MY VOTE IS FOR SALE

    The problems America faces today originate in Washington. It is fallacious reasoning to suggest that the problem lies with the people of the United States. Our government is a republic. Our republic is predicated on the theory that those elected to public office have intellectual competence, educational skills or experience that exceeds that of the electorate and that those elected public leaders will use their superior judgment and collective wisdom to do what they believe to be right or in the best interests of the country regardless of any conflicts with the majority public opinion. During most of the past century, the political class has demonstrably failed to lead, but have instead become political prostitutes selling laws, waivers from laws and benefits in exchange for votes transforming our Constitutional republic into a tyrannical mob-rule democracy destined for bankruptcy.

    As one voice among WE the people, I think it is time to withhold the delegation of that power by only delegating it to selected politicians and then only with strings attached.

    Ronald Reagan won two landslide elections by telling Americans he was going to cut the government in Washington down to size. The Contract with America gave the Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time in roughly thirty years. The lesson that Republicans seem to have difficulty in learning is that the people are conservative and when presented a conservative agenda they will vote for it. And conversely, when pandering is all that is offered, the public has shown a distinct preference for the real prostitutes. I have a solution to this problem. I call it the

Contract with Congress

    I am not giving my vote to anybody in November. I have decided to auction my vote in each November's Congressional elections. Politicians are going to have to bid for my vote. I have decided not to exclude any particular politicians or parties from the bidding. And I have decided to attach some rules to the bidding itself:

  1. There is a minimum bid.
  2. Anyone defaulting on any part of the minimum bid will be barred from consideration for future auctions.
  3. A public pledge to guarantee to bring the minimum bid to the floor for a vote is an acceptable alternative to a written and signed contract, although anyone offering a written and signed contract similar in format to the Contract with America will be given preference.
  4. Any part of the minimum bid or "contract" not enacted into law will be supported and returned to the floor in the next or subsequent sessions of Congress as required until enacted into law.
  5.  If there are no acceptable bids for my vote in Congressional races per the rules above, my vote (normally Republican straight ticket) will not be cast at all. Let me provide a simple illustration in order to understand why this represents such enormous power. In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, there were hundreds, if not thousands of men who had the power to condemn other men to death. The power to lawfully condemn men to death is indeed awesome power. But in Hussein's Iraq, only Saddam had the power to grant a reprieve for a man once he had been condemned. Real power is the ability to withhold something deemed essential. If the members of Rush's audience were to delegate him the authority to negotiate the Contract with Congress, and delegate to him the power to withhold their votes from candidates not willing to sign the Contract or from any officeholders that didn't live up to their pledge, the leverage would be almost irresistible for Republicans. And it would have the same effect as a powerful magnet pulling Democrats, wanting to stay in office at any cost, to the right.
  6. The Contract with Congress differs from the Contract with America. In the Contract with America, Republicans sought power by reaching out and promising certain things to conservative Americans. In the Contract with Congress, conservative Americans will bestow power on Republicans who unite in Congress to deliver on the demands made by conservative Americans. During the period of time for the abolition of socialism and before Term Limits have become a reality, instead of law flowing from Congress to the people, WE the people will hand the law down to a Congress that has not yet proven that it can be trusted. History has proved that in the absence of Term Limits for members of both Congress and the Federal Judiciary, the checks and balances of the three branches of government are not adequate to constrain government within its Constitutional leash without substantially more input from WE the people.

    Minimum Bid:

    1. Complete scrapping of Title 26, Subtitle A-Income Taxes.
    2. Replacement of the Income Tax with the Fair Tax, the Flat Tax, or a combination of the two.
    3. The growth of government spending is unacceptable. We not only want it stopped; We demand that it be reversed by cutting every government agency by at least 5% per cent per year for at least the next two years. In 2008, We will re-evaluate to determine whether or not the rate of reduction should be adjusted for future years.
    4. No more socialism. That means no new payments to individuals except for services rendered or goods purchased. That means no new grants to organizations, public or private, and no new grants to state or local governments.
    5. Immediately begin the voluntary privatization of Social Security based on the Cato model.
    6. Appointment of a Presidential commission to initiate the abolition of Medicare, Medicaid and every other social welfare program.

    This is only the Minimum. There are a number of suggested options that politicians could add now or that we will add in future contracts for future elections.

    Suggested Options:

    Most of these problems would eventually be solved by Term Limits. However, because of the Gokhale-Smetters clock, I think the Term Limits Amendment should be saved for the 2010, or even later elections to avoid a replay of the votes on the Balanced Budget and Term Limits Amendments under the Contract with America. And a case can be made that we should give Republicans a short interval of  time for a period of adjustment to get used to the kind of pressure that we may need to bring to bear on people who are used to exerting power rather than being subjected to it.

The Democrat's Achilles Heel