John Boehner, I give you a standing 0

Taking off the mask

From time to time someone will ask me, "Mr. White Chocolate, if you could change three things about the Federal Government to make it better, more honest and representative what would they be?" Expecting, I suppose that I'll say something like, abolish the IRS and Social Security numbers, form local militias in each community and disband the police force, or abolishing television and radio broadcasting - all of which are great ideas, but impractical and difficult to implement. John Boehner can tell you that securing votes for these "outside the box" projects is really hard in the US House of Representatives and even simple stuff like repealing Obamacare or stopping an Executive Order making illegal immigrants "legal" is damn near impossible - not just because Democrats won't do it, but because Republicans won't sign on either. But I do have an answer to the question and here are my top 3 changes - I think they're all constitutional but considering how things work in Washington DC that concern should be irrelevant.

1. Pass a law forcing EVERY Federal employee to retire from the Federal Government upon reaching the official Social Security retirement age. That includes EVERYONE - president, congress, supreme court and all their subordinates - all the Secretary of X, Senate and House Staffers, Court clerks and lower court justices. Today that would mean no one over the age of 66 or 67 could serve in the Federal Government and though I'm sure there would be self interested pressure to raise the retirement age to 70 or 75 as soon as this law passed the lawmakers would face violent resistance from their constituents who would be loosing 5 or 10 years of the "benefits" they've paid for (even though it actually doesn't work that way, but if they ever really thought about the way it works they'd demand Social Security be abolished as an inefficient Ponzi scheme, and let's just leave it at that...). And even if the Congress did raise the Social Security retirement age we'd still be clearing out the ideological dead wood and curmudgeon last gaspers in their 80's that shuffle around our nations capital passing laws that the vibrant, engaged youth have to live under.
2. Pass a law requiring that US House members can represent no more that 30,000 people. Yes, that means the US House would have 10,000+ congressmen/women in it and that's the way it should be. One of the biggest failings of our representative government is that the people are NOT represented, but passing this law would change that in a big way. The new congress building would be more like a small college stadium and dormitories would need to be built for congresses bi-anual sessions in Washington DC (two weeks in the spring and fall respectively) but the benefits to the general population would be well worth the expense. Unmanageable? Confusing? Fractured? Can it be any worse than it is already? No.
3. Abolish the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. There are many, many failings to electing Senators by popular vote but the biggest, in my opinion, is that the Senators actually believe they are popular - like mini Presidents - and that they could become President of the United States themselves someday. They act accordingly. Much better to have the State legislatures elect the Federal Senators who will accurately reflect the interests of their people - Today 46 of the current US Senators were born in a different State then the one they (nominally) represent and for you slow-pokes out there that would be 46%. Under the current law Senators represent Washington DC to their States and that's not the way it's supposed to work.

John Boehner knows:
The Congress will never repeal Obamacare
The Congress will never stop illegal immigration
The Congress will never defend "traditional marriage"
The Congress will never defund Planned Parenthood
The Congress will never actually do any of the things they promise to do while out on the campaign trail because the current framework of government is designed to have We the People live with what Congress and the Executive decide is best - NOT what We the People want.

So why keep up the act? Take a bow and exit stage right(ish) and leave it to the younger thespians who stand in the wings - the show must go on after all. Boehner is 65 years old, he's been doing this gig for 25 years and it's time for him to retire and set an example for the rest of them. It's what's known as LEADERSHIP - and I applaud loudly.

FYI - none of these suggestions are impossible, pie-in-the-sky proposals. The USA and other nations have mandatory retirement laws for some professions. Thirty-thousand.org has the plan for changing the house. Repeal of the 17th Amendment has advocates too.