I agree. There ARE NO SOLUTIONS as long as politicians are in charge. For crying out loud, politicians ARE THE PROBLEM. Now that greed of politicians and some of the population have learned that the government can provide them with a living, NOTHING WILL BE DONE BY THEM TO SOLVE ANY PROBLEM. I have questioned many times on other forums why we continue to faithfully pay our income taxes, and the responses are: because we don't want to land in jail and have our possessions confiscated. I agree with that premise, but that merely paints the true picture. Our forefathers put their lives on the line to have a better life than one under tyranny. WE, today's Americans, are too chicken to risk jail. Policies, laws, regulations, ARE NOT THE ANSWER because they will be enacted by the very causes of our problems. The answer is rebellion, plain and simple. I don't favor rebellion, and I hate to even think the word, but honestly I FULLY BELIEVE IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT ABSOLUTE TYRANNY IN THE USA.........because our elected officials have already shown their colors and those colors are love of power and love of riches which they will not yield under ANY circumstanaces.

I think that the problem you're really dealing with here is human ignorance. I'd love to change all kinds of things, but I don't think any of them would do any good until the people themselves understand what is happening to them. Therefore my change would be this:

That the people of the United States were informed of the ramifications of any legislative action. We need an objective media again. Information is the greatest weapon to combat bad ideas.

It's a nice idea, but it doesn't really solve the problem of MINDSET. The people who seek power have a mindset of elitism. We need to elect people who actually SERVE - not rule.

I like the idea, but I'd cap it at 10% for either. See the Laffer Curve.

I used to use a lot of power electronics in the late 90s- IGBTs and SCRs (aka Thyristors). I sort of miss it. When things failed, it was often spectacularly.

Haha. I like both the answer and the disclosure.

My EE degree is so old it's got rust on it. My first 14 years in industry were in discrete power transistor applications and marketing... bipolars and MOS-FETs. Later I discovered that Marketing is where the money is, though the management isn't all that much better and intuitive or Critical Thinking types of problem solving is more often punished than rewarded.

Retired now and loving it, since '02.
Engineers are cooler than most folks know...
:)

my first degree was in machine design. . hi, brother! -- j

require that the first nickel of every federal dollar
spent be used to pay down the debt. . until debt is gone.
with a balanced budget required after that,
except for congressionally declared war, and then
the nickel rule re-engages when we win. -- j

Excellent Question, and Thank You!
I apologize for my combination of engineering degree, OCD and some ADD...

How's this for a starter, in semi-legalese... :

"No bill shall be written to achieve any goal without the Goal(s) being explicitly described in measurable terms and corresponding and appropriate milestones specified to measure the success achieved (versus time, for example) towards reaching the goal(s).

Methodology shall be established and specified Within The Text of The Authorizing Legislation as to who will 'do the measuring' and how the measurements against milestones' specifications will be made And Reported back to the General Public and the enabling Legislative Body."

I'm a designer, not an implementer. I've got a huge and long history of observing issues and identifying potential root causes and possible
'fixes,' but I'm terrible at implementing cures.

That was a Transparency Personal Disclosure. You don't get a lot of them, do you... even around here...?
:)

While you are there, stop all private funding for federal elective offices- everyone gets the same $$ and airtime.

Term limits on Supreme Court, House & Senate.

Great, but...
how do we tilt THAT windmill?

Stop the government from interfering in the economy in any way at all.

The OP was on the right track. Priority #1 is to End the FED. Nothing else matters if you don't do that first. So long as the banking cartel has the power to create money out of nothing, they can pay off or bribe almost any politician and easily circumvent any change that doesn't suit their agenda. Their power to create money out of nothing is a clever way to use our own economic energy against us. The harder we work, the more powerful they become.

This has to stop. The FED is the ultimate looter.

Going back on the gold standard isn't really the solution. All we really need is an interest free currency that serves as an honest unit of account that can't be created willy-nilly by some monopoly private entity. Competition in currencies must be made legal. Legal tender laws absolutely must be repealed.

When the power of the banking cartel is taken away, we will be able to regain control of our government and make it truly serve our best interests.

Until we accomplish that, all of our other efforts are the equivalent of peeing into a fan.

"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."
-Lord Acton

Get rid of the DEA completely. Secondly it would be removing the draconian powers of collection of the IRS. Thirdly, Forcing the US government to live within its means. That means NO deficits.

Not sure this would be my one first thing, but I definitely agree. How many times have we moved forward with weapons systems the branches don't want simply because it is produced in a certain Congressman's backyard.

Sounds like Dagny's John Galt Line setup. Get it fixed, then hand it back.

I like the concept of measurable in bills, but am curious how you would handle who gets to decide whether it has attained results?

The government does have enough gold for the amount of currency that should be in the economy. The problem is that if the amount of currency was limited, our wonderful government couldn't inflate their way into all their new spending problems.
Honest question here (not a disagreement)- how did our economy handle currency exchanges before the first national bank?

Make each bill fund only the one topic it was introduced to cover, absolutely no pork added. No other funding at all within a bill. It would give legislators no room to pass our tax money on to cronies and spouses.Shine the light of transparency on spending before it happens.

While I would agree with much of what you say, my question was designed as a thought process as to a starting point. Any small change, or giant revolution, must begin somewhere. Personally, I would love to see a complete collapse of the system of government we are currently dealing with, however, I really don't see enough people willing to go that direction for it to be a realistic option at this point. Instead of crying out for the end result, perhaps you should look to the actual steps that would get us there.

These ideas, or these people?

I'm about ready to FORGET this site. These are rarely objectivists, which is my only reason for being here at all.

Speaking of transparent, let's make sure that Hillary does not get elected. She's a liar, a criminal and just another Obama in a fat pants suit.

No Hillary in '16.