52 to 19: A Ratio Of Misdeeds, Mistrust & Malfeasance
As I posted before, congress critters have a base pay that is over $100,000 per annum, complete with additional housing allowances, travel allowances, expense accounts, staff budgets, franking privileges and more. The average INCOME (possibly from two or more jobs) is about one third of the base pay for a congress critter. Additionally, the average American worker is, in all but the lowest paying jobs, given 2 weeks of vacation, works 50 weeks our of 52, has only 8-10 personaldays/holidays/sick days, and would be fired for not showing up at all.
So consider this... Congress has met and worked only 19 days this year. The average American worker has worked 52 or more days this year. In my view, the average worker accomplishes more in one of his/her workdays than congress gets done in all 19 days... perhaps all session.
It would seem that the work schedule adopted by George W. Bush and Dick "The Gun" Cheney has rubbed off on congress. I vote we give them all permanent vacation, and vote them all out of office, electing an entirely new freshman congress.... repeating this process for the next 5 House elections and the next 10 Senate elections. We don't have to worry about which party to give our loayalties... just as long as we don't vote any incumbents into office.
Then we need to have congress initiate a "No Confidence Amendment" to the Constitution where the president, vice president, cabinet and congress can be dismissed from office if more than 20% of the registered voters call for a no confidence vote and 8% or more vote that they have no confidence in our government.
While this may seem a bit chaotic at first, I predict we would soon get the hang of it all, and the end result would be that we prevent asinine laws, ideological partisan fights, unproductive investigations into unimportant events, and political posturing. Perhaps, after we have taught these folks that they cannot count on us to be lambs led to slaughter anymore, we could repeal the "No Confidence Amendment" and get a government that actually represents "we the people."
Or, in the alternative, we could ALL just send a letter (or e-mail) every day to each of our congress critters reminding them that we are watching them... and we will vote them out if they fail to work more than 19 days in the first quarter.
Do we really want a congress that is on vacation (or at least absent from the job) more than it is in session? As for the executive branch, let us limit the vacation time to five days a year actual vacation and another five as a "working vacation" like the rest of us.
So consider this... Congress has met and worked only 19 days this year. The average American worker has worked 52 or more days this year. In my view, the average worker accomplishes more in one of his/her workdays than congress gets done in all 19 days... perhaps all session.
It would seem that the work schedule adopted by George W. Bush and Dick "The Gun" Cheney has rubbed off on congress. I vote we give them all permanent vacation, and vote them all out of office, electing an entirely new freshman congress.... repeating this process for the next 5 House elections and the next 10 Senate elections. We don't have to worry about which party to give our loayalties... just as long as we don't vote any incumbents into office.
Then we need to have congress initiate a "No Confidence Amendment" to the Constitution where the president, vice president, cabinet and congress can be dismissed from office if more than 20% of the registered voters call for a no confidence vote and 8% or more vote that they have no confidence in our government.
While this may seem a bit chaotic at first, I predict we would soon get the hang of it all, and the end result would be that we prevent asinine laws, ideological partisan fights, unproductive investigations into unimportant events, and political posturing. Perhaps, after we have taught these folks that they cannot count on us to be lambs led to slaughter anymore, we could repeal the "No Confidence Amendment" and get a government that actually represents "we the people."
Or, in the alternative, we could ALL just send a letter (or e-mail) every day to each of our congress critters reminding them that we are watching them... and we will vote them out if they fail to work more than 19 days in the first quarter.
Do we really want a congress that is on vacation (or at least absent from the job) more than it is in session? As for the executive branch, let us limit the vacation time to five days a year actual vacation and another five as a "working vacation" like the rest of us.
posted by Jim Downey at 5:29 AM
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