Fixing Our Corrupt Congress So They Start Serving “We The People” Like They’re Suppose To!

I recently read an article that discusses the corruption in politics titled, Juan Williams: The pollution of politics

The Article says: Their argument is that this president is an intellectual BULLY. GOP members have long held that Obama believes anyone who disagrees with him is motivated by bad faith or a lack of integrity.

It then goes on to say: Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, don’t play it straight. They are all too easily pressured to pander to one side or the other. And then there is the power of big money lobbyists. The fact of the matter is Congress is constantly being twisted one way or the other by fear, anger and the need to raise money for the next election.

This is exactly what I’ve been saying and complaining about for a long time … selling their vote to the HIGHEST bidder, and not doing what’s in OUR (you know, We The People) best interest.

The article continues on regarding this topic. The bigger question that wasn’t asked is, What’s the solution to resolving this problem so that our elected congress is doing what’s in OUR best interest?

There is no question about it, our Congress is broken and needs fixed. But how? What needs to happen to fix our Congress?

For starters, these things must be done:

1) There MUST be term limits. A career politician has been proven to be bad for Americans. That’s because the longer a politician is in congress the more they sway to the ways of special interest groups, lobbyist and big businesses, all of whom are buying their votes.

Most brand new congressmen start out with a commitment to We The People but over time I believe they are brain-washed and corrupted by the rampant corruption in Washington. They are brow-beat into submission by more senior congressmen and “educate them” on the ways of Washington, which are not ways that support We The People.

We need to continue sending “fresh new non-brainwashed people” to Washington who will FIGHT for us.

2) Accepting ANY kind of funds or financial benefit needs to be a felony. The “bribing” of our elected officials MUST stop. And since they have abused this area, shut it down completely!

I’m so sick and tired of congress in both parties being influenced by big donors, big businesses, special interest groups and lobbyist. What about the needs of those who voted them into office?

3) Just like WE The People vote them in, We The People should be able to impeach them and remove them from office. Give We The People the power to elect and fire them so they are accountable to us. And then if we fire them they lose their retirement and any other ongoing benefits.

Congress should be for the people. We vote them in so once in office they need to continue voting on things that are in OUR best interest.

4) For campaigning, EVERY state elected position (Senate, House of Representatives) are capped at how much money they can receive and spend to campaign like $1 million ($10 million for president candidates).

This puts everyone at the same playing field because too often it’s the one with the deepest pocket that wins even if the other candidate is a better choice because the one with deeper pockets can out-market the others.

I mean, let’s be realistic here. We know that in most cases the person with the largest amount of campaign dollars to spend on their campaign wins because they’re able to get their message out to more people. In order to build their campaign dollars they go to big businesses and ask them to be a donor, but this doesn’t come without also having to make promises to this business if they win. This needs to stop.

Capping how much a politician can receive from donors also stops the pressure of being loyal to businesses, special interest groups and lobbyist because politicians can only receive a very limited amount of money from them, and hopefully not enough to influence the loyalty of the politician.

5) When receiving campaign contributions it can ONLY come from individuals and businesses IN THAT STATE who would benefit from that elected official. There’s no reason for anyone else to contribute unless they have an ulterior motive like trying to buy the Senator or Representatives votes which is what we’re trying to stop.

6) Bills MUST stand on their own. No more adding into a bill other pieces of legislation they’re having a hard time passing into a bill that most everyone wants to pass so the less popular legislation also gets passed.

What happens is there’s a bill they want to pass but before another congressman will agree to voting for it they require another bill this congressman wants passed that he can’t get to pass to be included in this bill. If they’ll add this other bill into the current bill then he’ll vote for it.

Obama has been notorious of doing this. Have you seen all of the things built into ObamaCare that have absolutely NOTHING to do with ObamaCare? That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about.

Either the bill stands on its own two feet or it’s not passed, plain and simple.

7) They MUST uphold the Constitution. Any congressman who doesn’t should be immediately impeached and removed from office.

8) Congress canNOT vote for their own compensation plan or guidelines for their compensation plan. We the people vote them in and the only way Congress can change their compensation plan is by American’s voting for it on the ballot during the Presidential election. Right now Congress votes for their own compensation plan. For example, they voted themselves to give all congress a lifetime retirement for just serving one term. That’s ludicrous. We The People vote for Congresses compensation plan and changes to it including raises.

Why MUST these changes take place?

Because we’re no longer a democracy. We’re an Oligarchy! Or Maybe a Plutocracy!

What’s an Oligarchy?

An Oligarchy is a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. Some American politicians seem to want this form of government. After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United, the United States became a country where money replaced free speech and corporations replaced people.

Today, average people have less rights and less control over their government. While big corporations and wealthy donors, along with Wall Street, are free to influence elections, write legislation and destroy our country for their own selfish and greedy interests.

According to the Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy …

When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it.

They conclude:

Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policy making is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.

This discusses how businesses control policy. I totally agree. So how do you get businesses on your side? If they don’t side with you then you cut them off financially! You start doing business with Christian based companies ONLY. Thirty days of this and they’ll come around very quickly. Have a month dedicated to Christians supporting Christian businesses. Just make sure you have the following that will support this or you’ll lose credibility and the fear factor of none Christian based businesses.

To further support this …To further support this, What is America? A Republic? A Democracy? An Oligarchy? A Plutocracy? A Theocracy?  According to this article it states, “America appears to be headed in the direction of Plutocracy. This form of government believes a society should be ruled by its wealthiest members. The Supreme Court has allowed a flood of money to buy our elections, rather than the will of the people.” This is just as bad because again, it’s not about “We The People”.

A side note on this article by Huffington Post. Huffington Post is a left side supporting medium. I do not agree with everything this article says and believe it has parts that are slanted to the liberal left’s view. For example, it states to support a statement they made that Obama isn’t creating a socialist society (yes, he is), “Even the Affordable Care Act is not government owned, and is supported by independent insurance companies that are publically owned by shareholders, not the government.”

What it doesn’t state is that this is the government forcing American’s to purchase insurance at much higher rates so the uninsured can get free healthcare. If American’s don’t participate then they are fined and taxed. That’s a socialist program! This creates a whole new perspective to what the article states.

Anyway, my thoughts on fixing Congress.

Is The Financial Benefits Our Elected Officials Receiving Fair and Appropriate, Or Are They Just Paving The Way For More Corruption and Not Doing What’s In Americans Best Interest?

Since I’m on a role, let’s also take a look at the incredible financial benefits congress receives by holding office, and this doesn’t even take into consideration what they gain by selling their votes to big businesses, special interest groups or lobbyist. The compensation plan of Congress is absolutely unfair and not right! It’s crazy, and totally unfair, that Congress should be allowed to have this kind of a compensation plan.

Here’s the additional changes I’d make:

• No Tenure & No Pension. A congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they’re out of office. How is it fair that a congress person whether one term or many terms will continue receiving an income when they’re out of office for the rest of their life?
• Congress past, present and future participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
• Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans do.
• Congress will no longer be able to vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
• Congress will participate in ObamaCare since they voted it in. Let them experience what the rest of America has to deal with. Congress will not have their own healthcare program different than what Americans have for healthcare.
• Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
• All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective ______ (date in the next year). The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.

The ONLY way Congress will be able to truly appreciate what we Americans face is by their facing the same thing. Then and only then maybe they’ll start passing laws that truly benefit all Americans. But when they can hold one term and then have an income for the rest of their life, what motivation do they have to make it better for Americans?

They must experience what the rest of us experience. This will motivate them to do more for “We The People”.

By the way, just so you know …

One last thing, at least for now.

Go back to Popular Vote and Do Away with Electoral Vote. 

In Bush vs. Gore, the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush even though Gore received more than a half million more popular votes. When the person receiving the most votes isn’t the winner of the election, then that country is not a democracy. While I’m glad Bush won, Gore should’ve because the majority of the American public voted for him.

In addition to this, we all know that most states are either Democrat or Republican. How these states will vote is a given. It’s the “battle states” that could go either direction that become the states Presidential Candidates campaign the hardest. In my state the whole east side (the majority of the state) is Republican. But the major city on the west coast has over 4 million people and they predominately vote Democrat so our state is considered a Democrat voting state.

Last Updated: 7/3/15 at 2:00 pm PST