A SUGGESTION FOR THE NEW CONGRESS.

A SUGGESTION FOR THE NEW CONGRESS. I posted here on Gillian Tett’s comment that the 1300 page financial reform bill was too complicated. I am even more convinced than I was then that she was right. Whatever the make up of the new Congress, I think they would do well to confine as much legislation as possible to a single subject at a time—a radical change. I have two arguments for the members to consider. First, I think that some of the things that the electorate does not like about Congress are procedural. One advantage of the change for the members would be that any log rolling would be less conspicuous—and logrolling does not play well when seen up close. Another advantage would be that it would be easier to reach bipartisan agreement on smaller issues, partly because there are issues on which there is agreement and partly because the prestige of the political parties would be less at stake than it is on the huge bills. And the independents in the electorate seem to want less partisanship. There are obvious good government reasons for shorter bills, but I don’t think that the members would be persuaded by them.

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