Month: February 2018

“FULL OF SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING”

Our politicians once again take to the television and editorial pages and the end result will be nothing.  They have no plan and don’t really want one because their goal is to be gain power and wealth by staying in office.

I offer a simple plan which they may feel free to adopt into law and supercede or replace state law.  It will not stop all gun violence, but will certainly cauce a decline.  Driving laws did not stop accidents.  Possessing automobile insurance did not stop accidents. But, they helped.

  1. Sale of all weapons must be recorded.  Noone with a criminal record, or judged to be a danger to himself or others may purchase or possess any weapon that could be used for mass murder.
  2. All weapons of war and associated clips and ammunition must be turned in to the National Guard where they will be stored for permitted use on the National Guard range.  The National Guard will make these weapons available for use on their shooting range under their supervision.
  3. The CDC will maintain records of all shootings by state and share those records with Congress and publish the data for the American people directly on a monthly basis.
  4. Implementation will be paid for by a tax on weapons of war and associated munitions.
  5. Congress must establish a commission to study the causes of gun violence in the U.S. including but not limitid to unemployment, hopelessness, social media, etc.

Earmarks (the reason Congress has continued to fail to function)

It is no coincidence that when earmarks were done away with Congress ceased to function as legislative body in any way.

Earmarks were the poker chips that allowed negotiations.  Granted that sometimes the earmarks were egregious like the Alaskan “bridge to nowhere”, but those could have been addressed specifically and on their merit.  Instead, earmarks were done away with in their entirety.  Can you imagine trying to trade with someone when neither of you has anything with which to trade or barter?  You would each make your initial offer and that would be it.  No negotiating on price or additional add ons to make the deal acceptable to both sides.

If you want to end Government gridlock, allow earmarks and a way to deal with the most egregious.  In the case of the “bridege to nowhere”,  The publication of the deal was enough to end it.

The bigger question is why aren’t Democrats or Republicans or Independents or the talking heads  looking at this?

 
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