A modest proposal: Let's have TWO Congresses

After watching Congress flounder around for an entire year and manage to accomplish nothing, I've come up with my own reform plan. Just create a second Congress.

How do you do that? Hey, it's a campaign year, you can promise anything!

Here's a broad outline about how it would work: members of this Congress would be elected for one year - and barred from ever running again.

Since no one would have to worry reelection, they could dive into all the heavy lifting - entitlement reform, deficit reduction, tax policy, and rebuilding our roads and bridges and schools.

It's not exactly a new idea - I sort of modeled on the first Congress. Getting reelected was the last thing on those guys' minds. They were worried about being HANGED if it didn't work out. So they put all their chips on the line and went for it.

With my new Congress doing the work, what would we do with the old Congress? Well, they'd still be there. We'd just strip them of all power and no longer pay them.

With nothing to do, they could devote themselves full-time to what they do best - plotting against one another, dunning people for money, cranking out press releases, issuing declarations, dreaming up excuses, threatening to shut down the government every month or so, and otherwise finding ways to avoid doing anything that actually mattered to anyone but them.

Since it would no longer cost us anything, instead of feeling disgust, we might be actually moved to look kindly on them. We might even say, "Now THAT'S entertainment!"

[bruce789]

Reminds me of a story I read a while back with an idea to start over with a second Wall Street type trading place. Start a new exchange building and set strict rules (as per government) one being in particular disallowing short term trading, no computer trading, limits on swaps that aren't long term insurance etc. Commodities would be long term (no fear of gas spikes). Then invite investors over for a party maybe, bring your business here where investing is fair, and volatility doesn't allow the very few to bleed out the profits of the many.

[noloyalisti]

Let's also work to form a second political party in 2012. The People's 99% Party to run against the Republidems Top 1% Party. The time has come.

[RealiteBites]

1. Entitlement reform - so am I to assume Bob's IDEA would be to make cuts?

2. Deficit reduction - so is Bob's IDEA to cut spending? Or increase taxes? The 3rd idea would be to try and increase revenue - but he makes no mention of how he'd go about trying to do that ... IDEAS please??

3. Tax policy - the implication being what? That Bob's IDEA is to increase taxes on the top 1% and Corporations? Simplification isn't going to necessarily lead to increased revenue or economic growth per se.

4. Rebuilding our roads and bridges and schools - well, here is where Bob's thought process is really laid bare ... #4 is completely incompatible with #2 unless #3 is necessarily a wish on Bob's part that Congress raise taxes on Corporations.

Ergo, all Bob is saying is that he's a flaming liberal - he's frustrated that Republicans won't let Democrats enact the liberal platform of raising taxes on the rich and corporations so that the money can be spent on roads and schools and deficit reduction.

This is the thing Bob - those are just REDISTRIBUTIVE ideas, they're not ECONOMIC GROWTH ideas. As a matter of fact it's CONTRACTIONARY!!!! You can't pump less out into the system than you're taking in, which is what #2 would be, without decreasing GDP, which would cause a recession.

Which is why Congress isn't following through Bob. This is why I keep harping on the need for substantive discussion - because there's substantive reasons Congress isn't acting they way people think they should.

Look, this stuff is uber complicated - Congress only knows they can't do what Bob thinks they should be doing because they have the Congressional Budget Office at their avail to crunch the numbers and let them know that Bob's ideas are substantively non-viable.

I really, really think Bob's wasting time whining about the wrong things - this is really complicated stuff, so I can understand how y'all would think it's like you're pocketbook - but macroeconomic issues have global economic implications that make microeconomic pocketbook treatment non-analogous.

Sigh ... frustrating when the average IQ of the world is like 100 ...

[RealiteBites]

I will say this though - the flipside of Congress having the CBO is that they HAVE to know that the key to engineering a turnaround would be to retool the faulty trade policies they implemented in 1999 with Slick Willy at the helm, that gave the driver of America's economic engine away to China.

And the fact that they won't do anything about that, when I KNOW that both they and Barack KNOW that's key, is tragic. Even Slick Willy now admits the key to turning around the economy is to bring back manufacturing - not niche manufacturing (as in attempting to grow a new industry), but actually taking back what was given away to China. They don't buy the goods they make, and the Western world doesn't make the goods they buy - it's completely unsustainable.

Those multi-national corporations play too much of a part in getting politicians elected these days I think, that politicians' loyalties like more with the corrupt than the downtrodden ... hence the rise of the Tea Party, the Occupy movement.

Bob needs to make his comments relevant - he's not at the center of the debate, substantively speaking ... c'mon Bob!!

[MichaelGaree]

Bob,

Excellent commentary and GREAT idea! Too bad we can't actually do this!

Thanks!

Michael Garee

[FL_Son]

Fine idea, though I still like mine the most : Once a year randomly pick from the phone books a new congress. The logic in this is that we all know that on the average anyone could do a better job than these "representatives" ( representatives of what exactly ? ).

[ahrats]

What double the NOTHING. I have a better Idea should the congressional approval rating from the U.S. Voters be 10% or less for 3 months in a row, when its time for next election year the entire congress must run for re-election. Maybe will find some elected officals who really care about ALL Americans and those who want to be Americans.

[longtree-2009]

bob is just being silly. why stop with congress? do the same to the potus, the supreme court, governors, state legislators, mayors, city councils/aldermen, military generals, corporate execs, police chiefs and etc. everyone should be silly in life from time to time and bob is no exception. nothing will ever change without a major civil war or another revolution like the one that started the nation. and even then, things only change for a while until corruption and other things creep back in and we are back where we started.

[rwsmith29456]

I am hoping that there will be a very new broom in the 2012 elections that eliminates deadwood.

[RealiteBites]

Bob needs to get off his process tangent and start thinking substantively about the issues.

WHAT specifically does Bob Schieffer want Congress to do? I think it's rather childlike to expect magical things out of the people in power like "make the economy prosper". I want to here SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS.

Because 100% of people who whine helplessly about process have none. Well guess what - neither does 95% of Congress.

This may be a little harsh, but I think Bob Schieffer is using blame to avoid having to take personal responsibility as a public figure for leading the substantive debate. It's YOUR responsibility Bob to find solutions - the members of Congress are just representatives of voters, not necessarily problem-solvers.

Bob's in a position to lead national debate - rather than whine like a helpless victim, why doesn't he do research into solutions and get the ball rolling with his guests??????

[omnibus66]

Your comment makes no sense. Just how is it Bob's responsibility to find solutions? He's a journalist, and wasn't elected by anyone. He's putting forth a tongue in cheek suggestion based on the fact that we have a grid-locked Congress.

"WHAT specifically does Bob Schieffer want Congress to do?"

Specifically he wants them to do what they were elected to do. Maybe just represent the will of the majority. Something the Republicans seem to totally ignore.

"the members of Congress are just representatives of voters, not necessarily problem-solvers"

Now that has to be one of the dumbest statements anyone has ever posted. It is ENTIRELY the responsibility of our elected representatives to solve the problems of this country, either through legislation or regulation.

Suggest you go back to watching Fixed News. They have all the answers you like.

[erzkarlaspern]

Actually, we Do have two Congresses: the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it's sometimes a job to get them to agree, but that's the way it is in a big country with so many diverse issues and needs and so many different opinions on how to handle them. Let's not be simpletons, for there are no simpletonian solutions; only simpletonian suggestions. Pardon my inventing a word, but too many simpletons spoil the government, and that has nothing to do with conservative/liberal or Republican/Democrat. There are No Simple Solutions. I do Repropose making elections to the House of Representatives to be Every Four Years concurrent to the presidential election years to get work done instead of the wasteful elections every two years that distracts Congressmen and women too much from their work. This will require a Constitutional Amendment, but I believe it would be very worthwhile. The Senate might keep its six-year cycle.