Our national elective offices are becoming fiefdoms for the greedy, money-hungry, ultra elite of our ruling class, not to mention, lazy and non-working.
Huge reform is becoming an absolute necessity to prevent "permanent" tenure in office, and also accumulation of obscene amounts of wealth. So you say it is not very constitutional; well, neither is Obama, and/or the huge amounts of wealth our elected Congress of both houses are reaping (possibly raping) from our tax dollars.
Without any exaggeration I would bet that the personal financial fortunes of people like CT Senator Chris Dodd and MA Rep. Barney Frank have multiplied ten fold over the past several years. And that is just two of them. Anybody want to bet against there being probably several dozen of our elected elite who have amassed huge gains in their personal financial fortunes over the past dozen years? How about Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Byrd and other porkers who love to wildly spend our tax dollars?
One national pundit named Steve Farrell has the audacity to chastise the Republican Party in an article for the American Independent Party for trying to implement term limits, saying they eliminate Constitutional representative government. He even shames them.
Well I say shame on Mr. Farrell, who must then favor the more untouchably elite, permanent office holders of Congress who are outstandingly less constitutionally representative of the people than a citizen legislator who is serving a very limited number of years and working for his constituents rather than for his own personal fortune. I find it strange that Farrell is so enamored of having career legislators who as he says are constitutionally elected, but has no statement of aversion to the President being limited to two terms. Shame again Mr. Farrell, at least be consistent.
Our next candidate for president should also run on the theme that "Change is needed." The change I refer to is a change in the way we allow unconvicted felons to rob us of the money we pay in the form of taxes, presumably for a better America, but mostly for wasteful projects that are called, "pork", "earmarks" and very quietly, "graft" and perpetuate themselves once in office only to leave due to malfeasance (extremely rare) or old age and infirmity.
Here are some of the changes I'd like to see implemented, which would all require a Constitutional Amendment; and it's not like we're breaking new ground here as the Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times since its inception.
A 50 percent reduction in the size of the House of Representatives from the current 435 to 217 with concurrent increase in the number of residents in districts within each state to use for representation purposes. No state shall have less than one representative.
Abolish the United States Senate.
Cut Congressional salaries by 25 percent and restrict future salary increases to the annual cost of living index, minus 20 percent.
Have one session of Congress per year not to exceed six months. All business must be enacted within that six month calendar. Unfinished business will not carry over into the following year. And that six month period will have no more than three "time off" periods to be set at the beginning of each new year calendar. Time off periods will not exceed four consecutive days. Saturdays and Sundays will be optional, time off or work periods, by vote of 60 percent of all Representatives, regardless of political affiliation.
Adoption of the first four above could result in the savings of huge sums of tax dollars every year.
Each Representative will be elected to a three year term, with one reelection permissible. Then after being out of office for two successive terms, a former Representative may be elected to another three year term with one reelection.
Adoption of No. 5 will prevent arrogant, corrupt and lazy legislators who will work for the people and not themselves.
Twenty percent of each year's revenues will be applied to offset the national debt each year until the debt is eliminated. Years when there is no national debt, five percent of revenues will be put into a reserve fund for emergency purposes which shall be identified during the first term of Congress following these new directives and approved by a national referendum of the voters. The emergency reserve fund shall never accumulate to an amount greater than one tenth of the highest annual approved budget for the previous three years.
Adoption of No. 6 will dramatically hold down the possibility of national deficits and debt. It will prevent unauthorized withdrawals of funds for non-voter approved spending.
Supreme Court justices should also serve a defined period of time with the Court to prevent the possibility of permanent, corrupt and politically driven justices trying to legislate from the bench. This should be studied by an elite group of members from government, industry, academia and judicial services.
I hope you realize that these are just wishes on my part. That they will never become law is primarily due to the fact that the people most affected by the suggested changes, other than the taxpayers of course, are the ones that would have to first move them into position to be voted up or down and then actually do the voting to accomplish it and I am speaking of our spoiled, wealthy and elite Congress who would rather eat rat poison than vote for term limits that would take away their golden geese. Term limits are not authorized by our Constitution and that’s the way our fat-cat, upper class congressional solons want to keep it.
In recent years there were some states that voted to limit their Congressmen and women to certain term limits; but those states were aware that at some point they would be challenged as to their constitutional validity, which is why they are disappearing.
Our openly honest and religious founding fathers were trusting and never envisioned the type of character of today’s Congressional office holders whose tactics regarding perpetuation in office have become very unwholesome and tawdry. Familiarity breeds contempt and the entrenched politicians have certainly become VERY familiar with methods of corrupting themselves fostering our contempt for them.
If we’re ever to know a government that is run by the people, of the people, and for the people we will need to make some drastic changes; and soon.
Gerald A. “Jerry” McConnell, 92, of Hampton, died Sunday, February 19, 2017, at the Merrimack Valley Hospice House in Haverhill, Mass., surrounded by his loved ones. He was born May 27, 1924 in Altoona, Pa., the fifth son of the late John E. and Grace (Fletcher) McConnell.
Jerry served ten years with the US Marine Corps and participated in the landing against Japanese Army on Guadalcanal and another ten years with the US Air Force. After moving to Hampton in 1957 he started his community activities serving in many capacities.
He shared 72 years of marriage with his wife Betty P. (Hamilton) McConnell. In addition to his wife, family members include nieces and nephews.
