| FixitTogether.org |
| Allies |
| 2010.04.01 02:07:26 | |
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FixitTogether.org is not the only group working to promote an Article V convention to adopt needed reforms like a balanced budget amendment. A group with which we have been working is the Vote on Taxes Committee. Please visit their website and learn how you can lend them a hand. Tags: |
| FixitTogether.org |
| One of the Few “Industries” That Had a Record Year Last Year: Lobbying |
| 2010.01.14 05:29:12 | |
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Tags: Term Limits | Lobbyists | Corruption |
| FixitTogether.org |
| Narrowing our Focus |
| 2009.11.05 04:23:27 | |
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As we've contacted state legislators asking them to pledge to support our proposed amendments, we have received feedback from them expressing more enthusiastic support for our first four proposed amendments than for our last two. Our last two amendments would have adopted a national initiative process and made some changes to the constitutional amendment process. Because many state legislators only felt comfortable supporting our first four amendments, we have scaled back to focus only on the first four amendments. We are doing this to ensure we have the best chance of success adopting the most important reforms. The four remaining amendments we are focusing on are: 1) a balanced budget amendment; 2) a congressional term limits amendment; 3) a judicial term limits / retention elections amendment; and 4) an amendment prohibiting unfunded mandates. Tags: |
| FixitTogether.org |
| Corruption in Congress is a Bipartisan Affair: A Tale of Two Congressmen |
| 2009.10.26 05:28:50 | |
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One of the principal arguments in favor of term limits is to reduce corruption in Congress. Term limits will attract a different sort of politician: one who is more interested in promoting the welfare of his or her country rather than in pursuing a lifelong career. Our proposed amendment limits members of the House to three two-year terms, and members of the Senate to two six-year terms. No one would be allowed to serve in Congress, either as a Senator or a Representative for more than a total of 16 years. Members of Congress would start their time in Congress knowing that their time is limited. There will be less incentive to pander to lobbyists and special interests in exchange for campaign contributions, because members of Congress will only be able to run two or three times, and will thus have less need to build up large campaign war chests. Lobbyists create their influence by building up long-term relationships with politicians. Term limits will create higher turnover in Congress, and will thus decrease the influence of lobbyists by making it harder to build those long-term relationships. Additionally, term limits will change the way people think about Congress. Turnover in Congress will become the norm, and voters will thus be less attached to the incumbents, since they change more often. This will make it easier to vote corrupt incumbent politicians out of office. Term limits are needed to bring both Republicans and Democrats in line. Corruption in office is a bipartisan affair—Democrats and Republicans have been equally guilty. Recent news story help illustrate this. Commentator Victor Davis Hansen summarizes some of the recent allegations of corruption against Democratic Representative Charles Rangel of New York: Currently, Rangel is under investigation by two House subcommittees for illegally holding four rent-stabilized apartments in New York and not disclosing more than $75,000 in income from a rental villa he owns. He also took free Caribbean trips paid for by corporate cronies and used his congressional letterhead to press for money for the City College of New York's new educational center, which bears his name. Rangel also acknowledged that he improperly listed his assets, as required by law, and failed to report additional checking accounts valued between $250,000 and $500,000 — princely sums acquired on a congressional salary. . . .Rangel is the head of the Ways and Means Committee that writes the nation's income tax policy. The politician, who for generations has urged higher taxes, has chronically schemed to avoid paying them. Republicans have been just as guilty of corruption as Democrats. The Associated Press reports that An attorney in the federal corruption case of a lobbyist says former [Republican] U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook collected money from lobbyists and then asked them what projects they wanted in a major spending bill. Not surprisingly, Representative Istook denies the claim and “says he based his decisions on merit and on requests from members of Congress, not on contributions.” The attorney involved in the case states that “the actions weren't illegal.” There are dozens more stories just like these two. It's time that we held our Representatives and Senators more accountable. Term limits is a great way to start. Tags: Term Limits |
| FixitTogether.org |
| There's no doubt about it: Americans don't like Congress |
| 2009.10.23 06:10:18 | |
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A recent survey of voters in the United States conducted by Rasmussen found that 57% of American voters would vote to replace all of the members of Congress and start over. Only 25% would vote to keep the current members of Congress. These numbers have held fairly steady since October of last year. While more Democrats than independents or Republicans support the current Congress, the number of Democrats who would vote to keep the current Congress is still only 43%. Fully 70% of independents (those not affiliated with either major party) would replace everyone in Congress. The American people have lost trust in Congress, and don't believe that Congress is trying to further the general welfare: 75% of those surveyed said that they believe that members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than in helping people. A sign of the extent of the people's discontent with Congress is that 42% of voters think that a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than our current Congress, Tags: Term Limits |
| FixitTogether.org |
| The National Debt: A National Problem |
| 2009.09.18 05:43:17 | |
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A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses the federal debt ceiling. The federal debt ceiling is a congressionally-imposed limit on how much debt our government can have, thus preventing the government from borrowing beyond the limits set by the debt ceiling. Right now the debt ceiling is $12.1 trillion, or $12,100,000,000,000.00. That is $40,333 for every person in our country. Since our government usually runs at a deficit, the debt ceiling has to be raised periodically, so that the government can continue to borrow more money. The article goes on to say that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Senate in a letter last month that the $12.1 trillion ceiling could be hit as early as mid-October, and said it needs to be increased so the U.S. can continue funding operations and making debt payments. The article states that right now, the United States government is borrowing $30 billion a week. That works out to about $100 every week for every man, woman, and child in our country. Because of the government's high borrowing rate, some economists say the Treasury will need an increase of as much as $1.5 trillion if it wants to avoid another request before the 2010 midterm elections. The U.S. could default on its debt if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, but it is a remote scenario. Most interestingly, Americans are starting to take greater notice of the growing national debt, and are getting worried about it. In a Gallup Poll conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 9% of respondents overall and 10% of independents now mention the deficit spontaneously as their biggest worry. That compares with 2% of respondents and 3% of independents a year ago. It is now in the top five among the public's concerns. Worst of all, if things continue unchecked, it does not look like things will be getting better any time soon. The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report says that the unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare is $107 trillion. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that the administration was forced to increase its estimates for what the annual deficit would be this year from $1.75 trillion to $1.84 trillion. The administration estimates that the deficit in 2010 will be $1.26 trillion and that it will be $929 billion in 2011. The deficit in 2009 is predicted to be at least 13 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States, which would be the biggest since World War II. Reuters reports that current projections are that the budget deficit over the next 10 years will be $9.08 trillion. Much of our national debt is financed by Asian governments and other foreign investors who buy our treasury bonds. They have taken notice of our growing debt, and are getting worried. Treasury markets have been worried all year about the mounting deficit. The United States relies on large foreign buyers such as China and Japan to cheaply finance its debt, and they may demand higher interest rates if they begin to doubt that the government can control its deficits. If ever there was a time to adopt a balanced budget amendment, and force members of Congress to act like responsible adults, it is now. |
| FixitTogether.org |
| Balanced budget amendment: supported by more than just tea party protesters |
| 2009.08.14 05:11:55 | |
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Forbes had an interesting article in May criticizing tea party protesters. The article's premise is that the tea party protesters are mostly Republicans, and did nothing to complain about the huge deficits of the Bush era: According to the Financial Report of the United States Government, the federal government's total indebtedness rose by $36 trillion under Bush--to $56.4 trillion in 2008 from $20.4 trillion in 2000. Moreover, massive current and future deficits would have occurred even if Bush had been elected to a third term. That is because they were baked in the cake by legislation already on the books the day Obama was inaugurated. The biggest driver of future deficits is not today's stimulus spending, but entitlement programs like Medicare. The article seems to assume that only Republicans want balanced budgets. But polls show there are plenty of Democrats and independents who want the same thing. A recent survey commissioned this year by Americans for a Balanced Budget Amendment showed that 65% of Americans support a balanced budget amendment. A 2003 survey showed that Democrats actually support (69% support) a balanced budget amendment at a higher rate than independents (66% support) and Republicans (61% support). This is why balanced budgets were achieved during the Clinton presidency: because Democrats (President Clinton) and Republicans (Newt Gingrich and the other Republicans elected on the Contract with America platform) worked together to achieve something the rank and file of both parties wanted. We are not affiliated with the tea party protest groups or any other political party, because we believe the only way we can achieve similar results is by transcending political parties and ideologies. Of course, we invite the participation of all the tea party protesters, but we don't believe we can get anything done unless our movement has broader appeal—we invite everyone: Democrats, Republicans and independents to participate. Our objectives are limited enough that you can all comfortably be a part of FixitTogether.org. The Forbes article goes on to criticize using a Balanced Budget Amendment as a solution because it “would not be self-enforcing.” Our proposed amendment, however, has three mechanisms to make it self-enforcing: 1. In every year where there is a budget deficit, the President is given the line-item veto to strike out items of spending 2. In every year where Congress votes to spend more than it takes in, the salary of all members of the House and Senate is reduced by half. 3. It prevents Congress from simply taxing its way out of the problem without receiving the public's approval, by requiring that no increase in taxes take effect until there has been an intervening election and the next session of Congress also votes to increase taxes. Our proposed balanced budget amendment addresses the criticisms some people have made about such amendment proposals, and we believe it could have a positive and meaningful impact on our country's future. |
| FixitTogether.org |
| Why our organization is non-partisan and ideologically neutral |
| 2009.08.14 05:04:11 | |
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We made a conscious decision to focus only on issues supported by the vast majority of Americans (more than 70% of Americans support most of our proposals).There is a good reason for this—its the only way we’ll be able to get anything done. The Article V convention process has never been used before, and the only way state legislators will feel comfortable enough to support it is if the amendments they request are uncontroversial. It will take a lot of people pressuring their state legislators to force them to take action. We think that our strategy can make it happen. Tags: |
| FixitTogether.org |
| What FixitTogether.org is about |
| 2009.08.13 06:41:08 | |
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Welcome to the FixitTogether.org blog. In this first post, we’d like to explain a little about who we are and what we stand for. We are trying to pressure state legislatures to make applications to Congress to call a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. Article V of the Constitution says that Congress must call a constitutional convention when two-thirds of the states have made applications requesting one. Tags: |
