GIVE WASHINGTON BACK TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!
TO THE EDITOR; TWO RIVER TIMES, RED BANK, NJ
One has stop and wonder in awe how we are going to resolve and solve the variety of very significant and serious problems facing our cities, our states, and the nation. While it is clear we have recovered from the financial markets meltdowns of 2008, I would suggest we are in the eye of the storm and the next waves are going hit hard and furious and our ability to deal with the next segment storm is severely impaired.
Why? Because our democracy as we know it has grown into a colossus of special interests and influence peddlers aligned with an entrenched and "always running for re-election" political class that prioritizes election war-chests over fighting for the people and solving the current problems of the nation.
The problems are too large and growing (yes, we really do need to solve our healthcare, education, and the larger entitlement cost structure that is coming due in the next 20 years or sooner) and the obvious rational solutions always seem postponed with the current federal government construct.
None of this is free!!! We will have to pay.
We need a new approach with people who show up in Washington to represent us charged with solving problems with optimal, rational solutions, not constantly focused on re-election and special-interest funding support.
Democrats now, and Republicans before them, have shown a special knack for coming up with tremendously uneconomic and irrational policy solutions that happen to fit this or that group's aligned interest better than it solves any particular problem, or simply revert to the having and eating the cake with no regard for how we pay for it.
I'd like to think that most elected officials have original good aspirations for wanting to get into public service and public life. It appears to me that at this stage of our democratic evolution our government takes those original well-intentioned ideals and once inside the DC beltway those ideals get derailed or railroaded by the nature of what public office is today..
Today, its all about two things-- its about MONEY and getting RE-ELECTED!!. The only people who leave Washington once they get there are losers, or people who aren't sure of winning (Evan Bayh!).
We have devolved into an inefficient, inept, and certainly partially corrupt government that is more focused on "winning" than "solving".
Win the healthcare debate , at any cost, including the veritable open bribes paid to the last two senator hold-outs from Louisiana and North Dakota and special deals for unions. Just one example. There are plenty of them (the Bridge to Nowhere!!)on both sides of the political aisle.
And who is going to tell those students in California that THEY have to pay more than they expected for the privilege of their higher education because of all the prior irresponsible spending that put California in such dire straits (NJ certainly not far behind). Someone running for re-election going to stand up to them?
We need real solutions and we need them NOW. We need the people who go to Washington with one set of ideals to be unmalleable in doing what is right LONG TERM.
I suggest we remove one of those two key drivers of today's politician and get people who show up in Washington to focus on finding long term solutions without being beholden to this or that special interest and the re-election money that comes along with that group's agenda.
Give Washington back to the people, and the only tenable way that can happen is to define that you only get to hold the federal office ONCE. 535 Senator's and Representative's for the people and by the people, and eliminate the theatre of the professional and lifelong politician. Charlie Rangel might have only two rent-controlled apartments if he were allowed one term?
Term Limits for the Senate and the House-- 6 years, one time only, then go back to where you came from (the real world) and live by the legacy of your one chance to make a difference because you can't have a second chance, and doing the right thing will be easier knowing there is no re-election war-chest to fund!!!
We need a fresh set of checks and balances for the media age for the two term-limited Presidency. One term Term-limits for congress are it-- leave the stars in Hollywood and Madison Square Garden, and let's get the people sent to Washington to not worry about "looking good" and actually start "doing good". I know some of them will miss the intoxication of power and rarefied air that exists around an officeholder, but we'll just have to suffer through without some of our biggest and most recognizable stars being senator's and congressmen.
Washington has lost it's way, and term limits are one thing we can do to impose discipline and get people in these important seats to always be thinking long term for optimal solutions, instead of the sub-optimal trade-off government we have today.
One-Term, One-Time, once in a lifetime chance to live up to the ideals and the legacy that our grandchildren will be proud to inherit.
Tt
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