C060330 Two Thirds Is Salvation

A simple majority is required to raise spending in Congress. That's all.
It's too easy today for our long term federal public servants to increase
spending on everything from mandates that tell local school districts
what is a satisfactory level of educating their children, to building a
bridge to an island that doesn't require one.

Discretionary spending in Congress, which doesn't include so called
"required spending" for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the
new Prescription Drug benefit for seniors, increased by 2.4% in the
1990's. The peace dividend from the Cold War ending certainly helped
a lot in keeping this number down.

The all-Republican leadership that we've experienced for most of this decade has increased discretionary spending
(non-defense and non-homeland security) by an average of more 10% each year. Can a Republican led Congress not
control itself without a Democrat in the White House? How did the Republican moniker of trying to reduce the
spending that President Clinton wanted turn into a spend-for-all under a Republican president?

The answer unfortunately may lie in the all too familiar American experience of the last fifty years. The new
majority party in Congress likes its digs and has placed majority self preservation at the top of their agenda.
Spending gets you re-elected. They learned that from the Democrats for forty years. They experienced the
minority side for four decades and they're not going back....no matter what it takes. No matter how far askew the
budgets and the priorities they approve differ from what brought them to power in 1994. Congress even added to
the non-discretionary unfunded spending with the Drug Prescription Program for seniors in 2004. A return to the
good ole Democrat majority rule days. The Republicans have learned. Hmmm... and during an election year.
Purely a coincidence. We approve the behavior by re-electing over 95% of the members of the House of
Representatives who sought re-election since 2000. We appear to be ok with this and with no term limits on
Congress and no Constitutional budget restraints to force sanity, the spending keeps going and going.

I suggest changing the number of votes needed in Congress to pass a spending increase for any federal
department, except for Defense and Homeland Security. A 2/3 plus one vote super-majority to approve spending
above 2% should provide a sufficient firewall to Congress and prevent most excessive and wasteful uses of our tax
dollars.

Section I, Members of Congress forfeit their salary for the next six months if a full and complete federal
budget for the next fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 1st. that falls before Oct. 1st, the beginning of
the next fiscal year. Members of Congress forfeit their salary for the next twelve months if a full and complete
federal budget for the next fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 15th. that falls before Oct. 1st, the
beginning of the next fiscal year. The Washington D.C.staff of members of Congress forfeit their salary for the
next 6 months if the budget for the fiscal year is not passed before the Sept. 15th. that falls before Oct. 1st,
the beginning of the next fiscal year. No continuing resolutions or other contrived means shall extend these
deadlines without 3/4 plus one vote approval by both houses of Congress and an explicit declaration of war in
effect by the same Congress for more than 2 months.

Section II, Consent by Congress shall be given by a 2/3 plus one vote of members, to increase discretionary
spending by more than 2.0% over previous fiscal year for any federal department, except the departments of
defense and homeland security. Consent by Congress shall be given by a 2/3 plus one vote of members, to
increase the total amount of non-discretionary spending by more than 2.5% over previous fiscal year.