Corporations have too much say in politics. But maybe what SCOTUS shot down was only a bandaid anyway. Madison warned about the imbalance of influence. A large body is harder to corupt. We need to restore the level of representation that "the people" have in the House.
In 1920 the House was capped at 435. Today 700,000:1 is the average level of representation a congressional district. 30,000:1 was the level back when the country was founded.
New York Times
Nationalreview Online
Walter Williams
thirtythousand.org
It's not a new idea, but it doesn't get traction mainly because of the huge cost it would be to add 6,000 congressmen. But maybe there is a way.
New idea: Each congressional district elects* 10 Delegates to the Commitee Of The Whole (COTW). The delegates vote during times when the House is in the COTW. The delegates don't live in DC, they are not required to be present to vote and a system will be needed to recieve their votes remotely. Their votes will not be binding but will be included in the comittee report. Two new rules concerning the delegates will need to be added. 1)All spending bills need to be voted on by the delegates in a session of the COTW before the bill can go for a final vote in the regular House. The vote will still be non binding but it needs to be done and recorded before it can proceed. And 2)the delegates can postpone a spending bill vote, but only to provide sufficient time to read the bill.
The idea here is that 10 delegate votes from a congressmens district can be used as a measure for how the congressmen's voting reflects the thoughts of his constituents. Every spending bill would get a little more scrutiny, a little more direct accountability. The 2nd rule would create a check for anyone trying to jam a bill through to avoid a review. Delegates will help with accountability but also they will be able to support their district's congressman and he won't be as easily dominated by his Party's reelection politics.
Comment?
* Use the
Single Transferable Vote system to elect the 10 delegates?