Congress is effectively “shut down” at this point;
The growth of Congress was capped at 435 members in 1896; the Federal Budget was 443 million-which means each Congesscritter could supervise the management of a little over one million doll.ars of We the People’s cash.
Today, the same number of Congresscritters are supposed to provide supervision of an amount over 80 times as much. It simply isn’t possible.
Original Congressional apportionment was 1:30000. Pulling that forward to today would give us a congress of 100000-which would meet online from their districts. And which would generate consensus ONLY on issues of true national importance.
One of the little-talked-about but big impact factors is the fact that the Senators are now elected by popular vote, when originally they were selected by their state. This has resulted in Senators who have to face raising money for campaigns..... essentially buying votes with favors. Add this to the fact that they have no term limits and we get Senators who's every action is based on their re-election rather than the good of the country.
I'm heartened to see other Patriots knowledgeable of Article the First. In actuality, had Article the First been ratified, representation would amount to 1:50,000, or approximately 6,284 Representatives in the House.
Now most people would scoff at this, "Oh, that's a ridiculous number!" But in reality, the Founder's idea was that an appropriate number of individuals would be represented by just one man or woman. On the other side of the coin, they would likely find today's current situation of 1:716,300 patently ridiculous. No one man or woman can adequately represent the needs of close to three-quarters of a million people.
Article the First is still capable of being ratified, it only need be brought up for debate and a vote in a ConCon, something which I doubt any of us will ever see.
My thoughts on the subject go something like this:
What to do with six thousand Representatives? At the time of the first Constitutional Convention, Washington D.C. was considered the heart of a Republic of only 13 States, and as such, the first district only accounted for a small part of the overall landmass of the current United States lower forty-eight. Had article the first been ratified, it’s entirely likely that other districts would have formed out of the states as they were admitted to the Union. Present-day America would likely have numerous district capitals wherein representatives would convene. With modern technologies, we could have virtual Congresses where all of the Representatives in each district get together and through video conferencing technologies and securely linked voting software conduct the business of the nation. Any way you slice it, we would be better served with 6100 Congressional Representatives (6000 House, 100 Senate) than with the paltry 535 we have now.
What MO said.