Government Reform Policy

[Replicator]

Campaign Finance Reform:

 

Eliminate all soft money donations to political parties and federal candidates.

Political committees may only donate $220,000 to a House candidate including primaries.

Political committees may only donate $55,000 to a House candidate in a runoff election.

Political committees must disclose their identity during their advertisements.

Non-party political committees may not donate more than $1,000,000 to non-party candidates.

Limit personal funds to $44,000 per election for House candidates.

Require independent expenditures to be reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Federal Election Commission must establish the eligibility of each candidate.

Federal Election Commission must audit each campaign account.

Federal Election Commission should have the authority to institute repayment options in court.

Federal Election Commission must report its actions to the House every two years.

Federal Election Commission activities subject to judicial review.

Require repayment of excess donations and unexpected savings.

Penalize misuse of funds for other than allowed campaign purposes.

House candidate expenses may not exceed $760,000.

Senate candidate expenses may not exceed $1,600,000.

Limit personal donations to $2,200.

Require donations to out of state and district candidates to be reported to the Commission.

Limit TV advertisements to 30 days before a primary and 60 days before the general election.

No federal candidate may opt out of campaign finance reform.

Require fingerprinting at voting booths.

Restrict independent grassroots political committees.

 

 

Spending and Powers:

 

Require across the board cuts evenly if a bill becomes law when not payable after five years.

Bring back the line-item veto.

Allow states to award electoral votes by congressional district.

No pay raise for House or Senate.

No automatic pay raises for congress.

 

 

Term Limits:

 

Six 2 year term limits for U.S. Representatives.

Two 6 year term limits for U.S. Senators.

Two 4 year term limits for U.S. President.

 

 

Lobbying and Authority:

 

Require all laws to cite Constitutional authorization.

Require lobbyist disclosure of bundled donations.

Protect whistleblowers from employer recrimination.

Prohibit lawsuits about obesity against food providers.

Limit attorney's fees in class action lawsuits.

Limit frivolous lawsuits, but very carefully.

Ban stock trading based on congressional insider knowledge.

No recess appointments without congressional approval.

[TNF]

1. Abolish the Senate. Transfer all powers of the Senate to the House of Representatives.

2. Expand the House of Representatives. Reapportion the House so that the number of Representatives accurately reflects the ratio of representatives to members of Congress as proscribed in the United States Constitution.

3. Elect the entire House of Representatives on an at-large basis using proportional representation.

4. Abolish the Executive Branch. Transfer all powers of the Executive Branch to the unicameral House of Representatives.

5. End lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court. Prohibit Supreme Court Justices from serving longer than an eight year term, effective upon the resignation or death of sitting members of the Court.

6. Elect all judges. Including, of course, members of the Supreme Court.

7. Abolish judicial review. This is an usurped power of the Court with no constitutional basis that the Court has repeatedly used to curtail democracy and empower the state or its beneficiaries (the ruling classes) to defeat the advance of democracy. The Supreme Court should act only as an appeals court of last resort.

8. Establish recall, initiative, and referendum at every level of government.

9. Limit all public officials' salaries so that they are equivalent to that of the average skilled worker and rise only with inflation.

10. Establish citizen oversight councils with the ability to monitor, investigate, and hold accountable all state bureaucracies, especially the state security apparatus.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

1. Abolish the Senate. Transfer all powers of the Senate to the House of Representatives.

2. Expand the House of Representatives. Reapportion the House so that the number of Representatives accurately reflects the ratio of representatives to members of Congress as proscribed in the United States Constitution.

3. Elect the entire House of Representatives on an at-large basis using proportional representation.

4. Abolish the Executive Branch. Transfer all powers of the Executive Branch to the unicameral House of Representatives.

5. End lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court. Prohibit Supreme Court Justices from serving longer than an eight year term, effective upon the resignation or death of sitting members of the Court.

6. Elect all judges. Including, of course, members of the Supreme Court.

7. Abolish judicial review. This is an usurped power of the Court with no constitutional basis that the Court has repeatedly used to curtail democracy and empower the state or its beneficiaries (the ruling classes) to defeat the advance of democracy. The Supreme Court should act only as an appeals court of last resort.

8. Establish recall, initiative, and referendum at every level of government.

9. Limit all public officials' salaries so that they are equivalent to that of the average skilled worker and rise only with inflation.

10. Establish citizen oversight councils with the ability to monitor, investigate, and hold accountable all state bureaucracies, especially the state security apparatus.

Would #3 be elected by a nationwide PR vote or a statewide PR vote?

[Murica!]

Abolish the Presidency, replace with a Central Committee elected by the House of Representatives.

Abolish the Senate.

Proportional representation for the House of Representatives.

Ban all political parties.

Establish recall, initiative, and referendum at every level of government

This.

Abolish the Federal military and Police, replace with City based Popular Militias.

Abolish currency.

[TNF]

1. Abolish the Senate. Transfer all powers of the Senate to the House of Representatives.

2. Expand the House of Representatives. Reapportion the House so that the number of Representatives accurately reflects the ratio of representatives to members of Congress as proscribed in the United States Constitution.

3. Elect the entire House of Representatives on an at-large basis using proportional representation.

4. Abolish the Executive Branch. Transfer all powers of the Executive Branch to the unicameral House of Representatives.

5. End lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court. Prohibit Supreme Court Justices from serving longer than an eight year term, effective upon the resignation or death of sitting members of the Court.

6. Elect all judges. Including, of course, members of the Supreme Court.

7. Abolish judicial review. This is an usurped power of the Court with no constitutional basis that the Court has repeatedly used to curtail democracy and empower the state or its beneficiaries (the ruling classes) to defeat the advance of democracy. The Supreme Court should act only as an appeals court of last resort.

8. Establish recall, initiative, and referendum at every level of government.

9. Limit all public officials' salaries so that they are equivalent to that of the average skilled worker and rise only with inflation.

10. Establish citizen oversight councils with the ability to monitor, investigate, and hold accountable all state bureaucracies, especially the state security apparatus.

Would #3 be elected by a nationwide PR vote or a statewide PR vote?

Nationwide.

[politicus]

Electing judges is a terrible idea - guarantees populism and pandering to the law and order crowd.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Electing judges is a terrible idea - guarantees populism and pandering to the law and order crowd.

I'm pretty sure TNF has no regard for the rule of law. It's a bourgeois concern, you know.

[TNF]

Electing judges is a terrible idea - guarantees populism and pandering to the law and order crowd.

I tend to think that the people should rule (so in that case, I guess I'm a populist), so I'd err on the side of democracy than abstract bourgeois conceptions about the 'rule of law' (which only ever applies to the little people)

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

TNF, one quibble. Wouldn't recall for the legislative branch be very hard to gel with PR voting, which ideally promotes minority POV's. e.g. If you have a despised and disadvantaged group that consists of about 10% of the electorate, what prevents the 90% in the favoured group 'evicting' the target group from the legislature through recall?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Also I thought you were in favour of sortition?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Electing judges is a terrible idea - guarantees populism and pandering to the law and order crowd.

I tend to think that the people should rule (so in that case, I guess I'm a populist), so I'd err on the side of democracy than abstract bourgeois conceptions about the 'rule of law' (which only ever applies to the little people)

Called it!

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Anyway, at first glance I would:

1) abolish the HoL and replace with something useful, like a public swimming pool. Bicarmarelism is for chumps.

2) abolish the monarchy (or maybe keep the title and pageantry, but ditch the heridatary aspect and replace it with an elected monarch). Abolish all the stupidity surrounding it as well, like the Privy Council etc.

3) convert HoC to PR-STV.

4) replace the current ABSURD local government structure with anything else (regions and city states > boroughs > parishes). Set (metaphorical or literal) fire to the City of London.

5) disestablish CofE (what's the point?)

6) introduce civilian oversight over Civil Service.

7) introduce some sort of initiative process, at all levels of government.

[Replicator]

Electing judges is a terrible idea - guarantees populism and pandering to the law and order crowd.

I couldn't agree more. Imagine a world where people always got what they wanted no matter if it was good or bad. There needs to be order. This isn't far from complete anarchy or even worse, true democracy.... YIPES!!!