Govt reform bill - you write it

[Celeste]

........
Have a test that the politicians pass before they can run for office. Test for things like honesty, integrity, inform them to support the oath of office, can they budget, do they pay taxes, can they run instead of ruin the largest employer in the US. I am so tired of the dishonesty and inflexibility of our officials. I know the election process is the test, it is not working.

..........

And the only people that would pass are those humble and honest enough to admit flawed and unfit for office they are.

[Celeste]

Back ground check to highlite any arrest, taxes owed

great one

Pay based  perormance and attendance

kind of hard to grade performance if your party is out of power

Term limits
Their Kids go to public schools

all good ones

All bills read by everymember, no late nite votes

I like it, but I don't believe it si possible given how many pages of text are produced, there are just not enough hours in a day or days in a month for that.  They really need staff to condense for them.

eliminate all lobbyist / special interest groups

so very good on that one

Every member would have to pass a test on the Constitution and Bill of Rights

I like it, but it is asking for the test writer to distort their there view of what the words mean.

Any elected member convicted of any crime would be terminated imediatley

another good one, but I would go with felony, being as speeding is a crime

THey must really live in the area they represent for 10 yrs

I could live with this one, but see it as a bit discrimatory, being has how the military moves people around every few years, it means after discharge you could not hold office for at least 6 years.

To be elected to Congress, V Prez and Prez they had to have served 4 + yrs in at least one branch of the military with and honorable discharge

So those with physical disabilities are also unfit for office? I think you need to refine that one.

Valid proof of citizenship up front to even apply to run made public and validated before any election !

on the surface that sounds good, but what about the people without traceable parentage? My mother was abandoned in a train station when she was 6 months old, eventually a birth certificate was found that might have actually been hers but no one is really sure, she is not alone in that predicament, should they be held unfit for office?

Thats just for starters, I will come up with more after I review more laws already on tha books they don't enforce !

[Celeste]

There are a lot of good reasons posted here to use as guidelines on who you feel you should or should not vote for, but when you tell me I can only vote for someone who served in the military or someone who sends his kids to public school, you are infringing on my voting rights.  Please feel free to vote for, campaign for, and contribute to a candidate that fits your requirements. You can even try to convince me that that is how I should vote, but don’t pass laws that stop me from voting for who I want to.

Democracy does and can work with free and unrestricted elections, BUT the current system where money spent is more of a determining factor on who gets elected than the candidate’s qualifications needs to change. If there were workable laws that keep big money influences out of elections, I think that most of the problems we are seeing today would be drastically reduced.

There are so few candidates that I feel would make good legislators; I think that restricting who can run will cause more problems that what candidate restrictions would be trying to fix.

And yet that is exactly the situation you are in right now.

[pdxmike]

Back ground check to highlite any arrest, taxes owed

great one

Pay based  perormance and attendance

kind of hard to grade performance if your party is out of power

Term limits
Their Kids go to public schools

all good ones

All bills read by everymember, no late nite votes

I like it, but I don't believe it si possible given how many pages of text are produced, there are just not enough hours in a day or days in a month for that.  They really need staff to condense for them.

eliminate all lobbyist / special interest groups

so very good on that one

Every member would have to pass a test on the Constitution and Bill of Rights

I like it, but it is asking for the test writer to distort their there view of what the words mean.

Any elected member convicted of any crime would be terminated imediatley

another good one, but I would go with felony, being as speeding is a crime

THey must really live in the area they represent for 10 yrs

I could live with this one, but see it as a bit discrimatory, being has how the military moves people around every few years, it means after discharge you could not hold office for at least 6 years.

To be elected to Congress, V Prez and Prez they had to have served 4 + yrs in at least one branch of the military with and honorable discharge

So those with physical disabilities are also unfit for office? I think you need to refine that one.

Valid proof of citizenship up front to even apply to run made public and validated before any election !

on the surface that sounds good, but what about the people without traceable parentage? My mother was abandoned in a train station when she was 6 months old, eventually a birth certificate was found that might have actually been hers but no one is really sure, she is not alone in that predicament, should they be held unfit for office?

Thats just for starters, I will come up with more after I review more laws already on tha books they don't enforce !

I'd vote for anyone who's able to figure out how to break up a post into a series of individual quotes, so they can insert their comments after each sentence.   I've been trying to figure that out for 2 years. 

[Celeste]

Back ground check to highlite any arrest, taxes owed

great one

Pay based  perormance and attendance

kind of hard to grade performance if your party is out of power

Term limits
Their Kids go to public schools

all good ones

All bills read by everymember, no late nite votes

I like it, but I don't believe it si possible given how many pages of text are produced, there are just not enough hours in a day or days in a month for that.  They really need staff to condense for them.

eliminate all lobbyist / special interest groups

so very good on that one

Every member would have to pass a test on the Constitution and Bill of Rights

I like it, but it is asking for the test writer to distort their there view of what the words mean.

Any elected member convicted of any crime would be terminated imediatley

another good one, but I would go with felony, being as speeding is a crime

THey must really live in the area they represent for 10 yrs

I could live with this one, but see it as a bit discrimatory, being has how the military moves people around every few years, it means after discharge you could not hold office for at least 6 years.

To be elected to Congress, V Prez and Prez they had to have served 4 + yrs in at least one branch of the military with and honorable discharge

So those with physical disabilities are also unfit for office? I think you need to refine that one.

Valid proof of citizenship up front to even apply to run made public and validated before any election !

on the surface that sounds good, but what about the people without traceable parentage? My mother was abandoned in a train station when she was 6 months old, eventually a birth certificate was found that might have actually been hers but no one is really sure, she is not alone in that predicament, should they be held unfit for office?

Thats just for starters, I will come up with more after I review more laws already on tha books they don't enforce !

I'd vote for anyone who's able to figure out how to break up a post into a series of individual quotes, so they can insert their comments after each sentence.   I've been trying to figure that out for 2 years.  

But I am unelectable, I am a flawed human, I  have lied, cheated and stolen, as well an not been honorably discharged. I am just a "[ quote ]" savant.

I forgot to mention, I speed as well

[SlatchJim]

Sometimes I just can't help myself.

[Celeste]

Sometimes I just can't help myself.

can you tell I learned to hack HTML the old way, with no templates

[headmount]

Since members of the supreme court are appointed by elected officials (presidents) they shouldn't be allowed to make decisions as to how people are elected, like contributions.  Only people should be able vote on those issues.  People like us.  That would be a huge government reform.

And Celeste, however flawed you think you are, I'll raise you a hundred with my flaws.  For many years every time I went thru customs, it was the back room for me.  I used to blame it on my brother.

[Tom]

The legistature makes laws, the supreme court interprets the laws.

[headmount]

Laws yes but we're talking about decisions, like the decision of how much a corporation can contribute to a PAC.  I think this campaign spending  is one area the supreme court shouldn't be allowed to decide. 

[stoneaxe]

I think our election process is now the root cause of our problems.....when it costs huge dollars to run for dog catcher how can we possibly think money won't corrupt. The idea of publicly funded elections I think has some merit. Run it like sports playoffs....start locally....anyone can run...all get some basic time and space in local news and media outlets. Things like youtube, FB, and such also help level the field and are free. Winners move on to a larger race (congressional districts maybe...minus the gerrymandering?), then state level, maybe create larger regions beyond that. End up with multiple candidates that aren't necessarily affiliated with one of the two parties. They get bigger budgets to work with at each level....no campaign contributions, no begging for $ from big donors that are seeking access, no quid pro quo. It obviously needs a lot of refinement but until we break the back of money in elections nothing is going to change.

[Admin]

Who are the 35% that want to keep them?  Are there that many lobbyists?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fire-em-majority-want-toss-113038670.html

[Celeste]

I would say they are the hard core Tea party supporters

[stoneaxe]

I would say its likely multifaceted but out at the fringes both right and left, hard core tea party, uber liberals, and folks getting something from it whether it be a lobbyist or high dollar donor or folks getting free stuff.

[Weasels wake]

I'd say they are nothing but "I don't know"s.