While we normally do not delve into national politics (we have quite enough to do to keep up with the jesters on the fourth floor of the State Capitol), we have decided to offer up our solution to the impasse in Washington, aka the federal government shutdown.
If the board of a larger corporation like, say, Wal-Mart disagrees with the company’s CEO or president, there are no closures of Wal-Mart stores. That would be self-defeating in every respect. Corporate profits would plummet, consumers would buy elsewhere and the stockholders would elect new board members and new officers.
So how is it that Congress—America’s corporate board—can shut down company operations because of disagreements among themselves and with the President—the country’s CEO? Is our national company that near bankruptcy, financial collapse, that hysteria is now the order of the day when it comes to running the store?
To borrow a line from the television sitcom Two and a Half Men, our elected representatives appear to have the emotional stability of a sack of rats in a burning meth lab. Come to think of it, the analogy might not be that far off.
When either side of the aisle in Congress, whether Republicans or Democrats, takes it upon itself to hold the entire country hostage over its inability or unwillingness to compromise, drastic measures are in order.
When 535 men and women can cancel services to more than 300 million Americans on a whim, the system is broken and is in immediate need of repair.
When either side of the issue comments that it is “winning” and that it “doesn’t matter” to them how long the shutdown lasts—and please remember that there are cancer patients and wounded veterans who run the risk of not receiving needed medical treatments—then arrogance has supplanted diplomacy and common sense in our nation’s capital and something must be done.
When Rep. Randy Neugegauer (R-TX) can publicly insult a park ranger for doing her job in closing access to the temporarily closed World War II Memorial in Washington because of the government shutdown—a shutdown brought about by congressional stupidity and not by any action of the park ranger—then he, not she, should be ashamed.
And then we have Rep. Lee Terry (R-NEB) who said he cannot afford to give up his salary during the shutdown. He was dismissive of those who are declining their pay, saying, “Whatever gets them good press.” Good press seems the do-all, end-all for elected officials these days but they often miss the mark by a wide margin. “I’ve got a nice house and a kid in college,” Terry sniffed in refusing for relinquish his salary. “Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That’s just not going to fly.”
Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) expressed similar sentiments, saying he’s keeping his money because he’s “working to earn it.”
Certainly not like those federal employees who also have houses and kids in college and credit card debt and utility and grocery bills but who aren’t working because they were furloughed as a result of increasingly recurring—and tiresome—congressional gridlock and 535 megalomaniacs jockeying for “good press.”
Unfortunately, the solution to this idiocy cannot be implemented overnight; it will take several years.
Nevertheless, here is our solution:
Fire every damned one of them.
That’s right. Put them on the street for a change. Let them struggle to make ends meet each month. In short, put them back in touch with their constituents by making them one of us. We at LouisianaVoice have long felt that if we sent the politicians into battle before sacrificing our young men and women, there well might be fewer unnecessary, foolish, and costly wars like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly Syria that benefit only the defense contractors.
So why not take that idea further and whenever federal employees are placed on furlough because of a federal shutdown resulting from sheer pigheadedness and some philosophical point, stop the pay for members of Congress and put them on furlough—permanently.
Constitutionally, it cannot be done in one fell swoop. Senators are elected on a rotating basis—one-third every two years. But in 2014, we could fire 468 of ‘em—all 435 members of the House and one-third, or 33 senators. Two years later, in 2016, send another one-third of the senators home and the final one-third in 2018. (Somewhere along the way, of course, there would be 34 senators up for re-election to account for all 100, but it should be just as easy to fire 34 as 33.)
None are righteous, no not one. All 535 have lost touch with the American people. Witness the shabby way in which 5th District Congressman Rodney Alexander “retired” with little advance notice, all so that (a) Gov. Bobby Jindal could install his choice, State Sen. Neil Riser, into Alexander’s seat and (b) Alexander could be rewarded for opening the door to Jindal’s boy via his appointment as head of the State Department of Veterans Affairs, a position which, incidentally, will bump his state retirement from his tenure in the state legislature before his election to Congress from approximately $7500 to about $82,000 per year.
He’s not alone, of course. Far too many members of Congress have parlayed their time in Washington into small—and not-so-small—fortunes.
Jindal, for example, spent a tad more than three years in Congress and emerged a multi-millionaire, a status he was far from enjoying when he entered.
And at least four of our own former congressmen—Sen. John Breaux and congressmen Bob Livingston, Richard Baker and Billy Tauzin—simply retired and moved over to K Street as highly paid lobbyists. There are others, but those come to mind quickly. Tauzin, it should be noted, used his position in Congress to set up his future employer—and himself—in a way we can only dream of. He rammed through a Medicare bill that prohibited the federal government from negotiating the cost of prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies, meaning that the pharmaceutical companies set the prices—and that was that. And then he resigned and went to work as a lobbyist for (you guessed it) the pharmaceutical industry.
Other members of Congress (and some governors) establish non-profit, tax-exempt foundations that allow well-heeled donors to circumvent laws that limit campaign contributions to $5,000 per election cycle. Donations to foundations such as the Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children and Jindal’s Believe in Louisiana, however, have no such restrictions placed on them.
As might be expected, contributions to these foundations from individuals seeking lucrative appointments and corporations seeking favorable legislation tend to spiral out of control.
And there are members of Congress, Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid among them, who use their positions to garner inside information that allows them to anticipate and profit from stock market fluctuations or to make property investments that enrich them personally.
There is less controversy in Congress over the issue of the NSA’s spying on American citizens—an issue that should prompt outrage on the part of the American people.
And now these self-righteous hypocrites beat their breasts as each side waits for the other to blink—all over the issue of ObamaCare which, good or bad, passed Congress and was ratified by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The American people should be asked to tolerate only so much from these miscreants. Our patience should be wearing a bit then with these spoiled brats.
The only reasonable solution, therefore, is to fire them all.
No exceptions.
Louisiana Voice 
Great commentary, Tom. And yes, firing them might be the easiest way to rid us of all the wear and tear placed on America by these individuals. Now if we could only find a way to fire Jindal, and his cronies, too!!
Public trough fattened pigs will lose when pigs fly. The Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United guaranteed the perpetual election of Congressmen who vote the agenda of their deep pocketed corporate owners who now may contribute unlimited millions anonymously. Corporations run Super PACs and they buy politicians and elections.
The control of government by corporate interests is called Fascism. Hitler wrote (and FOX News knows) that propaganda need not be true, it must just be repeated often and appeal to the masses’ fears to be believed.
Continue the FCC ban on concentrating media into too few hands and Overturn Citizens United if you want to return government to the people.
While we’re at it, those who haven’t lost their independent thought need to reteach the public how to be intellectually and factually honest, and to demand honesty from others.
Dearest Noname, we tried to fire Jindal who is liquidating millions in public assets for pennies on the dollar and destroying public programs and thousands of lives. Too few citizens had the chutzpah or sense to sign our recall petitions.
Now my money is on John Bel Edwards for Governor who repeatedly stood up to Jindal in the Legislature and consistently voted for the people of LA rather than the carpet-bagger corporate interests Jindal has brought in. Check out his website http://www.johnbelforlouisiana.org.
OOPS! It’s probably .com.
Tom
There are a thousand quotes that might be very apropos but two of my favorites are;
“We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing”
― Thucydides
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Thomas Jefferson
Each and every member of the body politic is responsible and we all should exercise our right to vote and in doing so accomplish what you suggest above.
Perhaps every election ballot should have a “None of the Above” slot. If NOTA gets the most votes we start the process over, new election and none of those who ran can try again. I will keep trying. It is the least I can do for a country that has given me so much.
It’s time for citizens to reach out and let them know how we feel. I am tired of the few who have taken over the conversation and hijacked our government. The nation elected this president knowing that Affordable Healthcare is the law. Supreme Court ruled. It’s time to stop whining and move on. How about if we shut down government because majority doesn’t agree with Citizens United. We can’t hold hostages every time someone doesn’t like a law that has been passed. This is childish.
Reference Nancy Pelosi: didn’t Martha Stewart spend time in the big house for similar behavior?
Yes, but members of Congress aren’t held to the same standards with insider trading nor or members of Congress held to the same laws regarding sexual harassment. It’s an uneven playing field in virtually every respect.
I understand the rage at all of Congress — believe me, but Congress is not that similar to a private corporation’s Board of Directors. The president or a part of Congress can’t fire the congressional members with whom they find fault. The problem is weakness in our political institutions that has allowed a radical minority to hold our country hostage, in the case of the current government shutdown. The people who make up that radical minority are in districts gerrymandered by state representatives of their party, so they will be re-elected, thereby not having to suffer the consequences of their actions, which do not represent the views of the majority of Americans.
The other problem with firing all 535 is by doing so, you are saying the Democrats equally to blame for the government shutdown. They aren’t. This was not their idea. This was what the Tea Partiers wanted and the so-called moderate conservatives (who are not moderate at all) have supported them and allowed them to carry this out. And by saying they were equally to blame for the shutdown, you are basically siding with Tea Partiers who are eager to portray them as that. Plus, if they had agreed to the Tea Partiers’ blackmail — eradicate a law we don’t agree with, Obamacare, and we’ll let the country function — then we might as well say goodbye to what remains of our democracy.
I’m angry, too, at the corruption, buy-offs, NSA spying, etc. that all of Congress seems to engage in or approve (although are Senator Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders involved in all of it, too?) Then, warn the rest in office that they need to set up new political institutions and processes that will create a system that neutrally establishes congressional districts, prevent corruption, keep representatives from voting against the wishes of the American people, Otherwise, they will be fired too.
You are correct, of course. But when an institution like Congress is able to manipulate the rules and wreak havoc, then I hold them all responsible. The Democrats may not have caused the shutdown, but there is plenty blame to go around with both parties in respect to lobbying, personal enrichment, etc.
What both of you said.
The Senate, at least, is performing its designed function of protecting the country from the excesses of the House. That is one of the primary reasons we have a bicameral legislative system. Fortunately, it is nearly impossible to gerrymander senate races. I doubt the Founders foresaw the depth of self-interest the parties would devolve to when they encoded the reapportionment of districts after the census. Releasing the reapportionment power from being a spoils system is just as important as overturning Citizens United so that equal representation can be restored.
On a side note, I’ll bet Jindal is kicking himself that he didn’t come up with scam to close Louisiana down. I’m sure he doesn’t think it is too late, though.
I believe that you are absolutely right! Fire every damned one of them!
A second modest solution might be to shoot a few of them, or hang a few of them and see if that yields results.
The Bush heist set the bar for succeeding generations. Both parties are guilty. The Republicans are guilty for cooking up the war and selling it to the befuddled Democrats. They are guilty for the trillions in slush money divvied between cronies in the conduct of the war. The Democrats are guilty for not prosecuting the heist’s perpetrators. Their failure to prosecute is a clue that they intend to do the same thing when the opportunity presents itself. Until the heist is prosecuted each succeeding administration will be setting it’s sights on outdoing Bush’s incredible theft.
We need accountability!
Fire every damned one of them!
And become a professional anarchist! Does anyone have a manual? We’ve been so tame for so long that we retain hardly a memory of the good old days when the politicians feared the people.
Where is the tar? Where are the feathers? Seems like mighty fine weather to wrap the pols in the wrath of the people!
Mr. Bowman, with all the adverse publicity about NSA eavesdropping, I would strongly suggest that you refrain from talk—even in jest—of shooting or hanging anyone. That is the kind of thing that can attract black SUVs and black helicopters to your home.
Let us strive to keep the dialogue on a more civilized level.
They are all crooks!
There are numerous examples of large groups of employees going on strike and they were fired and replaced. Why should Congress be different? At the least, a severe financial sanction should be placed on Congress’ pay for each day they allow this “shutdown” to continue. If Congress had family members who could not obtain life-sustaining cancer treatment, maybe they would think about We the People, who put their sorry asses in Congress.
Tom, I hear your outrage, but disagree with your solution. The “throw bums out” is an old refrain. Institutional memory is important in keeping systems functional. No, I’m not saying the current Congress is functional, but that is due to a faction that is going to obstruct anything this president tries to do. You need look no deeper than Republican filibusters in the Senate and the current shutdown by House Republicans. Both parties are guilty of self-enrichment, but both are NOT responsible for the dangerous practice of shutting down the government. Nixon’s Southern strategy of racial resentment later expanded to cultural issues like abortion, and has worked for Republicans in the old Confederacy and other rural areas since then. As long as such politicians can keep us focused on issues other than economic justice, 99% of us are going to be screwed. Ever since Reagan went into office by campaigning on government as the problem, rather than as government as a means to hold society together and be a source for the common good, Republicans have continued to seek to divide the country and make us all cynical enough to just give up on government. Once we give up and tune out, we make their jobs of looting and self-enrichment all that much easier. We, the people, elected these folks, and have to take responsibility too. If we are that easily manipulated, we get the government we deserve. Of course most people are so worn down by trying to put food on the table that they have no time or energy left over to pay attention to what’s really going on, so I hate to be too harsh. I hope, however, that the people in Texas are as embarrassed by inflicting Ted Cruz on the rest of us as I am by Louisianians being stupid enough to inflict David Vitter on the country.
I understand what you’re saying but perhaps if we cleaned house, the next crew might get the message that the same could happen to them if they don’t attend to the country’s business in a dignified and professional manner.
There were times when my children were little and they would fight and I’d simply punish all three. They soon got the message that if they couldn’t play together without fighting, they all suffered the consequences. You might say members of Congress aren’t children but right now, I can discern little difference.
Cruz is an embarrassment and for the life of me, I don’t understand how a man like Vitter could run on a “family values” platform, do what he did and still be the darling of the religious right. It defies all logic.
Well said.
Tom
W/ all due respect, that is precisely one of the major problems….there is NO logic, no manners, no civility, no statesmanship, no concern but for the few (whichever few it is that control any single member he/she “represents”!), no “common good”, eh, not much of anything that is not ALL ABOUT ME and bedamn the rest.
I was disappointed to learn that we can’t recall the bums.
I’m amazed that all of you people blaming the House Republicans fail to realize that the Founders wrote the Constitution with a definite purpose in mind. It is clear that all spending must originate in the House, which gives the House the RIGHT and the RESPONSIBILITY to fund the government. It is clearly the RIGHT of the House to refuse to fund obamacare. If I were a government employee, and the House was voting EVERY DAY to fund my job, and the Senate was either voting that CR down, or refusing to vote, how on Earth could I hold the House responsible? Basic application of logic shows that the entity responsible for the shutdown is clearly the Senate.
No one denies that. The sticking point is that the House is holding up the budget over ObamaCare which has already passed both chambers AND been upheld by the Supreme Court. This is clearly a move by the Tea Party Republicans to embarrass the President with no consideration for the collateral damage this does to federal employees who are now going without pay (even though some, such as U.S. marshals, still have to report to work).
The issue is not the House’s right and responsibility to fund the government; the issue is these clowns allowing their egos get in the way of doing what they were elected to do: keep the doors open and the government functioning.
Please explain to me how the House can justify funding a trillion-dollar war in Iraq and Afghanistan while at the same time cutting benefits to the military personnel we send over there to protect the interests—not of the country—but of the military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned us about nearly a half-century ago. When our military personnel return wounded, maimed and suffering from PTSD, they are discarded like soiled paper towels. They find it impossible to receive the treatment they need despite the fact the politicians placed them in harm’s way. And don’t think for one minute that I lay this solely at the feet of the Republicans: it’s our presidents, from Kennedy to Obama, and Congress which keep approving and funding these military actions.
If you really want to get to the root of the appropriations-deficit-national debt problem, look no further than the wars this country has fought when we should have kept our noses out of other countries’ business. You can start with Viet Nam and just keep going until you get to Syria, which is where we will probably be next.
Where’re Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening when we need them? At least they had the foresight to cast the only two votes against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution back in 1964.
This is a great idea but unfortunately one that probably won’t work. While everyone is outraged by the conduct of Congress, specifically the House, polls have shown that in the majority of districts citizens asked respond that they think their congressman is doing a good job. Irrational but true. In Baton Rouge we’re represented by a guy, Bill Cassidy, who has no interest in representing his constituency. While in the state senate he proposed a bill that almost mirrors the ACA but now is one of the loudest opponents. Two days before he voted to shut down the government he was against it. This type of hypocrisy IS the problem. His loyalty always lies with what ALEC and the money men tell him to vote. He has done nothing to improve the status of the district he was elected to represent. He was foolishly picked to run against Mary Landrieu for senator and this a great chance to get rid of one wing nut. Now you may not approve of Landrieu but a vote for any fringe candidate is a wasted vote. We can get rid of these guys one at a time but it will be a long process.
…and, as you also point out, we need to find and support viable alternative candidates – that seems as problematic as getting rid of the incumbents.
The Divided States of America = ALEC
Tea Party = Government shutdown, potential debt ceiling debacle, and manufactured budget crisis. It’s time for the Tea Party shutdown.
I watched Jindal on Morning Joe #bloviating over the shutdown in Washington..he says that states with Republican Governors are doing what Washington can’t! I listened intently for him to mention the Tea Party Shutdown ie: #Ted Cruz. #Not a word
I live in the 4th Congressional District, my U.S Congressman is Dr. John Fleming, he bans all those who oppose his extreme posts on his/our official FaceBook page, he is a Tea Party extremist, he is only interested in opposing anything and everything Obama/Dem/Pro. I am hoping that the Democratic Party [or anyone else for that matter] will get off their rears and their money and find a decent coherent candidate, to run against him, he is beatable, but he has the big bucks…..We have to inspire people to VOTE, our voter turn out is terrible……the 5th Congressional, with the Rodney Alexander debacle, is a winnable district……Neil Riser, should in no way be elected to office…….people have got to get up, get out the vote!
CM,
If you read Tom’s recent article about the pedophile friends in Riser’s campaign you understand the urgency of getting busy defeating Riser. Lots of us are off our rears working to counter the radical right’s destruction. Tom does a great job reporting the scams that are the Jindal dog and phony show.
The Republican majority gerrymandered all of LA’s Congressional districts making the 6th the most ridiculous in history and making it almost impossible to defeat the bums.
You can work with your local DPEC in the 4th to help elect better candidates. The website lademo.org lists locally elected Parish Executive Committee members by parish, usually with contact information. Contact those in your parish and volunteer to do your part. Phone bank for your preferred candidates if you have little means and contribute $ to your candidate if you can.
The South was written off as un-winnable by the National Democratic Party which had little resources compared to the corporate-owned Republicans. That has caused a downward spiral, a sort of self-fulfilling outcome hard to reverse.
The only way we can take back our government is by becoming grassroots activists. That strategy worked for Obama, TWICE.
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[…] At Louisiana Voice, tomaswell writes The solution to the federal government shutdown is really quite simple: we should fire all 535 membe…: […]