First Task for a GOP Congress: Subpoena the Jan. 6 Committee
With all due respect: fuck that nonsense.
The first task for a GOP Congress is to stimulate the economy, which they can do not by playing meaningless little political games like the above, but by reining in government spending — the management of which, lest we forget, is the primary purpose of Congress.
Here’s a pro tip for the politicians: if the economy is whizzing along, unemployment is close to zero, people’s retirements aren’t being eroded by inflation, energy costs are low and all the things that make for a happy populace are in place, then you won’t have any problem getting reelected (which, lest we forget too, is the primary focus of all politicians — yeah, I know, it sucks but there it is).
Unfortunately, reining in public spending is difficult — it shouldn’t be, but to our betters in Congress it is — whereas making cheap political gestures (e.g. nailing the Jan 6 clowns or “impeaching the President”) are very easy, even though they don’t do diddly about making the voters’ lives more affordable.
You want some ideas? Sure.
Reduce every single government department’s budget by 25% (this number being close to the actual rate of inflation for the past two years). No exceptions.
Start the process of repealing the 16th Amendment, towards an end goal of a replacement Amendment which institutes a flat, universal, no-exemptions income tax of 5% that can only be raised by a Congressional (both House and Senate) vote majority of 75% — or, even better, repealing all wage, corporate, estate and cap gains taxes to be replaced by a national end-user sales tax. (I can dream, too.)
Pass a law which institutes a blanket “sunset” provision of ten years for every law in the U.S. Code, past, present and future. (If a law’s that good, it should pass a re-vote easily; if not, it should die a well-deserved death. If this makes Congress too busy to create more laws, that’s a feature, not a bug because we have too many laws on the books already.)
Start the process of repealing the 17th Amendment. The state legislature, not the people of the state, should decide who should be sent to represent the state’s interests in Congress. (The people can control this by voting for their U.S. House and local legislatures, as originally envisioned by the Constitution.)
Of course, there are more suggestions, many more. But none of them have anything to do with empty political gestures.
