Wow. And this from a Republican? With 9 “R” cosponsors?
By Jack E. Lohman
Great idea, this makes all the sense in the world, even for Wisconsin’s state legislators. Pay-for-performance for politicians.
But I get nervous — extremely nervous — when politicians are set to balance the budget and must decide between (a) their fiduciary responsibility to the voters and taxpayers and (b) the moneyed special interests that funded their campaign. Something tells me that the beast they starve will be the citizens of the state and US; not their campaign contributors.
Can you imagine how the bankers would fare under this scenario? Or am I just being cynical?
Here’s the bill:
H.R. 4336: Fiscal Responsibility Act — To provide that pay for Members of Congress be reduced following any fiscal year in which there is a Federal deficit.
Provides that, if there is a deficit in a fiscal year, then:
(1) any pay adjustment (including a cost of living adjustment) for Members of Congress scheduled to take effect in the succeeding calendar year shall be null and void; and
(2) rates of pay for Members shall be reduced by a specified percentage, but not below zero.
Specifies the mandatory pay rate reduction at:
(1) 5%, for the first year; or
(2) 10%, for any consecutive subsequent year that expenditures exceed revenues.Specifies conditions for restoration of the original pay rate, together with otherwise scheduled adjustments. Vests authority in the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to make determinations of whether or not a deficit exists in any fiscal year. States that, in making any such determination, the Director shall exclude any budget outlays which directly relate to a military conflict that lasts over 30 days or that is in direct response to a terrorist attack on the United States.
Better that they pass public funding of campaigns first.
Nothing is going to change until we have public funding of campaigns. We have high taxes because we have high spending, and we have high spending because the corporate funders have paid the politicians to spend. That’s what political bribes are all about. Corporate leaders buy politicians because it works.
There is a partial solution… The Fair Elections Now Act … not perfect but progress. It’s a 4-to-1 public match on donations of $100 or less. Sans four sensible Republicans it is primarily a Democrat bill, which irritates the hell out of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. They get really really mad when the Dems do something smart.
Our economy has been trashed because our politicians are owned by corporate America — the bankers, oil and coal, defense, you name it — all because they need campaign contributions to get re-elected. And our current system virtually demands that the money comes from private interests, unless you are a multimillionaire and can fund your own race (which our Senator Kohl did, and you can see what we got).
But if the money came instead from public funds — incidentally at a cost of less than $5 per taxpayer — our politicians would only have to do what’s right for the public. And they’d get re-elected without having to become a member of the world’s oldest profession.
What’s not to like about that?
[...] — like public funding of campaigns, instant runoff voting, none-of-the-above ballot choices, pay-for-performance for politicians, and smaller districts and more [...]