Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
I"d rather my government concentrate on keeping us safe from outside (and inside) attacks, put more money into education, cut the rampant corruption (HA!) and help those truly in need.
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Putting more money into education is simply putting more money into lifetime employment for a lot of mediocrity. I agree education needs more money and should get it, but not until teaching jobs are merit based rather than time-served based. Besides it is very difficult for the federal government to boost education aid because education is still considered a local-based prerogative, which is one reason why there is such a disparity in the quality of education received across the country, and even within a single state.
Yes, cut the corruption. Absolutely. First step: do not let any congress person serve more than 1 term on any committee and require them to rotate through every other committee before they can return to one on which they have already served.
Second step: Let no representative serve more than 4 consecutive terms and no senator more than 2 consecutive terms. If term limits are good enough for the presidency, they are good enough for congresspersons.
Third step: Ban all lobbyists from Capitol Hill and even 1,000 feet. They are worse than sexual predators and if banning is good enough for predators, it ought to be good enough for lobbyists. In addition, require that any company that has a federal contract to pay a tax of 250% on all sums it spends on lobbying or "educating" any government official other than in public hearings that are conducted under oath (so that falsehoods made in attempt to influence legislation can be prosecuted) and broadcast in full on C-SPAN.
Fourth step: Create a special US federal prosecutor whose district is solely government employees, including congresspersons and executive branch folk, and whose focus is corruption by politicians and civil servants. Create a parallel special prosecutor for government contractors and lobbyists who lobby the federal government.
That will get us started on cleaning up corruption.
Finally, yes, help those truly in need. Of course, those truly in need are not the Halliburtons, Goldman Sachs, and KKRs of this world nor are they corrupt foreign governments who happen to currently espouse what we want to hear (Karzai and Afghanistan come to mind). Rather, lets take care of our own beginning with our wounded soldiers who deserve better disability pensions and medical treatment, and proceed down the path to include those who are too poor to afford medical insurance or to bu food. Does it not bother anyone that we can ship tonms of food to places around the world to feed the hungry yet we have starving folk right here?
Yes, DesertGrandma, let's keep our country safe by fighting the good war with equipment our military says it needs and not equipment our legislators want; let's fight corruption; and let's help those who need food and healthcare. Good thoughts for this holiday season.