Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
About 6 or 7 years ago I wrote several posts on Congress being broken and the need to fix Congress so our government can once again help the American people or govern effectively. If you agree if might be worth your time of read or at least skim those posts,
Do you agree with the proposals in these posts or the books and website referenced?
I called this book review Crazy, Useless, Shafted. That seems to cover it in a few words. The full title is The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted but that seemed a bit long for a title.
The book is by Mike Lofgren who spent 28 years has a Republican Congressional staffer. His start was with John Kasich who in the 1980s was on the House Armed Services Committee. Mike switched from national security to the House Budget Committee when Representative Kasich became chairman. He retired from the Senate Budgetary Committee in 2011, frustrated by the ridiculous debt ceiling debate and the lunacy and terrorism of the Republican party.
I recently reviewed a short book on fixing our dysfunctional congress. I thought it a book well worth your time and a few dollars.
But today I ran across a website by the author that explains the main thrust of the argument and it is free. The Public Check on Congress website is http://publiccheckoncongress.com/.
You might also want to see the facebook page.
I think we need to fix our dysfunctional Congress. There seem to be several groups with various ideas about how to do this. Look over this one. The Public Check on Congress project seems to get right to the heart of the matter by changing the incentives of the members of Congress.
The full title is Restoring the Consent of the Governed: How Americans Can Hold Congress More Accountable for Serving the National Interest by Bill Bridgman. The title and subtitle are a mouthful but it does summarize the book nicely.
The book is neither long nor expensive. I think it is interesting, well done, and important. The problem it addresses is one I think most Americans can agree with. There is wide spread agreement that the U.S Congress is just not doing a very good job. Continue reading “Fix Congress”