Here's a small political fantasy for all of us living in the real world. Many of us have contributed both effort and money toward the election of candidates for public office. As part of that effort, I would think that those of us on both the winning and losing sides of the ledger would like to be sure that the public servants that were hired by the majority of the people are earning their paychecks.
It would appear to me that there are a number of important roles politicians have. They provide constituent services. Ultimately, all politics is local and the services that incumbent politicians provide their constituents frequently are the primary reason a legislator is re-elected or defeated. Legislators also provide party leadership services. It is almost always a given that the Senator or Congressperson from a district is obligated to assist in vital party activities that range from acting as spokesperson for the national party to raising money from influential donors. The legislator's success in this area often becomes the litmus test for how far the person rises in the state or national political scene.
There is, however, a third, and potentially most important role that the legislator has. That is to legislate. The primary job of a congressperson or a senator is to write, introduce, and champion legislation that benefits not only his or her constituents but is of value to the national interest. This would seem to be obvious since we are a nation of laws. All of those laws begin within our legislative bodies. Would anyone reading this posting be surprised to learn that here in the last days of the 112th congress, there have been only 190 or so bills passed by this congress of which at least 30% were ceremonial doing such things as naming post offices, etc. Thus, in a combined body of 535 individuals, we have approximately 130 bills of any substance being passed.
I ask the reader to think about this for a moment. If we cannot get our legislators to write bills that they bring to the floor of the house and senate, why do we continue to pay these individuals salaries as lawmakers? Other than spouting a party line, how many of us really knows what their representative or senator is passionate about? How can we have gotten to the point where congresspersons like Michelle Bachmann and Paul Ryan could make serious runs for president and vice president without ever having been the sponsor of a successful bill in congress. The thought should boggle the mind of anyone who is truly interested in the process of governance.
There could actually be a simple solution to this type of problem. In a fantasyland of realism, congresspersons could be required to be a primary sponsor of at least one major piece of legislation that is presented for debate each year. Each Senator would be required to be the primary senate sponsor of at least three pieces of legislation a year. This would require a congressperson to be a primary sponsor of two bills in two years and a senator to sponsor 18 bills in six years. This wouldn't be exactly an impossible work load.
The teeth behind this approach would be that no person that currently would be serving in either congress or in the senate would be permitted to run for re-election without having met this legislative requirement. Bills that are tagged as primary sponsorship legislation would not be allowed to be held up by the majority party in congress. It would have to be debated and voted upon. The benefits of this fantasy would be immediately obvious. There would be no more two year periods where only 190 bills are introduced {the previous low was 330}. We might actually break the gridlock. But far more importantly, the American people will know what their representatives stand for; where their passions are; who are their controllers. It will give us a more honest electoral system. It could be a simple solution to a complex problem. But heck, I'm only a dumb old man living in a fantasyland who would like to see people whose salaries I pay, actually make an effort to earn those salaries.
