Friday, June 23, 2023

How the legislation process should work


I'm new at this so forgive me my ignorance and naivete but it appears that the Legislative Branch spends too much time in party fighting, in campaigning for their next stint and in wasting time.  I have worked with and sat on several boards, however, and it is tempting to forget the purpose of any public body and become just a group of personalities who can't seem to get anything done, homo sapiens being homo sapiens, especially now that they get air time to spew their every opinion and fantasy with cameras and microphones in their face every day.  Aren't We Special.

Let's get to work.

Every law enacted should have a clearly stated aim; should include in its test all arguments for and against and a test against the preamble of the Constitution:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

If it doesn't meet on of those very broad aims, it's unnecessary and should be a state matter.

In addition, all laws are dated and it should be the work of Congress to review, revise, update and remove all laws on a scheduled basis.  That will keep them busy.

Article I. Section 6. of our Constitution addresses the compensation of Congress but, other than the Senate's sole responsibility in impeachments, nothing, before Section 6 addresses the job of Congress until after Section 6.  That is poor personnel practice.  You do not discuss compensation before definition the job.  It is, after all job.  A variety of types of legislation, imagined by the founding fathers, is outlined in Sections 8 and 9 but no where is there a clear definition of the actual work of the Legislative Branch, particularly as it applies to the clear aims of the Preamble, as shown above.  Therefore, I propose the following Constitution amendment:

Proposed Amendment:  It shall be the job and function of the Legislative Branch to enact such laws are determined useful in satisfying the aims of the Preamble of our Constitution which will preface each resolution and proposal.  In addition, it shall be the function of the Legislative Branch to review, revise, update and/or remove any laws previously enacted, on a scheduled basis.  Included in the text of each proposed legislation will be the justification of that proposal as it applies to the aims of our Constitution.  Also included, will be a proposed period of time for the first and subsequent reviews.

Let's be clear, the founding fathers were predominantly aristocrats.  They did not envision a Boebert nor a Santos being in office.  They did not envision many things.  That assessment is obviously biased and I am in the process of reading at least some biographical information about each of the founding fathers and will, hopefully, include a brief biographical sketch of each in the Resources.

That's it for now....


Wednesday, June 21, 2023

No parties

I'm not interested in parties.  Some new ones are emerging.  Too bad.  Political parties are dividing us.-

I'm also not interested in individuals, in personalities; they also divide us.

We had better start looking at what our problems are and whandarat the solutions might be.  As long as we focus our attention on parties and on personalities; we're not looking at our problems and solutions.

Our problems:

The economy - it's askew, top heavy.  We have a handful of powerful, disgustingly wealthy people who are influencing the supposed representatives of ALL of us.  That has to stop.  Passing legislation is not the answer, government contracts may be.  By setting criteria of government contracts intelligently, we can blunt the influence of the super rich.

Stupidity and incompetence - it's everywhere.  We  have to beef up our education in this country.  Set standards; what everyone should know and what everybody should be able to do.  Again, not legislation but standards that are required for support from the federal level.

Lack of consequences - we have become a supremely permissive society.  We don't think a former president should be indicted let alone convicted - mistake.  A president is a PUBLIC SERVANT - and should be most severely dealt with, of all criminals.

I am running - in this little exercise - as an absolutely Independent.  I have no backing.  I have no money.  I am a citizen with family history going back to pre-Revolution colonial New York.  I have every right to run - just an exercise.

The aims of government, according to Our Constitution are:

  • to form a more perfect Union, 
  • establish Justice, 
  • insure domestic Tranquility, 
  • provide for the common defence, 
  • promote the general Welfare, 
  • and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
Despite the antiquated misspelling of defense, it's clear what the intent of the drafters of the Constitution had in mind.

Since then, over time, our government has been infested with profiteers who seek to gain, for themselves, against the American people; who have little or no intent to serve, but only to gain, for themselves.  We have to work - hard - against this.

Every oath of office should repeat these aims and annual reports must be required on how everyone and every agency is working toward these basic goals.  Some of you may not remember but presidents used to be on the radio and on television answering the question of how well they were meeting these goals.

Certainly neither the Democrats, nor the Republicans are working to form a more perfect Union; rather, they are working hard to discredit each other in order to get reelected to serve their financial supporters.  It's become criminal.  It's the same with each of these aims.  Who's working toward these aims.

There are, fortunately, a few decent human beings in government and they are usually those who don't get that much press because they are working to do what they were elected to do, fulfill those aims of the Constitution, not perpetually campaigning for the next election or fight with "the other side".

Further definition of what I believe these aims mean in detail in the future.