Congress and the Budget

The reason we cannot get a federal budget passed through Congress is because the employees--members of Congress--are afraid that if they do not please their bosses--special interests--they will lose the money they need to keep their jobs.

The founders of our country did not conceive of career congressmen when they determined how we would govern ourselves. The present full-time priority of the Congress is to stay in Congress. Our founders intended that the members of Congress were to represent the majority of the people of their district, not the people with the majority of the campaign money. My, how things have turned around!

Members of Congress should be restricted on the number of times they can be reelected or number of years they can serve. Also, the amount of money that can be spent on an election campaign should be limited. Their primary interest, then, would not be to keep their jobs. They could turn their complete interest to serving the citizenry.

This would also save the voters the task of going through the ritual of balloting to see what special interests spent the most money to market their congressmen. The voters could then vote for their choice of congressmen to carry out their wishes. It would, however, increase the unemployment rolls since most lobbyists would probably be out of work.

Congress could carry out its duties based on true spoken and written beliefs and views. This would take the silent backroom special-interest influence out of their present-day decision-making.

Out of the 230 million citizens of this country I cannot believe that we would not have the best qualified candidates to seek a term to the Congress even under these new restrictions.

These reforms would give the Congress a new boss. The new boss would be one who the founders of our country intended to be in the first place--the voter.

GEORGE TAYLOR

Mission Viejo