Fix Congress First

[Jagos]

I've been reading up on what Lessig has been doing for a while and I stumbled upon his site.

http://act.fixcongressfirst.org/viewall

Basically, he wants to try to reform some of the money that goes (disgustingly) from the lobbyists to members of Congress to legislation.

He supports a bill that should reform some of this spending. I truly think it's a good act.

Looks like it's high time to begin whipping my Senator about this. Fact remains he just tried to support legislation supporting AT&T. I'm already mad at him.

[McTahr]

Yeah, idealists would wind up with the shit gigs and nowhere to go but down, unless they suddenly lost their ideals, of course.

Edit - Woah forum bug. This post should be after SMB's post about idealists getting weeded out.

[Bob The Mercenary]

yea but its a "majority rules" system. Long as the majority likes their free money they will continue to get it. This will never pass and nothing short of another american revolution will ever change it.

Investor's Business Daily agrees! (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007301830/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolution-.aspx)

[Edit] The hell? Did I just ninja post #3?

[Kim]

This thread is broken as fuuuuck.

The hell? Did I just ninja post #3?

We're time travelers now.

[Magus]

My straight-party vote in November will surely cure all of these ills!

Seriously, man, you can barely get the average person to vote, let alone call their senator. "Fixing congress" would require people to put in a modicum of effort at this politics business.

[Kurosen]

It would also require a majority of the politicians getting millions of free dollars who got into politics to get millions of free dollars to vote for them to stop getting millions of free dollars.

AHAHAHA

[Viridis]

To get into Congress you have to play by the rules, become part of the system so most idealists would be weeded out long before then/have already had to compromise somewhat.This is why we need to go a few steps farther (http://wondermark.com/377/) with our idealists.

Yeah... lobbying is pretty stupid when you see people with half their funding coming from AT&T voting against Net Neutrality :raise:

Edit: THE FORUM IS UNSTUCK IN TIME
[Posted 5:23 PM CST, 7/31]

[The Sevenshot Kid]

It would also require a majority of the politicians getting millions of free dollars who got into politics to get millions of free dollars to vote for them to stop getting millions of free dollars.

AHAHAHA

That's unfair. There have to be a couple of idealists floating around in there.

[Aerozord]

That's unfair. There have to be a couple of idealists floating around in there.

yea but its a "majority rules" system. Long as the majority likes their free money they will continue to get it. This will never pass and nothing short of another american revolution will ever change it.

[Ryanderman]

So what would it take give Congress the incentive to pass the law?

There are 535 members of Congress, right? What if as part of a comprehensive bill that would eliminate lobbying, Congress added a provision to give themselves a pay raise of $1,000,000 a year each? Would that be enough? I mean, I think it would be disgusting to pay Congress even more than what they make now with how corrupt and ineffective they are, but perhaps it'd be worth it. For an additional cost of $535 million a year, peanuts compared to the budget, we could theoretically eliminate corporate lobbying. And possibly, the money that'd save in eliminated pork and grafts and bloated contracts could easily and quickly pay for giving each member of Congress an obscene paycheck.

Would such a thing even work in theory?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

That's unfair. There have to be a couple of idealists floating around in there.

To get into Congress you have to play by the rules, become part of the system so most idealists would be weeded out long before then/have already had to compromise somewhat.

[Nique]

Why don't we just say 'Ok Congressmen, here's a special politician-only credit line you never have to pay back. Go nuts! Except if you start screwing around, we fire you from congress you don't get that anymore'

So when the oil company comes around and says, 'hey! here's a million dollars under the table for you to not to pass that bill that would make my company use safe drilling methods' or whatever they can just say, 'hmm, that's awfully tempting, but see I've got my magic money card here and, well, if I take your millions then I might not get to keep my magic money card. Do you see the dilema?'

[Odjn]

Why don't we just say 'Ok Congressmen, here's a special politician-only credit line you never have to pay back. Go nuts! Except if you start screwing around, we fire you from congress you don't get that anymore'

And if you're found to be corrupt or wasteful YOU pay for it.

[Magus]

That would require oversight committees which in and of themselves would then be corrupt. At best you would just have a smaller pool of corrupt people but with more power.

[Jagos]

That pool is still pretty small right now.

Lobbyists seem to have the most power with people like Barney Frank in the special committees having more.