Featured How Would You Change Washington DC?

I've given it some thought, and if I had the chance, here are some things I would do to change the American political system.

A 6-year term limit for all elected officials.
As it stands now, the President may serve for only 8 years (10 years in cases of assassination), but a Senator or Representative can serve indefinitely. The longer a Senator or Representative maintains an office, the greater the possibility for corruption to grow. By limiting every position in government to one 6-year term, the amount of time for corruption to grow is drastically reduced, and hopefully eliminated.

Once you serve your 6 years, you’re out.
After you serve your six years, whether as President or as Representative, you’re out of government. You can’t go back. You cannot run for higher office, you cannot run for lower office. Some people I've pitched this idea to have said that you could return to Washington after being gone for a full 6 year term, but I disagree.

True Campaign Finance Reform
If you are anything like me, you’re tired of seeing candidates spend millions upon millions of dollars to get elected to a position that will at best pay $500,000 a year. If a candidate runs for a job that pays $1,000,000, that candidate may only spend $999,999.99 of their personal funds on their campaign, like a salary cap. The fact that this is not already in practice reveals the corruption rampant in Washington. How can a person spend so many millions on a campaign that will obviously pay them less, unless there are kickbacks involved somewhere? This also limits the number of ads and road signs we have to see.

Campaign Advertisement Reform
Candidates for office are allowed to run TV and radio ads, and to place road signs along certain roads. I would love to see a law that says all campaign signs must be taken up within one week after the election. Any sign left out after that time is subject to an automatic $250 fine, with additions of $100 per week for every week the sign remains out. All money collected goes into a statewide fund to repairing infrastructure.

No more lifetime appointments.
No official in Washington should ever be allowed a lifetime appointment. I'm looking at you, Supreme Court...

Repeal the 17th Amendment.
Our nation was assembled as a Union of States. Up until the ratification of the 17th Amendment, the state governments elected Senators and the general populace elected the members of the House of Representatives. Simply put: both the people and the states had representation in Washington. Since the 17th Amendment was ratified, however, the states have had no representation. Repealing the 17th Amendment would be a return to the foundation set up by those who wrote the Constitution and framed our government, as it would once again empower the states.

Review the Powers granted by the 10th Amendment.
Government is restrained by the Constitution, not empowered by it. The original design of our Constitutional Republic was elegant in its simplicity. Any power not delegated to the Federal level of government fell under the jurisdiction of the State Governments. Slowly, but steadily, over the last two hundred years, and more prominently in the last seventy years, the powers granted to the States have been whittled away and replaced with more power at the Federal level. Reviewing the 10th Amendment would drastically shift power in this country back to where the founders intended.

End Federal Withholding.
An added caveat, but a necessary one. There are two basic schools of thought pertaining to the government’s involvement in the economy. One group thinks that the government spurns the economy; the other group believes that the individual spurns the economy. During the Great Depression and entering WWII, President FDR decided that, in order to further the efforts of our nation to rebound, he would institute federal withholding to get money into government sooner. The belief was the federal withholding would end after the war, but FDR died in office, and his program lives on. One thing stopping the American economy from rebounding is the simple truth that individuals do not have enough money in their pockets. The solution doesn’t come solely from tax cuts, but from the end of federal withholding. Give the money back to the people who earned it.

Debate Structure.
One debate. One evening. Town hall style debate. Presidential candidates as well as Vice Presidential candidates would be on hand for the event. Allow the major national networks to bid for the rights to carry the debate.

 

Fair point. I realize now that I should've specified that I meant that to say the candidate can only spend that much of their personal funds. It would serve like a salary cap in sports. I'll edit the post to reflect that. Thanks for catching it, Rev.

 

I personally believe that all campaign financing should come from individuals. Business, special interest, etc should not be financing a campaign. The thing to remember in American politics is that we're basically at a point where campaigning is a popularity contest between a millionaire and a multi-millionaire.

Honestly, who was the last candidate running for high office that, in recent history for themselves, had to live paycheck-to-paycheck? Who was the last candidate that had to work two jobs to pay the bills?

 

I agree. While I don't think we should use the police power of government to legislate Christian morals (simply because it opens the door for allowing other religions to do the same), I completely agree that Christian leaders are needed.

I would never try to say that my idea is the be-all-end-all solution. Compromise is required by both sides of the aisle to enact meaningful change.

 

The debate one, Rev, is the absolutely most facetious one on there, and it's mostly because I'm so tired of the ads and everything.

I'm kinda surprised no one else has mentioned anything about the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment.

 

I get that people like voting for their Senator, but they were never supposed to.

The Senate was created to represent the State Governments while the House was created to represent the people. Once the 17th Amendment took effect the state government were, in essence as well as fact, stripped of representation at the national level. Without state governments represented in Washington, there really is no reason to have state governments at all. Just eliminate the state bodies, erase state borders, and place the entire nation under the umbrella of the federal government.

Instituting term limits would place at least a type of restriction on the corruption. Basically any political system devised by mankind is going to suffer corruption. It takes a strong will and resolve to try to limit that corruption as much as possible.