat dictate.
If you don’t you will be fined and/or jailed and if you resist the ultimate end is that you will be killed.
Everything government does is through violence or the threat of violence.
How can such a system be moral? How can such a system be reformed?
Such a system can only attract the most power hungry, corrupt, hypocritical and egomaniacal type of person to lead or to be behind the scenes manipulating the so called leaders (i.e. politicians).
It always fascinated how so called peace loving liberals make such a system their first choice for implemtenting societal change instead of a voluntary, truly peaceful alternative.
We need a society based on voluntarism, not coercion.
“…and maybe then people will learn the true nature of government and we can start over with true liberty.”
Far too optimistic, Bob.
“We need a society based on voluntarism, not coercion.”
Never happen. A system of coercion is the only system most people will respond to. People are hard wired for
it. As Arnold said most people need to be told what to do and how to do it.
On the other hand have you read the book “Democracy–The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy,
Democracy, and Natural Order?” Just curious.
But the current system will implode, make no doubt about it. It is a house of cards ponzi scheme. It will go
down but no one knows when. It could be 6 months, a year or 5 years or more but it will collapse.
The federales have amassed over $17 trillion in debt, are adding to it at over $600 billion a year and have
unfunded liabilities that dwarf that. Throw in all the other debt including unfunded liabilities of the state
and local governments, and private debt and it is truly a hopeless situation. All of these liablilities can
never possibly be met, at least in real terms. (The goverments and central banks of the world will try to
inflate their way out of it.) The governments of the world have to have close to 0 interest rates or they
couldn’t afford to pay interest on their debt.
It’s too late now to stop a collapse. As the song goes it’s over (but we can’t turn the other way).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOK4U_pSxGA
Well, at least there’s a good guitar section in that piece.
Rand Paul destroys John Kerry over foreign aid…And I wonder where in the Constitution it says the government gets to take money from its hard working citizens (by force if necessary) and give it to foreign government…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51E0GV_JXK4
Rand Paul destroys John Kerry over foreign aid…
So politicians from a country 17 trillion in debt with unfunded liabilities over 200 trillion are talking about giving away money to foreign governments???
It really shows you just how absurd the whole system is.
More disgusting signs the collapse/implosion is coming.
“This week, The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office caught at least four Philadelphia-area legislators taking multiple bribes ranging from a few hundred dollars to thousands in cash and Tiffany jewelry. Uncovered as part of a sting operation, these bribes were given to Philadelphia Democrats in exchange for votes or contracts, including opposition to Pennsylvania’s proposed voter ID law.
These findings are the result of over 400 hours of video and audio recordings obtained over the course of a three-year investigation that started in 2010 under then-Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican. Despite this solid evidence obtained from a thorough investigation, current Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, secretly dropped the case in 2013, allowing these elected officials to get away with corruption that attacks the very heart of representative government.
Kane told the Inquirer that she was not going to prosecute the Democratic legislators who took the bribes because the investigation, she claimed, was “poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism… [and] had targeted African Americans.” Those familiar with lead prosecutor Frank G. Fina dispute such claims; indeed, Fina is described by some as the top public-corruption prosecutor in Pennsylvania. Furthermore, Fina has also been responsible for many past investigations that led to prosecutions of both Republicans and Democrats.”
http://blog.heritage.org/2014/03/21/democratic-legislators-take-bribes-oppose-voter-id-get-away/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
“PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox is resigning from his leadership post and will not run for reelection, he said Saturday, a day after state and federal authorities — including the FBI and IRS — raided his Statehouse office and home as part of a criminal investigation that they would not detail.
“Because of the respect I have for all members of the House of Representatives, I am resigning as Speaker,” Fox said in a written statement emailed Saturday evening to reporters. “The process of governing must continue and the transition of leadership must be conducted in an orderly manner.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/22/democrat-r-i-house-speaker-resigning-day-after-federal-state-authorities-raid-his-office-and-home/
“We need a society based on voluntarism, not coercion.”
Never happen. A system of coercion is the only system most people will respond to. People are hard wired for
it. As Arnold said most people need to be told what to do and how to do it.
Well then the long term future for mankind is pretty bleak, isn’t Joseph?
So we are to go on with a system based on coercion? A system which you state is destined to collapse?
It’s too late now to stop a collapse. As the song goes it’s over (but we can’t turn the other way).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOK4U_pSxGA
Well, at least there’s a good guitar section in that piece.
Hah, I’ve never heard of anyone using such a song as a political metaphor.
But you are right, the guitar around 2:38 is nice and the sea and landscapes are beautiful (maybe Jack’s paintings are in there?) and the women, too. 🙂