posted March 25, 2014
Perfecting the Political Process
Imagine we elect the President and Congress and costs the taxpayers nothing.
What? You say it will never happen, that’s impossible!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, “Nothing is impossible if we dare to passionately and relentlessly pursue it”.
If nobody serves in Congress more than eight years, young bright people will have a chance to enter the political process and sculpture their future according to their beliefs and aspirations. It will be relatively easy for them to spread their message via the internet and social media, they are good at that. Also, young people with new ideas, new attitudes and impressive knowledge of technology might be able to come up with a better way to solve the socioeconomic problems.
The way things are right now the cost of entry into political arena is very high. We the baby boomers should make way for young bright people to occupy Congress. We, most of us that is, have lived way beyond our means which became the new normal. The result was we accumulated a mind boggling debt of about 60 trillion dollars, so far that is. If you, and we must, add to the National Debt the consumer debt, State and Municipal debt, plus the promised but unfunded entitlements that is the number you get. For a country who is so unbelievably technologically advanced, to have its socioeconomic environment all messed up, off tracks, is sad. We need to inject BALANCE and SYMMETRY. I’ll expand on that when I get to the Economy.
We all love this great country; we just disagree on how to show our love. We also disagree on what the Government should do for us, as opposed what we can do for ourselves. I am sad to state that I see a tectonic shift of personal responsibility away from the individual. It is anybody’s fault except the individual. We the individuals possess incredible power and limitless potential, we need to unlock it, to unleash it, and brand our personality on it. We the individuals are the first and best line of defense, we can handle, overcome, control, and cure just about anything if we apply enough imagination, passion, persistence and perseverance. Once a situation/problem passes by the individual the degree of difficulty of curing it increases proportionately to the square of the distance. The situation we find ourselves in as individuals, community or a country is the end – product of the choices we are making and the priorities we set.
I hope it has become apparent that problems must be solved by the individual and locally. The less Washington does the better off we are. President Kennedy famously said: “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. I would like to somewhat paraphrase this famous line and say: “Don’t ask what your Government can do for you, ask what you can do for yourself”.
We need leaders in Congress, self-made individuals who have been there done that, who overcame significant obstacles and succeeded in their civilian life. Leaders who volunteer to serve in Government free of charge, who are beholden to nobody but to their conscience, who have the backbone to show tough love, because it is the right thing to do for the people they serve and the country they love. Since they volunteer to serve free of charge they receive no benefits when they return to civilian life.
Leaders are passionate about efficiency which can be defined as “maximum output using minimum of resources”. In other words, “less is more”. Which bring me to writing and submitting House and Senate Bills. No Bill should be more than 25 pages long, double spaced that is, and every Bill should be accompanied with a 5-page summary. Every member of Congress who votes on this or any Bill should be required, under oath, to state that he or she have read the 5page summary. Reading the 25page Bill would be optional. Here is a hint: don’t let lawyers write the Bill, hire English composition teachers.
I can solve the Middle East problem in 5 pages or less. If I can do that, anything can be expressed in 25 pages. One more thing. Each member of Congress can submit 2 Bills per year, one or none. Submitting Bills that couldn’t possibly be read by all members of Congress is not the way to go. We can’t and we shouldn’t legislate every human activity, especially not from Washington. People’s life can be influenced 25% by Washington, and 75% by their own State. That is a Federal System.
A Federal System is a weak Central Government and strong States. The advantage is that 50 issues are being examined by 50 laboratories, instead of 50 issues are being examined by Washington one at the time. The States voluntary joined the Union and Washington shouldn’t boss them around. The States should demand more autonomy. I will expand on that when I get to the Economy.
Finally, a few words about the Filibuster. Do away with it America. In a democracy the majority rules. One individual to be allowed to hold Congress and by extension the Nation hostage for 24 hours or so, to me looks a bit dictatorial. To be more specific I like to say the following. Mr. Ted Cruz, your aim was correct and noble, your method was incorrect. Where I am from we have the following expression. “The chicken chooses the wrong time to build her nest when she is about to drop the egg”, roughly translated. In other words Mr. Cruz you cannot decrease the Federal Budget in 24 hours while it took decades of excessive spending to build it up.
My next blog will be dealing with the Economy. I have a question for you America. “What is the number one priority of the Economy?” It is not creating jobs. If you think that is controversial, wait and see what else I have to say.
I wish everyone a hopeful day,
Paul Pantelis Rachmanides