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I'm trying to think of reforms of our Government system that might make it more responsive to people's needs and the public's assent to do big things and pay for them.
It occurred to me that if the job of the Congress was not to pass legislation but to produce draft legislation and to argue in its support but the final say be by public referendum. Each bit of legislation would have to be accompanied by a financing plan, whatever it might be. In some cases the legislation suggested might be funded by new taxes, in some cases by cuts to existing programs, in some cases a combination and so on. In no event could legislation pass that had not got a majority vote (and probably some minimum number of votes) by public referendum.
Somehow procedural matters would still have to be addressed, and the small and trivial crap Congress wastes so much time on (naming post offices, meaningless resolutions, and crap like that) but on the big matters, things like Health Care, the public should be able to decide what they want and how they want to pay for it.
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