First of all, have each congress person earn only as much as the average American citizen. Since I am a retired teacher, the average teacher’s salary comes to mind as being about right. And, as for retirement, if they get any, they have to pay in just as teachers and many other people do. And term limits!! Nobody serves more than two terms. We don’t need professional politicians who know how to “go along” to “get along”. When I hear about government servants (senators and representatives) who have been in D.C. for 30 years, it makes me boil. How about their getting out and working for a living like the rest of us?
You know, they really are supposed to be working for us and we, the taxpayers, are actually straining every nerve to make ends meet, doing without many of the things that would make life more pleasant, just so these clowns in D.C. can jet here and there, have lavish parties, and pay back favors for those special interest groups that put them into office. They remind me a great deal of the bloated queen termite and we are the workers. However, the queen termite actually does have a place in the nest; she provides for the next generation. The group in Washington now are doing their best to saddle the next generations with impossible debt.
We should be proud to be America, and not try to be England or some other country with a monarch. When dignitaries come to visit the President, how about serving a homestyle meal, nothing fancy with no champagne or highly-paid entertainment? No black tie affairs. We are all Americans, equal, and our President and other government officials are in D. C. to do a job for us, not to impress nor grow fat on the backs of others.
And, as for taxes…let’s have a flat rate and not punish achievers who Mr. Obama refers to as “fat cats”. We should teach each child that he too can be as rich as his hard work and ingenuity will take him. How dare a President say, “At some point, I think they’ve made enough money”?
Above all, teach the Constitution all the way from grade school through college. And be sure the allegiance of those teachers is to the USA. And then make sure that our elected officials stick to our Constitution. Pure and simple. The forefathers were wise beyond anything I see in Washington D. C. at the moment. Our government is made up of people…just like us, no better and no worse, and they shouldn’t think that they are wise enough to change a document given to us by dedicated, patriotic people under the direction of God.
I’m just dreaming, you say? Why should that be so? These are homespun, simple remedies but like a lot of remedies passed down from generation to generation, they will work!
First I would like to say I don’t disagree with everything you said, and I agree that things need to change and most politicians are paid too much and have a golden ticket as far as retirement and their health care insurance/coverage. We should be so lucky!
However, concerning this part: “Our government is made up of people…just like us, no better and no worse, and they shouldn’t think that they are wise enough to change a document given to us by dedicated, patriotic people under the direction of God.”
I take issue with this statement, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the number of Amendments that have been added to the original Constitution. It’s clear to me that this generation is not the first and won’t be the last to think that maybe the founding fathers didn’t cover everything and the document needed to be changed as the country and world has evolved. You may say “But adding an Amendment is not the same as changing the Constitution.” But isn’t that just arguing semantics? Amendments that added rights or laws also took rights away from others. A simple example is the 22nd Amendment, which took away the right for someone to be President more than 2 terms. A more serious example would be the 13th Amendment, which took away the states rights in regards to slavery and took away individuals rights to own slaves. Of course it seems so obvious now but we know that it was extremely unpopular at the time.
I also disagree with this idea that the United States has some special status under God, as if no other countries do, or that God stayed out of politics until the 1700s, or that God shows favoritism to us based on where we were born. To believe that the founding fathers were under the direction of God is like believing every word of the Bible is the word of God and that it is never edited, altered, or influenced by man or the Church or a King. Not even every person who considers themselves a Christian believes that, and I certainly don’t believe that. Too many terrible and horrible things have been done in the name of God (along side all the great things) to ignore the influence of men, or even of Satan if you will. There are too many different “translations” of the Bible to believe that every version is exactly the word of God.
If the Constitution and the founding of the United States was under the direction of God then why wouldn’t he have directed the writers to abolish slavery, allow women to vote, define marriage, etc from the very beginning? Because it was written by white men, by lawyers and politicians. Men who did not want a king or ruler to pick their religion for them, didn’t want their guns to be taken away, didn’t want to be arrested or imprisoned for speaking their opinions or sharing them with the public. These were men who were human and had faults and were not perfect and were not omnipotent. Even then they knew that they could only do so much, but they could set a strong foundation and allow for change and progress and transformation.
It doesn’t matter, the scales have tipped back in the other direction and the Dems will probably loose their fragile majority and the GOP will block everything or change things that will drive me crazy until public opinion sways back again… and nothing of any real value to most Americans will change.
Forgive my typos, it’s too late to proof read mistakes made in haste.