Law: September 2007 Archives

From: "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day (copyright 2004), by Joe Scarborough, ex US Rep, from Florida; now has news show on MSNBC:

Joe proposed the following contract which is to be signed by anyone running for Congress or Pres/VicePres.  If they don't sign it, you don't vote for them.

1. Ban congressmen, senators, and White House officials from lobbying for 5 years.
2. Freeze the pay of congressmen, senators, and White House officials until the federal budget is balanced.  This includes cost-of-living adjustments!
3. Force political candidates to immediately scan and post all campaign contributions on their campaign website.  Failure to do so results in criminal penalties.
4. Pass term limits now! Since the House of Representatives authorized the federal spending, limit House members to three terms (six years).
5. Make Congress and every Washington bureaucracy undergo an independent, professional audit, line by line, program by program every four years.
6. Pass a constitutional amendment requiring Washington to balance the budget every year except when Congress passes a resolution declaring a national emergency.
7. Create a federal rainy-day fund that would set aside ½ of 1% of all tax receipts each year for national, state and local emergencies.
8. Reenact pay-as-you-go rules that would require Congress to offset new spending programs and tax cuts with spending cuts from other programs.
9. Reinstitute congressional spending caps that would force congressmen or senators to live within their previous spending projections.  These caps will not be broken unless Congress passed a separate resolution declaring a national emergency as described in #6.
10. Pass a new American tax code written by a bipartisan panel of budget experts instead of the lobbyist groups who regularly carve out special-interest deductions and greatly simplify the tax system.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams

"Few men have [the] virtue to withstand the highest bidder." George Washington