Require budgetary promise for your vote

How can we return our Congress to the status it enjoyed 30 years ago?

At present it is being controlled by lobbyists to an unacceptable degree. This practice must end. The termination of this practice is the only way to get meaningful legislation passed that reflects the best interests of the people at large, and not just a handful.

A balanced approach to this situation also requires us to respect the role of corporate capitalism and other benefits it creates for us. Can this balance be achieved? That’s the challenge we face.

In a realistic way, the money must come from where the money is. The top 2 percent of wage earners in this country are paid 40 percent of the country’s income. The large corporations make lots of money and they pay large taxes because they are part of the American success story.

The budget committees of both houses must carefully set up a budget, put the country on a lean basis and then make sure whoever is handling revenue projections is on the same page.

I am as interested as anyone in the value of free enterprise. However, it can’t be allowed to go unchecked and have too many people allowed to do anything they want in the name of the almighty bottom line. These are the things Congress must do. We don’t have tenure.

The only way to handle this is to vote out any current representative or senator who doesn’t give evidence that he will actively fight for strong annual budget control leading into each new fiscal year. A congressional member must also agree that no increases in taxes will be voted for by him during any year he is in Congress for the present.

Write this to your congressmen and senators in direct terms. Don’t ask.

Chuck Barr

St. Charles