“Congress must” act by December 16th “to avoid a shutdown” AGAIN

Dec 10 2011

Well, here we are again:

“The government runs out of money on Dec. 16, and Congress must pass a funding bill to avoid a shutdown.”

It will never happen, because these guys would have to pass this on themselves, but here’s what the rules ought to be:

These funding bills must be ready for the President’s signature 30 business days prior to the deadline, and if they are not, perks start to disappear.  Like Pelosi’s flights across country on the taxpayer’s dime.  Like Clyburn’s taxpayer funded car.  There needs to be a list set up with a clear accounting of each leadership member’s perks, then start picking them off, in order of value, one after the other for every day they go past the deadline.  For the first week, it will involve leadership only, then after that, congress in general.

If you keep it to leadership, that prevents the tyranny of the minority. It incentivizes leadership to actually lead, build consensus, and get something friggin’ done.  After a week, well, then it’s everybody’s fault.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is some rule in place – perhaps even in the constitution (!) – that you can’t financially penalize these guys – salary wise – for not doing their jobs, but some kind of mechanism punishing these morons needs to be in place. Besides, too many of them are like John Kerry; they wouldn’t feel it.  Best to hit ‘em where they live, in the perk department.

Conversely, you could set up a reward system, too.  Nothing big, because simply doing their jobs ought not to be rewarded, but something on the order of an extra 1% to each member’s office budget could be added if they get it done on time.  It’s not much, but enough to reward unpaid pages with a little something, or who knows, but it’s enough to matter to them, but not enough to matter to us.

Good grief.

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