With an approval rating of 9 percent, the credibility of Congress is at an all time low. We heard politicians throughout the campaign rant about change and cleaning up the corruption in Washington. This, after the financial meltdown mess (caused mainly by Congress) which encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to grant mortgage loans to those who couldn’t pay them back and placing quotas on commercial lending institutions to do the same.
Those in Congress who were in charge of oversight are still in place with no penalty. If the politicians really want to start cleaning up the mess in D.C. and regain some respect, they could start in their own houses by doing the following:
Freeze pay raises for four years.
Eliminate midnight pay raises forever! These must be approved by a recorded daylight vote.
Put senators and representatives on Social Security instead of having their own lavish retirement pension system. They can set up their own 401(k) plans. Watch Social Security get fixed!
Put senators and representatives on Medicare instead of their own fully paid, cushy health insurance program. Let them pay for their own supplemental health insurance!
Set a mandatory retirement age in Congress of 70 years. Get rid of the dinosaurs! What major corporation allows executives to stay forever?
Have all pork-barrel spending approved by a daylight recorded vote, line item by line item.
Implement term limits allowing senators and representatives to serve for two 6-year terms and two 4-year terms respectively. This would cut down on corruption.
Eliminate the IRS and the current tax code saving billions in costs while restoring integrity and compliance while being understandable. It is crazy to have a tax code of 65,000 pages! Replace it with a fair tax or flat tax.
This would be a good start.
Robert Johnston
Camano Island
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