This piece is directed at House and Senate democrats. While there are some Republicans who are just as bad, let someone else write about them. Right now, I’m ticked off at the democrats.
The usual suspects in Congress have one overriding goal in everything they do – the acquisition of power. Power means control, and control means reelection. There needs to be a way to retire the artifacts that have been in Congress far too long.
Think about it. Once elected, a congressperson has a cushy job, an important, highly visible position with little individual responsibility. They get ample base pay ($169,300 for most, $188,100 for the minority and majority leaders, and $217,400 for the speaker) with lots of perks, excellent healthcare and retirement, an office with expenses paid, a staff (of from 18 to 60), travel expenses (both domestic and foreign), all for basically talking and negotiating for a living. They don’t even get their hands dirty.
Here’s a link to The Capitol.net if you want to learn more details about how much our public “servants” get for their “work.”
http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/payandperqs.htm
And then there are the “indirect” benefits. Especially the insider deals (like FOA (Friends of Angelo) home loans from Countrywide, real estate that benefits from a bridge to nowhere, or land that just happens to be adjacent to new highway routing. Family members that reside on boards or become lobbyists help to make ends meet. And there is lots of other inside information that leads to investment profits.
Larry, Moe, and Curley could be millionaires after a few years in Congress. Not surprisingly, most congresspersons are millionaires by the time their buttocks are pried loose from their congressional seat.
And what do they do to deserve the pay and perks? They do everything they can to get re-elected – that’s their job – to get re-elected. Everything they do is to that end. They may say that they’re “working for us,” but that’s BS and they know it, and we know it.
You know who the usual suspects are: the democrat “leadership,” namely: Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, Schumer, Kerry, Kennedy, etc. and none of them are answerable to me and most of you.
I’m convinced that we need a new voting option. I’m not going to spend the time to research what would be required to implement my proposal, maybe at a later date, for now, I’m just interested in reaction to the concept.
The way things are structured now, Representatives and Senators are elected by voters in their state. Voters in other states have no input on the performance of those members from states other than their own, yet those representatives and senators do have a great deal of impact on all states. They are elected to national office, but only a single state elects them.
This is a problem. Take Nancy Pelosi, for example. How many of us (given an opportunity) would vote to remove her from office? Or Harry Reid, or John Murfa, or Chris Dodd, or Barney Frank, just to name a few.
It seems to me that all citizens of the U.S. qualified to vote should have some say in removing a Representative or Senator. I believe that the home state should be given the most weight, but if a majority of votes from the general voting population wants someone gone – they should go. The following mentions Senators primarily, strictly for simplicity. I would propose the same type of “non-performance-based” voting for U.S. Representatives, except that we could vote to relieve four at once.
I’m willing to take a chance with my two Texas senators: John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cornyn is a good one and Kay Bailey has been good although lately she seems to leaning more centrist. But I doubt that anyone would have reason to eject them. On the other hand, look at Ted Kennedy, how would he fare if voters outside of Massachusetts had an opportunity to dump him?
Obviously, if it could be set up under the Constitution, the mechanism would have to be worked out – something like a minimum percentage of registered voters in the “non home” states would have to vote in order for an outcome to be valid and the results implemented. I’d even be happy if national voting were limited to two Senators at a time and four Representatives at a time.
Right now, I’d vote to fire Senators Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. My four Representatives would be Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, John Murtha, and Henry Waxman.
I would hope that two improvements would result from this new voting strategy: 1) since all Senators (and Representatives) could be fired by a number of votes from the general U.S. population, they would be somewhat more concerned about considering the welfare of the country as a whole, and 2) if Senators or Representatives performed at a substandard level, they could be voted out – regardless of their home state’s votes.
This is a kernel of a thought, it needs more fleshing out. What are your thoughts? Anybody interested?