The Government you may not know.
The U.S. Government lies and steals. Expensive diners with clients and trips to the Bahamas are often written off as “expenses” and reimbursed to the account holder. In the past three years the rate of reimbursement for expense accounts has risen from 22.8% to a staggering 91.8%. This kind of dramatic increase in reimbursement often leads to over spending; or stealing form the taxpayers. These “slush funds” as they are commonly referred to account for nearly 100 million dollars in government spending a year. If these accounts were made payable by the owner I believe that would eliminate some of these claims for reimbursement. Congressman and senators are not drawn from the normal populace any more as they once were. These people are now called professional politicians. The go to school to learn how to be politicians, and they spend as much time in office as they can. The government was originally meant to be made up of selected AVERAGE citizens and rotate every other year. Eliminating these “professional” politicians would breathe new life into a sometimes stagnant political process, as well as a fresh perspective on some less than clear policies.
The average salary for a congressman is a staggering 174,000 dollars a year. They earn this salary every year they are in office and are eligible for pension after only five years. A pension pays them for life. So while the government is paying congressman the debt is increasing. Senators can make a yearly income of 193,000 a year another staggering figure. Pensions for congressman and senators can reach up to 113,000 and 175,000 a year respectively for the life of the official. Making this pension limited and not lifelong could help reduce the amount of money the government needs to tax the public to cover the cost.
Corporations, and their almost infinite spending pool, hold a huge sway in the focus of our government’s policies and often lead to legislation being passed or denied. These corporations hold sway by making “contributions” to one politician or another effectively buying the results they desire. It is estimated that the annual contributions equal almost 2 billion dollars. Making this practice illegal and punishable by jail would ensure a less biased decision making process.
And finally we come to our current two party power system. Democrat or Republican, most of us can relate more with one side or the other. But why should we have to? The government is supposed to represent the people not certain portions of it. The two political parties can never agree on anything. One is always right and they will both tell you it’s them. But why can’t we decide to make one party. Elect the best leader for the job not just the one that more people agree with based on party agendas? Eliminating the party system would allow people to see the true message of the person running for office not judge him based on his sponsoring party. It sure would be a lot easier to pass legislation if everyone was on the same page.
These ideas could save us a lot of headache and hassle in a perfect world. But we all know this isn’t a perfect world. As long as we allow the government to do whatever they want whenever they want, they will. It comes to the people who are supposed to be represented by them to tell them enough is enough. We do not see everything that happens behind closed doors, but if they are supposed to represent us, shouldn’t we?