The biggest problem facing Americans? According to a Gallup poll, for the second year in a row, it’s our government.
Maybe I should say “the government.” Few think it represents us. Which is sort of a big problem for a representative government.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump says our leaders are “stupid.” Were that the case, it’d be easier to correct. The reality is worse.
We have an ethical problem in government. Those entrusted to represent us represent, instead, themselves. And their cronies. And special interests.
Charged with creating a level playing field where we can all succeed through hard work, our elected officialdom have tilted that field. Oh, they’re doing just swell. The rest of us? Not so well.
Elected officials from Washington to state capitols have hiked up their pay, finagled perks, per diems and other bennies, and rewarded themselves with lavish pensions. Meanwhile, most Americans lack even a 401K to help save for retirement, much less a pension beyond a meager (and politician-imperiled) Social Security safety net.
Transparency? Well, it’s not just Hillary Clinton who has conducted public business privately. Even with her scandal looming in the headlines, Defense Secretary Ash Carter confidently did likewise.
Let’s end pensions for politicians, nudging them to return to our world. And let’s change the rules so they work serving the public, not for private gain.
Can we count on our elected representatives to rectify their ethical lapses? Not on your life. We need to do it ourselves, using ballot initiatives to put ethics first.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Ethics First”
If you want an honest government:
1) Select Representatives by means of a draft lottery, qualifications for inclusion to the pool of prospective draftees to be determined by each state.
*Elimination of “campaign donations” and influence peddling.
2) Increase the size of the House of Representatives for better representation of the people.
*435 “elected” (?) representatives are not doing the job
3) Repeal the 17th Amendment. Give the selection of Senators back to the state legislatures, with the addition of term limits and the right of recall by the state Governor, the state legislature, and plebiscite.
*The current senate is nothing more than an extension of the house of representatives, with longer terms.
4) Voter ID!
*Not a Citizen, no vote!
5) “Double entry” voting for verification of vote totals.
*Eliminate the “adjustment” of vote totals that has become common in the age of electronic voting and agenda driven “public servants”.
6) Remove the pay and benefits of federal legislators and staff from the federal domain. The state sending these people to Congress should be paying ’em.
*Can Kaleeforneeya or any other state pay the legislators it sends to Congress and keep them in the style they’ve become accustomed?
7) No ‘retirement pay’ or special benefits for federal or state legislators or bureaucrats at any level.
*Why accord the political elite and bureaucrats any benefits denied the people they “serve”?
8) All laws apply to legislators and bureaucrats as well as citizens.
*Is there any rational argument against this position?
9) All judges serve a fixed term and then have to completely avoid the “legal” profession for ten years.
*Eliminate those who believe they can legislate from the bench by attrition, it’s less troublesome than hangings.
10) Former judges, bureaucrats, or legislators are forbidden from lobbying any branch or agency of government for pay or compensation. A felony punishable by a fixed fine of at least $1 million and a jail term not less than 10 years for both parties involved.
*No discussion necessary in my opinion.
(11) All proposed laws and regulations must be verified as Constitutional by a Grand Jury before implementation
*Stop bad law without having to waste decades wending through the courts.
(12) No “federal employee unions”
*There are more than enough protections for government employees, most can’t be fired for egregious cause.
(13) All laws and regulations must be subject to a sunset review by a panel of citizens.
*How can any citizen (or law enforcement agent) know the law when local, state, and federal laws and regulations runs to millions of pages?
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” ~Tacitcus
Ballot initiatives will never give us ‘ethics’ in our public officials. The problem for most of us is in the mirror. What do we expect from government? The sad truth is that most of us have exactly the government we deserve.