A Fix for Washington Corruption...

We all know that there are some serious issues of political corruption in Washington. There are always bad apples in any bunch. The corruption that I hate the most, however, is not even considered corruption. It is called “compromise”. You know what I mean. Senator X wants federal money to build a new stadium so he holds his vote as ransom on some important bill until the other senators agree to give him the funding. Senator X does not want his state to be effected by the new health care law so in order to get him on board the other senators agree to not make certain parts of it apply to his state.
This type of “compromise” is often illegal anywhere except Washington. Outside the beltway these actions are called “kickbacks” and “bribes”. And it is eroding our confidence in our government. The american people can never be sure who actually supports these laws or was just forced to accept them for something bigger. And those who truly supported it love to point out how those on the other side of the isle did as well, whether they actually did or not, because they voted for “it”.
These types of things are what we call “line items”. Addendums to bills that have nothing to with the issue at hand and yet the president is forced to accept them if he really wants the larger body of the bill. The other side of the isle often uses the fact that the president signed the bill as proof that he thought that particular line item was a good idea. George Bush’s signing into law the ban on incandescent bulbs is the latest example of this.
The republicans say that what the president needs is a “Line Item Veto”, or the power to veto each added line item of a bill individually. The Democrats say that it would put too much power in the hands of the president. Besides, the democrats continue, these line items typically only add 2% to the federal budget – “ah, no big deal”. This cost is traditionally known as “Pork Barrel Spending”.
This last argument only takes into account such line items as “$6,000,000 for Native American arrow production in Oregon”. There is no way to truly measure the cost to the country of many of the other line items. It also does not take into account the corruption aspects, either.
 Even though I greatly despise this devious method of operation in Washington, I do agree with the democrats that “Line Item Veto” power would put to much power in the hands of the president. The minority party might not be able to get anything done in congress. Every little program they lobbied for for their state could be veto’ed while the presidents party gets everything they want for their state and more.
There are better ways to fix this problem than by adding power to the executive branch. How about this approach?

1. Single issue bills only. No line items. End of story.
2. Add a section to the Federal Budget called the “Pork Barrel”.
3. Set the percentage of the “Pork Barrel” to 2% percentage of the Federal Budget (but no greater dollar amount than the current budget would allow)  + the percentage of decrease in the Federal debt year over year. This would give congress an incentive to decrease the debt every year.
4. Each year the final total for the Pork Barrel budget would be divided between the political parties in a ratio that matched the parties distribution in congress.
5. Each party would have no say in how the other party  divvies out their share. Each party would have to fight within itself for each member to get what they want.

This would put an end to the bribery of Washington “compromise”, give incentive for congress to reduce the debt each year, and prevent the “he supported” “she supported” BS that so muddies the political waters