POSITIVE ACTION PLAN TO ELIMINATE LEGISLATIVE CORRUPTION AND BRING OUR NATIONAL DEBT UNDER CONTROL
by
Bob Hall
Bob Hall |
We must begin now to move beyond the rhetoric of just protest, signs, letters and discussions of the ineptness and corruption of our Congressmen and Senators and start doing something positive to solve the enormous problems we have with our current elected officials.
By uniting across the country with a positive action plan, we can bring our overgrown, out-of-control government back in line with the Constitution and the values on which this country was founded.
This plan can do just that. It can work. It will work. But it will take work and a united effort.
The Real Issues:
1. Financial Stability: The biggest problem our country is facing is not reform in specific areas such as Immigration, Health Care, Energy, etc. These are important but pale in significance to our deficit spending and totally out-of-control debt. It will not matter how good a newly passed piece of reform legislation is if we continue to go deeper into debt.
2. Corrupt Legislative Process: The current process used by both the Senate and House of Representatives is replete with opportunities for the corrupt and unethical pieces of new law that have consistently increased government size, increased taxes, reduced freedoms,violated our privacy and our standard of living over the past 60 years.
THE CASE FOR ELECTING ALL NEW CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS IN 2010
The awakening of the American people to the elitist Congressmen and Senators, as evidenced by the heartfelt demonstrations, is great; but unless there is follow-through to ensure that all incumbents are replaced in the next election, the emotional efforts of the Tea Parties will be for naught.
PLAN FORWARD TO RESCUE OUR GOVERNMENT FROM CORRUPT POLITICIANS
1. All New Elected Officials: Replace all incumbents with patriots dedicated to a renovation of the legislative process in the Senate and House.
2. Completely Revise the Process: The newly elected Congressmen and Senators develop a new focused and totally transparent process for creating new laws. (See details below)
FACT 1: This is not a Republican or a Democrat problem: The sad situation we are in has been caused by the ongoing ineptness and collusion of both parties. Each Party has had many opportunities to correct and improve the process but have deliberately chosen not to do so.
FACT 2: All incumbents are part of the problem: All incumbents have had several years to take an active leadership role in exposing the corruption but have failed to do so. Even the very few well-meaning members have rationalized their failures behind the pillar of "go along to get along.” All incumbents would be incapable of contributing to the proposed solution. Many incumbents have had 2, 4, 6 or more years to make an effort to change the system and have chosen not to do so. The baggage an incumbent would carry back to Washington would be an impediment to the level of ethical reform being proposed.
FACT 3: Re-electing incumbents would be insane: Continuing to re-elect essentially the same Republicans and Democrats who got us into this mess and expecting them to do anything to change the “good-old-boy” system by which they prosper is pure insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is insanity.
FACT 4: Unprecedented Opportunity: By electing a whole new House (and one third of the Senate) we would have an unprecedented opportunity to completely change the way new legislation is passed. This new house could have a truly transparent operation that essentially eliminates all the backroom, under- the-table, dark-of the night deal-making that is basic to the very corrupt process that exists today.
The following is a brief outline of a new process to bring real reform to the legislative process. Some may think this change is too radical, but it is not nearly as radical as the move we have made from the original intent of the Constitution.
NEW PROCESS FOR ENSURING ETHICAL LEGISLATION
Per the Constitution, each of the two Congressional Houses establishes its own rules for processing new legislation. The current processes have evolved over many years as legislators have continued to find new ways to hide from the American people just how corrupt their systems are. The current procedures are designed to maximize special interest group funding (ear marks) and produce new legislation that is so complex that it cannot be comprehended by most citizens.
Phase I - Legislation Moratorium
With an all new Congress, new spending bills can be put on hold. This new group of Congressmen would be united in their commitment that no new legislation would be passed until the current and planned expenditures are reduced to eliminate the annual deficit spending and sufficient surplus is projected to retire the current national debt in 5 years or less.
Phase II - New Legislation Procedures
All new legislation will be processed according to the following rules. (Exceptions would be made for emergency legislation to counter unconstitutional and/or improper Executive orders and to eliminate pre-existing legislation as necessary to reduce federal spending)
1. Focused Single Purpose Bills Only: All new bills will be focused on a single subject. There will be no unrelated amendments or ear-marks.
2. Integrated Budget: Each new bill will have its own budget as an integral part of the bill. No new spending will be allowed. Funding must come from existing programs. Deficit spending, borrowing from trust funds, and borrowing from the newly created debt elimination funds will be prohibited. Once passed, the budget cannot be exceeded. Once the budget is depleted, the law is void.
3. Mandatory Sunset Provision: Each new law will have a specific expiration date. To be renewed or extended it must again go through the new Congressional process just as any other new bill.
4. Bill Content and Page Limitation: Each Bill will have three parts: 1. Main Body, 2. List of Authors and Contributors, 3. Unintended Consequences Analysis. The main body for any new law will be a maximum of 50 pages. The lengths of parts 2 and 3 will be unlimited.
4.1 Authors and Contributors: Identify all members, staffers, lobbyists and others who participated in writing the new law.
5. Written in layman language: New laws will be written in everyday American English language at a level comparable to newspapers:
6. Unintended Consequences Analysis: The GAO and CBO will evaluate new legislation jointly to identify possible unintended consequences of the new law. (Bureaucrats are notorious for misapplication of the law)
7. Public Review and Comment Period: Once the committee feels the bill is ready for a floor vote it will be published in the Federal Register and posted on the a web site. Public service announcements via the internet, TV and radio will be made to notify the public. No floor vote will be allowed during the 60 days allowed for the public and other members of Congress to make comments. If no changes are made as a result of the comment period, the floor vote can be scheduled. If any changes are made, there will be another public comment period of 30 days. This cycle will continue until there no changes incorporated after the bill is posted for public comment.
8. Member Voting Certification: To be eligible to vote on any bill, a member must provide a notarized affidavit stating that he has read and understands this specific bill and that his vote (up or down) is based solely on his/her own belief that it is in the best interest of the country as a whole and that he/she has not been influenced by any other member, lobbyist, or other person.
HOW TO GET THE RIGHT NEW CANDIDATES ELECTED
As everyone well knows it is nearly impossible to successfully run as anything other than a Republican or a Democrat in virtually every state. So trying to get new people elected as independents or on a new party ticket would be extremely expensive and difficult, if not impossible. But a winning strategy would be for the "Tea Party" minded people to back a new candidate on either the Republican or Democratic ticket in each state district. We could refer to these "Tea Party" candidates as either a little "r" republican or a little "d" democrat. They would be RINOS and DINOS (but in a good way). Whether they were a DINO or a RINO is not important, since their real commitment to their district would be changing the corrupt legislative process by uniting to implement the above described process.
This is just a brief outline of a plan to truly change the system. There are, of course, many sub elements.
In order to make meaningful and lasting changes, we must replace all incumbents in the 2012 election.
By uniting across the country with a positive action plan, we can bring our overgrown, out-of-control government back in line with the Constitution and the values on which this country was founded.
This plan can do just that.
It can work.
It will work.
It will take work.
BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT!
If you agree that we must take the decisive action to completely revamp the Congress and Senate beginning with the next election, please forward this to as many people as possible. If you disagree and are satisfied with the continued corruption, growth in government, increasing taxes, loss of freedoms and do not care about the massive dept we will be leaving our children and grand children, then by all means just simply hit the delete key.
May God Bless each and every one of you,
Bob Hall
Energized Patriot
bobhall32566@peoplepc.com
