So redistricting is coming up soon, and there will be a decrease of about six representatives (and electoral votes) in blue states because places dominated by Democrats can be objectively judged as awful. Also, Republicans have most of the governors and state legislatures, so they’ll be doing most of the redistricting. So let’s just put that in our pocket.
Still, long term, I’m all for doing something America hasn’t done in a long long time and add more representatives. Lots more. Thousands more. So they represent closer to the number of people they used to when the country was started. Sure it will cost more money to pay all their salaries and stuff (pay cut!), but more people means more gridlock and that always saves us money in the end. It’s better representation plus more inaction!
More fistfights as well, I hope.
Sounds like it could be a good jobs program. Rather than have elected reps give our money away to buy votes, just have all welfare recipients be members of Congress. It’s more efficient that way, cuts out the middle man.
Under your logic, it would be optimal to make a Representative to constituent ratio of 1:1. I, however, would suggest we lower the number of representatives to 2. Conservatives get to pick 1 and liberals get to pick 1. But, we wouldn’t specify that the representatives must be human. So we could pick a grizzly bear with a toothache and the libs would pick Barney Frank or something. When Barney Frank walked into the building, the bear would eat him. Much more gridlock plus ratings for CSPAN would go way up.
The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand//
Now we’re up to 700,000. WTF?
Watch the RINO’s eliminate some Republicans…”to be fair.”
The constitution sets the max number of representitives at 1 for every 30k, that would allow us to have over 10k representitives. With that many nothing would get done.
They could go to about a 50,000 member House of reps, and then hold session at the old RFK stadium.
P.S. Repeal the 17th!
10,000 representatives in the Capitol Building? The smell would be horrendous. Only hippies would apply.
I like the idea of each American having his own Representative in both the House and the Congress. That would mean that there are 300 million Americans so we would need 300 million House Members and 300 million Senate members. This is obviously impossible so the entire House and Senate are hereby ruled unconstitutional and suspended forever! Leaving us with a Supreme Court and a President who will have to deal with the American people directly. He will need a majority of 300 million votes in both the House and Senate as we all act as House of Representative members and Senators at the same time! We will need to import some good looking illegal mexican babes for pages, which is ok with me…
I am in favor of the 30,000 rule!! This makes so much sense, since the responsiveness of the individual representiative to his constituency would be much better.
We could also do away with having to send the representative to Washington… lets have Congress meet on the Internet. That way, your representative could stay in his district, year round!
PS: Repeal the 17th Amendment. The Senate should represent the State Governments at the federal level, as the Founders intended. How the states select their representatives should be up to the states.
Do unto them as they have done unto us. Now that the majority is the new minority do we get special districts? I want a district just for me. In fact, each IMAO member should get their own district. With that we can overpower congress and vote to nuke the moon, cut taxes, and punch hippies.
If we add any more members to the House, it will resemble the scene from Idiocracy when President Dwane Ellisondo Mountain Dew Commacho had to quell the uprising in the House of Representin’. Yeah – that’s what I thought!
We could go with the 10,000 reps if they stayed home and phoned in their votes – kind of like the voting on Dancing with the Stars.
One rep from each state would have to actually be in Washington to record the votes, make the speeches, accept the bribes and gifts from the lobbyists, etc.
I’ll toss in with MarkoMancuso and Repeal the 17th!
The problem with all those Congresscritters is that big business can peal them off in packs of ten or twenty to make earmarks, dumb laws and stupid regulations. As long as the federal budget is measured in trillions, big business and unions will figure out how to get theirs, but also reinforce their monopoly position.
So, when all those folks are just bored, we get rules like a Department of Energy regulation that specifies how many gallons per minute I can pump from my well, pass through shower head and put into my septic tank.
When those people collude with industry, we get a new information infrastructure in Hardy County, West Virginia: the US Department of Agriculture is using our tax dollars to fund an internet service provider to upgrade to fiber so the the cows can watch Wild Kingdom reruns in Hi Def TV. Not only a waste of money, taking earnings from out of state to provide subsidized service, but it provides a financial benefit and increases the monopoly power of a single network provider, driving others from the market.
We need a new law or something that states what the federal government can do, and specifies that anything not enumerated is the responsibility of the states or the citizens.
Now there is an idea worth discussing over a tea (party.)
jr in wv.
#15 – Jason,
“We need a new law or something that states what the federal government can do, and specifies that anything not enumerated is the responsibility of the states or the citizens.”
“I had something like that right here a minute ago … now what did I do with it … Let me see, did I leave it in my other pants?…”
– The Founding Fathers, (collectively spinning in their graves at turbo-speed.)
I like the idea of expanding the membership. Cost is no problem. Each congressperson (I know it should be man) has a staff. Take the total budget of each and divide it by the member of staff persons to get X then set the new total number of elected persons to 435 times (X+1). That way we elect all those that write laws at no extra cost.