Vote 'em all out!

You know, its been a while since my last post and I have been touting a couple of ideas that I need to put down. First one is pretty simple. You know how people are "morbidly obese?" Well, I think there should be the lexicon "morbidly stupid." You know there are people out there that merit this term, now we just need to use it.

In a smooth transition, I would like to nominate congress for being morbidly stupid. Let's look at every major spending bill that has come down the pike in the past six months. Whether you are liberal, moderate or conservative I think we can all agree: when you vote to spend any taxpayer money you should be required to actually read the bill! Spending billions on a stimulus, trillions on TARP, and/or b/trillions on health care reform you dang well better read where the money is going or you are being morbidly stupid.

Now, I try to be one of those guys who not only brings up a problem but brings a solution to the table, so here goes. First, pass legislation that anyone who doesn't actually read the legislation they vote on should be forced to resign. Now, since we can't really prove who does or doesn't read legislation (though we could have an end of voting test) lets come up with something else.

Each and every term, whether for the House, Senate or President, don't vote for whomever was already in the seat. Vote for someone new every time. Of course, I want legislation that basically revokes the pension for being in Congress. It just doesn't make sense to keep paying someone for 2- 4- or 6- years of service. Key word being "service," which most in government seem to forget that "service" is what it is about.

By voting out everyone each term, it would accomplish several very valuable items... First, those who are in Congress would actually work their tails off for the small amount of time they are there. This would reduce the politicking that damages effectiveness in Washington. Good ideas would quickly pass, bad ones would go quickly to the trash heap.

Second, if a politician knew that they would only be serving one term, they would not be affected by lobbyists. OK, maybe some of the unscrupulous still would be, but hey, they would be gone soon enough and at that point could be investigated. Right now, you can essentially bribe a Congressman by saying "if you support our position, we will give you $100,000 towards your re-election." And if you don't think that happens, look at Nancy Pelosi. She called the insurance companies "villains" and "immoral" but has taken over $200,000 from the industry for her reelection campaigns. This goes on on both sides of the isle and its insane.

Third, because those people who are the incumbents eventually would get the idea they aren't going to win they would stop running all together. This would drive down the cost of elections and thus produce more "everyday" people who would represent us. Right now, how many teachers, soldiers, nurses or other less glamorous professionals could afford to run for Congress? Very few. But if you didn't have the deck stacked by the incumbent starting off with a huge war chest set up by the lobbyists, you might get more widespread representation instead of 43% being lawyers (source: the NY Times.)

Finally, power would not be bogarted like the medicinal marijuana in Berkeley. The House would have to vote for a new Speaker every election cycle. The Senate would have a new Majority leader as well. You wouldn't have anyone with so much power as to bully everyone else (at least I would hope they wouldn't bully as much.) This would be good for governing. Right now Pelosi and Reid can dominate legislation just because they don't want a vote to come forward. But that was true of Hassert and Gingrich, too, so this would be good for all around. It would even be good for the leaders of each committee and sub-committee. If everyone knew the pendulum of power (aka the majority) could easily swing every 2- years they would be much more agreeable, don't you think?)

So there you go. I would really like someone on the national level to pick up this idea and run with it, whether it is a conservative like Limbaugh or Hannity, or a liberal like Olbermann or Maddow. I don't care who does it, just do it.

If you think this is a good idea, pass it on. Something like this won't work unless it truly is a grassroots effort. Not that I actually think the general American public has the intestinal fortitude to pull it off, but I hope and pray I'm wrong and this would actually happen!

SFC Lance O'Neil
US ARMY