What does all of this mean to the
average citizen? It means that those who
inhabit the corridors of power in our nation’s capital and in statehouses and
legislatures throughout America are no longer beholden to us, the electorate,
but to their management team, those who pay to have them elected by
manipulation of the vote. Independents
stand no chance; the two major parties are equally corrupted. Why? Because
what they say they stand for is not what they actually stand for, but
rather a line to grab us and persuade us of the lie that they actually care
about what happens to us. I could give
endless examples of the results of this situation, but I will simply note a
couple of examples:
First, there is the ACA, the health care
reform act, now law. It does do a few
things that are worthwhile, but, at the bottom line, it is an expensive
solution which still mostly rewards the corporate interests in health care
conglomerates, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies more than any
citizen. And, furthermore it doesn’t
help about 50 million of the electorate who live without insurance, unless we
consider Medicaid adequate health care assistance. During the massive debates and committee
hearings, polls were taken. A majority
of Americans preferred the Medicare for All option (i.e. single payer), and
that was also preferred by a majority of doctors and other health
professionals, although the AMA didn’t support it (pure politics there). The proponents of this alternative were
barred from even testifying in the congressional hearings, and, in some cases,
actually arrested for protesting their exclusion.
The second example is the US Tax
Code. Where do I begin? First, the actual governing regulation is
nearly 16,000 pages of the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations), and then there
are about 50,000 pages of administrative determinations and court set
precedents which interpret the meaning of the 16,000 page code. About 90% of the code represents a corruption
of the federal income tax. What do I
mean by corruption? What I mean is that
the 90% is filled with benefits for tiny minorities of the electorate. It is filled with corporate tax breaks,
special exemptions for wealthy individuals and tax subsidies which unfairly
tilt the playing field in favor of those who have bought the privilege of
access to power. The Republicans are
fond of saying that our corporate tax rate is too high, and discourages
business. I say that’s a load of
hogwash. Check out the average effective
rate of tax paid by the largest American corporations. This effective rate is less than half of that
stated in the code as the base rate.
Meanwhile, nearly every truly small business in America gets no breaks,
except breaks which resemble the individual mortgage interest deduction which
every American homeowner gets. And,
although this deduction is nice, the result of it is that most of us own homes
which are more than we need, simply because the deduction makes it possible to
afford more. What happened to home
values as a result of the bubble burst of 2007-08 and ongoing was exacerbated
by this fact. Without further belaboring
the facts regarding the corrupted American Tax Code, I will simply say that in
my opinion the ideal reform would be to completely trash it and start over from
scratch. But, as it stands, tax reform,
for many reasons (Grover Norquist being only one of them), is not happening,
and the chances of it happening are somewhere between slim and none. Don’t hold your breath.
I believe that nearly every citizen
knows that the system is seriously broken.
I have heard many proposals regarding the fixes that could be done, none
probably without a Constitutional Amendment (as we cannot rely on the foxes to
repair the henhouse). A law can be
changed. A Constitutional Amendment
can’t.
Here I will simply list some ideas of
ways in which we could repair our electoral processes and governing processes
to make them so that the result would be better governance.
1.
Campaign
finance. Make all campaign finance
public finance. Politicians can raise no
money, and must use only public funds.
All candidates would be assured of equal media exposure at the expense
of media.
2.
Electoral
College. Eliminate this
anachronism. The president should be
elected by a pure popular vote. The
majority rules. I have heard the excuses
not to eliminate this, but, to me, none of them hold water. We don’t want or need political elites
deciding who we should have a president, or the Supreme Court telling us.
3.
Term
limits. Every elected official in any
job, from President to Dog Catcher may only serve two terms in office, and the
longest term may be no more than four years, or only one term of six years.
4.
Election
Districts. The boundaries of election
districts in all states should be determined by an independent board acting to
preserve value of the popular vote, not the influence of any political party,
such that each district is a simple geographic area determined without regard
to the political sentiments of its populace.
5.
Lobbying. No one who has ever worked in a governmental
position higher than the equivalent of G5 may ever serve in a lobbying
capacity, for life.
6.
Law
making. The rules governing law making,
such as filibusters must be eliminated in favor of simple, effective rules that
promise clean debates and prompt action or inaction. This would include a rule prohibiting the
inclusion in any bill (proposed law) of any amendment which contains matters
not specific to the main theme of the bill (this is the primary reason as to
how our tax law has gotten so corrupted).
7.
Regulation. Once a bill is enacted by the
Congress/legislature, and signed by the President/Governor, the regulatory
agency tasked with implementation must draft its corresponding regulation(s)
within six months of the law’s enactment.
(The Dodd-Frank law passed to affect financial reform is now about two
years old, and regulations are still less than half complete).
8.
Mandamus. Any citizen has the right to file a writ of
mandamus to force a government official to act or explain which they aren’t
taking action. We now know that many on
Wall Street were guilty of fraud and other criminal actions, and yet our
Attorney General, Eric Holder, has steadfastly refused to bring charges. In the 1980’s we had the Savings and Loan
scandal, and there were more than a thousand successful Federal prosecutions of
the participants in related criminal activities, most involving prison time. Not one Wall Streeter has been prosecuted to
date, remembering that Bernie Madoff was not a part of the criminological
bubble building on fraudulently conceived and marketed derivatives. Even the SEC has pursued only a tiny fraction
of the obvious endemic transgressions.
There are still other things that could
be done to change the way our governmental elected leadership does its job, but
these are the ones that I tend to see as essential in eliminating about 90% of
the corruption which is commonplace today.
We can never eliminate all of it, but much could be done and should be
done to make vast and much needed improvements.
Until you and I decide to stand up
against the tyranny which presently exists, it won’t matter who we vote for, or
who serves. They simply become a part of
this massively destructive system that is wasting this country’s greatness and
turning it south rapidly. Think about
it, how many of you have voted for someone who you considered to be the lesser
of two evils? Do you remember voting
otherwise?
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