Posted on 06/03/2007 7:23:17 AM PDT by Chuckmorse
There is a difference between legitimate government secrets, necessary to protect the national security, and secrecy as a habit of doing business. Out government has developed a habit of engaging in secrecy right out in the open and the result is unaccountability, massive expense, corruption, and a weakening of democracy. This is caused by congressmen who don’t read the legislation that they are voting into law and who can blame them. Bills before Congress have become so cumbersome, complex and labyrinthine that the laws of the land are unreadable and incomprehensible.
A case in point is the controversial 380-page immigration bill that is presently before Congress, a bill that is about the size as a phone book. No doubt many hands cobbled this legislation together and many “provisions” were salted away into the text in order to accommodate various special interests. Much of the expense and many of the potentially negative ramifications of this bill, if it were to be voted into law, would not felt until years or even decades after its passage, long after the lawmakers who voted for it have retired.
Besides congressional resolutions, the problem of secrecy resulting from the sheer volume and complexity of regulations is also rampant in government agencies. Whether it is the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education, or any number of other federal departments and agencies, regulations have become so excessive as to fill a library. The same could be said of state and municipal governments and their various departments and agencies. Governments have become so secretive, expensive, and undemocratic that the average citizen has practically lost control over the course of events. So what than can be done to address this growing problem?
I would suggest the following. Congress needs to vote into law a resolution, call it something like the “end of secrecy act” that would mandate that any bill up for congressional debate be no more than three pages long. The act should require that no proposed law should exceed two thousand words. Laws should be written in a style that is comprehensible to the average high school student. The same standard should also apply to judicial opinions and to all public regulations.
Once a law is passed, the text of the new law, and the way in which individual congressmen voted on the law, should be immediately posted on a website and made available to the public and to the press in its entirety. High schools across the country should be encouraged to establish civics classes in which the new laws would be immediately read, discussed, and written about by the students. By this means, our young students would get a lesson in civics that would mould them into critical thinkers and future leaders in whatever endeavor they choose to pursue. The public would come to understand, in simple and comprehensible terms, the law of the land, how to follow them, and how to change bad laws.
State and municipal governments and government agencies should be encouraged to follow the federal example. Over time, all past laws still on the books should be revisited and reformatted in order to conform to the new standard. Bundled laws should be pulled apart and each piece of the bundle should be voted on separately.
The United States Constitution is readable and comprehensible to the average high school student and we should expect nothing less when it comes to the laws that govern our daily lives. In this way, government secrecy and silliness would be done away with, onerous laws and regulations would have nowhere to hide, and the taxpayer would know exactly where his hard earned money was going. By this means, the taxpayer would save a bundle of money, which would be plowed into the private sector to the benefit of all, and government would be forced to become more honest once it is placed under the klieg lights of full disclosure.
We can reverse it but we need politicians who will have the courage to stand for what you propose. To be successful that politician must ignore the political consultants who are always encouraging a “move to the center” to capture the moderate vote. The moderate vote, the know-nothing crowd, must have a distinct choice between conservative values, those you propose, and liberal values as pushed by the Democrats, Hollywood, and the media. Instead we usually get a choice between Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum with the media pushing the leftist candidate and the leftist candidate pretending not to be a leftist.
Bravo, these are very good ideas. Unlike the previous posters I will not consult popular opinion before I praise your efforts. It would have been easy to throw cold water on any new civic idea of the past 2 1/2 centuries.
Lots of citizens with guns.
My inner cynic sasy..pppfffttt.. never happen.
My inner American says- what a sensible idea!
:)
sasy = says :)
Good idea.
Require the fear of God in who you vote for. It’s no guarantee, but at least challenges islamocommunists and otherwise idiots about.
Start over with all new people.
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