Bills to go through the new Congress....

[Sibling Spoffish]

So, now that we have a (just) Democratic congress , what would you like to pass, what do you think will pass, what do you hope doesn't?

Me? I just want them to get the hell rid of John Bolton.   

[ivor]

I want a law to regulate the volume of radio and television commercials.  I hate when the commercials are so much louder than the programming.

That's a little trivial I know, but I think Congress should start out with something not so dangerous.  They need something easy to get started.

How about getting rid of that law that bans buying drugs from Canada over the internet?  I think that was such a bull crap law.  It's anti free market and anti capitalist I think.

Maybe there are some other dumb laws to get rid of.  Maybe that would be a good goal.  Clean house.  Get rid of all the pork.  Get rid of stupid laws.

MB

[Vita Curator]

First and foremost I would like to see lobbying reform, I want that link broken, so that the passage of legislation does not go to the highest bidder.  I want the gifts, perk and travel packages that are paid for by lobbyists to congressmen banned.  I want a clear accounting and inventory of all perks that are accepted by congressmen. I want a full public disclosure by lawmakers when they are negotiating for private-sector jobs.  I want the K-Street project banned, trading jobs for legislation.

My second dream is that they will raise the minimum wage, the first step in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty.  They can add provisions to the legislation, so that the minimum wage standard can be modified, say, for teenagers who are working after school, etc.

That every child in the US be given health care insurance.

That the elderly never have to choose between either buying groceries or paying for their medications.

Geez, I could go on forever.  I'll stop here; maybe I should be posting this in The Three Wishes Thread!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

While the little boy in me would LOVE to see bushya & co impeached - that would really not serve anyone.  Bushya is evil enough, that eventually he'll get His Due.

I'd echo the minimum-wage hike.

I'd also echo the health-care reform.  It should be morally-repugnant to sell health care. Profit on people's misery? Evil!  Health-care should have the PATIENCE'S interest FIRST, and NOT that of the stock-holders of the HMO ... I would LOVE to see a ban on health-for-profit.  Even those traditional "voluntary" medicines, like cosmetic surgery, have a basis in helping with people's mental health.  (and OBVIOUSLY, there are some who abuse this.  What system ISN'T abused by some?)

I'd like to see the tax-free-rich loopholes ELIMINATED:  let them pay AT LEAST their share.  I'm NOT talkin percentage - I'm talking the SAME $$ AMOUNT as the middle-class.  AT LEAST.

I'd like to see the Homeland [Un]Security Act (or the Rape of the Bill of Rights) repealed.

I'd like to see the Constitutional Guarantee of Habius Corpus ENFORCED again.  SHUT DOWN Bushya's illegal spying NOW.

I'd like to see the For Profit on Misery Industry (auto insurance) changed to No Fault across the board. In states that have this already, it eliminates a great deal of unneeded law-suits.  Only the lawyers hate No Fault - everyone else seems to like it better (who doesn't like lower rates?)

What else?  Oh yeah:  Change the Voter Registration to be:  AUTOMATIC registration EVERY TIME you get a Driver's License or State ID.  ALL the needed info is THERE ALREADY when the license/ID is requested.  Adding an automatic voter registration is simple.

And even better (credit for THIS idea goes to my very smart brother):  Automatic voter registration when you PAY YOUR INCOME TAXES.  The tax-paying process has EVERYTHING it needs to determine if you're a CITIZEN. And, auto-registration would get the TAXPAYERS (the ones actually footing the bill)on the voter-polls at least.

*whew*  That should give them a few things to work on in their first week ... 

[Sibling Chatty]

Ooohh, oooh, ooooh, Mr. Bob's Brother??

Can we make it manditory to vote or else be penalized on your income taxes?? Not by an set amount, but by a percentage??
--------

I want the return of the Fairness Doctrine, and all the laws that prevent the accumulation of media interests into a few greedy hands. No more than ONE TV or radio station in any given market...set up the rules the way they used to be, so that you can't own 300 radio stations 150 TV stations and 110 newspapers. Especially not anywhere near one another...

3 TV, 6 radio, 2 print within a 1,000 mile radius, no 2 TV and/or print in the same market.
As it is right now, Clear Channel owns the radio business with 1,200 stations.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM. Broad, sweeping. NO 527s, no PACs, no soft money ads, no 'values ads' no political content paid for by anything other than the equally shared public funding of elections. No putting your own money in, either, and no 'in kind'.

Here's the money for this election cycle. Everybody shares from the same pot. You choose how to spend your funds, but don't think that it's going to be easy to get more. YOU get more if your apponent gets the same amount...if you have 2 opponents they BOTH get the same amount.

Primaries need to be simplified as well.

Take the political arena out of show biz.
========
I have a vested interest in both the Medicare prescription benefit being fixed (IMMEDIATELY) and in healthcare being fixed.

If Medicare could bargain for better pricing like the VA does, our prescription benefits could be greatly enhanced, and at a much lower cost. A friend that takes one of the some bizzare drugs that I do gets his from the VA plan, mine comes through a Medicare plan. The VA plan's "retail" on this drug is $538 a vial. Medicare's retail on the SAME drug is $988. That's for the generic. The name brand sells for $3,700. And, thanks to the FDA's pro-Big Pharma stances, the introduction of the generic was delayed by 5 years. (Now you begin to see how I got into $3 million in medical debt before there was a prescription drug benefit.) With the $988 a vial, I hit the "donut hole" in my medicare prescription plan early on...4 months, to be exact, and that's using about 1/5th of the medication I should be using. I'm lucky. This isn't the medication that holds the cancer at bay. This is the one that prevents the absolute worst of the side effects of the illness, so I can tough it out.

There needs to be a major reassessment of Social Security Disability (both SSI and SSDA). There needs to be means testing for Social Security benefits AND for Medicare. do we think Warren Buffett would miss that SS Check? Or be hurt by doubling the amount of his Medicare premium? (If he even uses Medicare...but no opt outs unless it's a TRUE out.) However, people getting a big check of $800 a month to live on can tell you it's not easy. Those of us getting less have no illusions anymore. The system is set to kill off the poor...especially the poor and disabled.

If this country REALLY wants to be what it professes, there needs to be some recognition that nobody can live on $535 a month and be able to afford food and shelter, much less transportation or anything else. I THINK that's the base SSI check for 2007, it may be less.

[Swatopluk]

No mixed bills anymore. A bill has to have only one topic to be dealt with (that should stop or at least reduce the sneaking in of undesirable things or pork into must-pass bills).
Between the last amendment of a bill and the vote on it there has to be a period long enough for every member of congress to actually read it.
A binding law that requires 60% consent for for-life appointments (if one can't introduce a mandatory retirement age for those posts).
Make the right of citizens to vote in federal elections independent of state laws and introduce a federal election practice standard binding all states.
Make election days national holidays.
Declare presidential signing statements invalid without consent of congress.
That should be enough for starters (The stuff proposed by siblings above could be handled on day 2 )

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Appart from all the thoughtful ideas from the siblings, I would like a link between the minimum wage and the congressmen salaries. Lets be generous and say that they get 10 times the minimum hourly wage. Also, the same benefits (namely, no pension but social security, no healthcare but medicaid if qualify, no paid vacation, etc. In fact, that they be paid the hours they actually work!).

Of course lobbiest *presents* should be outlawed, and political death (they can never run for any public office state or federal) for cases of corruption.

[Sibling Spoffish]

Geez, I could go on forever.  I'll stop here; maybe I should be posting this in The Three Wishes  Thread!

Yeah, I was going to put this in 'Useless Speculation' but I thought it might be tempting fate.

I agree minimum wage should be raised. I also think that some basic healthcare should be free. Here in Australia ANYONE (well, excluding refugees, but I won't go into that... ) can go to the doctor, within reasonable limits, and feel that they don't need to worry about budget. I know it's a major thing to set up, but in my opinion it's one of the most important things.

After getting rid of a UN representative who doesn't like the idea of the organization he works in, of course....

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Appart from all the thoughtful ideas from the siblings, I would like a link between the minimum wage and the congressmen salaries. Lets be generous and say that they get 10 times the minimum hourly wage. Also, the same benefits (namely, no pension but social security, no healthcare but medicaid if qualify, no paid vacation, etc. In fact, that they be paid the hours they actually work!).

Of course lobbiest *presents* should be outlawed, and political death (they can never run for any public office state or federal) for cases of corruption.

I had a very workable solution to the absent congress-critters.

Take the number of voting opportunities a congress-critter/senator has in a given year. Take that number, and divide it into their annual salary.

Then for EACH missed voting opportunity, SUBTRACT that amount PLUS 10% for processing fee from their salary at year's end.

For example:  if there were bills and other business up for a vote 300 times in a given year, their salary would be divided by 300.  This is the base amount.  The penalty would be that + 10%.  The total times the congress-critter/senator misses is multiplied by this amount, and assessed at the end of the fiscal year. 

Some would complain that they do not vote out of principle - but "abstain" would COUNT as a vote - as long as it was delivered in person.

After all, isn't VOTING ultimately what we are paying them for?

[Opsa]

Big rumbles.

I'm still sulking over the amendment Virginia passed about marriage. Under the guise of being anti Gay marriage there was the fine print that no living arrangement other than marriage between a man and a woman would be recognised as legally binding.

First of all, I think the government has no business interfering in what is obviously a church issue. Some churches don't recognise gay marriage, but some (i.e. Unitarian Universalists) do. If two responsible adults want to pledge love and stewardship of eachother I can't see who that's hurting.

Second of all, I am close to quite a few straight couples who are not married but have set up households together. There's a pair I know who are expecting a child. If she gets into trouble with her labor, they'll send out her live-in boyfriend in favor of her kin- people who have basically rejected her. That doesn't seem right to me. I have a sis who lives with her love and she owns their house. What if she died? He might have no right to live there. (Luckily they live in Maryland, where this stupid amendment was not brought up.) Grr!

It just made me sick how it was so deceitfully worded. I'm sure most people never read beyond the "gay" part to see what it was really about. There were signs all over the place that read "Say yes to marriage", as if to vote no was to vote against marriage! I tried to explain it in my local newspaper, but it seems that people had the wool pulled over their eyes. They're going to be pretty surprised when they find they have voted their own rights away along with the rights of the gay people.

Thanks for the venting opportunity.

[Sibling Chatty]

People in Tennessee voted to make divorce illegal. They didn't realize it, but the language of their amendment stated that marriage was a LIFE-LONG committment between a man and a woman.

So, being gay isn't the only thing. It is now technically illegal to get a divorce or be divorced in Tennessee. This could be a problem for anyone divorcing at the current time, as it's illegal since the election, and may have to be redone once the law is changed. Again.

[Swatopluk]

Maybe they should also accept the Florida shoot-first privilege, thus making the Italian Divorce a legal option

[Aggie]

And even better (credit for THIS idea goes to my very smart brother):  Automatic voter registration when you PAY YOUR INCOME TAXES.  The tax-paying process has EVERYTHING it needs to determine if you're a CITIZEN. And, auto-registration would get the TAXPAYERS (the ones actually footing the bill)on the voter-polls at least.

Huh?  You don't do this down there?  Ours might not be explicit, but right near the top of the Canadian tax forms is a checkbox asking whether Revenue can pass your info on to Elections Canada, and I think only the especially paranoid check 'no'. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

And even better (credit for THIS idea goes to my very smart brother):  Automatic voter registration when you PAY YOUR INCOME TAXES.  The tax-paying process has EVERYTHING it needs to determine if you're a CITIZEN. And, auto-registration would get the TAXPAYERS (the ones actually footing the bill)on the voter-polls at least.

Huh?  You don't do this down there?  Ours might not be explicit, but right near the top of the Canadian tax forms is a checkbox asking whether Revenue can pass your info on to Elections Canada, and I think only the especially paranoid check 'no'. 

Yet another reason why I like Canada's laws bettern' many of the US's ... 

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

My cynic self thinks that the bigger the gap between the rulers and the ruled, the least interest of the rulers for higher votations. If the majority of people doesn't like them, better disenfranchise potential voters.

Not that such thing has ever happened in the US...