- Target:
- House of Representatives and Senate
- Region:
- United States of America
Did you know that under current law, all members of Congress will get their full pay while thousands of workers will be forced out of their jobs? In one of the most shameful examples of congressional misconduct, the Congress has made sure that its members get their full pay and benefits while the nation suffers, even during a full government ‘shutdown.’
This petition is being put together by a person who is a) sympathetic to many traditional Republican causes and has voted Republican more often than not and b) is not a supporter of the current health-care reform act, informally known as Obama-care, BUT is fed-up with the current Republican lack of leadership in Washington. The leadership has lost its way and has let a minority of hard-line extremists set the policy for the national party either through fear or incompetence.
The dysfunction in DC politics has become dangerous to the well-being of this country. The primary goal of our politicians appears to be to start campaigning for the next election or safeguarding their perks from their first day in office rather than paying any attention to their responsibilities as leaders of this great nation.
The current no-compromise attitude of a majority of House Republicans is brinkmanship of the worst kind, and one with total disregard for the long-term well-being of this nation. Successful democracies, almost by definition, govern via consensus and compromise.
Having failed to present a strong enough case to the public to convince the majority, the hard-line Republican holdouts have resorted to blackmailing the nation to accede to the wishes of an uncompromising minority.
These actions have serious consequences. Not only does the whole nation suffer (Goldman Sachs estimates that it will shave nearly 1% off GDP just as the economy is starting to recover from a deep recession), people’s livelihoods are now being directly jeopardized as they are laid off or ‘furloughed.’
It is easy to take such an uncompromising position when nothing personal is really at stake. What this petition does is make those responsible bear some burden of the pain they have elected to pass on to the rest of the nation.
1. For every day that that government is shut down due to the failure of the House to pass a clean (without provisions related to ‘Obama-care’) bill each Representative (be they Republican or Democrat) who votes in a manner that creates or extends the shutdown should be docked one week’s pay for every day that the Federal Government remains shut down.
2. Cuts and shut-downs which the Federal government must enact due to the failure to pass the budget, should target (to the extent possible) districts belonging to House Representatives who vote in such a manner as to create or extend the government shutdown. People in every district to elect whichever Representative they want, but they should also be held responsible for electing non-compromising ideologues.
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The Hold Congress Accountable petition to House of Representatives and Senate was written by Congressional Responsibility and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.