Well, parts of the federal government remain shutdown with no end in sight. I think both parties are culpable and should be banned, along with all other political parties, by a Constitutional amendment. The Framers didn't want political parties. Look it up. So why not ban them?
We should also pass a Constitutional amendment that would ban gerrymandering by limiting Congressional districts to six sides at most (unless a state, like SD, has only one Rep, in which case no gerrymandering is possible). Of course if parties were effectively eliminated there would be much less pressure to contort district boundaries to create safe districts for extremists.
A third Constitutional amendment would ensure that Congress and the heads of the Executive branch would not receive any salaries, offices, benefits, or other perks if the federal government shuts down or if any default occurs on the national debt. Better yet, let those events trigger immediate elections with all the current incumbents ineligible to run for national office ever again.
Finally, and once again, we need some sort of reverse eminent domain, some way for private entities to buy or lease government assets. A shutdown would be a nice triggering device. So, say, Yosemite would be leased to the highest bidder for 30 plus years. The bidder would not be able to change the park but would collect admittance fees in exchange for amenities upkeep. Ditto on the panda cam and heck the entire National Zoo.
And we don't really need NASA anymore, except maybe to look for collision threats in space, and I am not even entirely sure about that. If we could credibly commit to sending a private company's CEO and largest stockholders to any comet or asteroid they miss on a last ditch, Bruce Willis-type mission I think it would do the best job technologically possible. Not sure the government can make such a commitment when it comes to its own employees ...
It's all about incentives people and right now the incentives in Washington are FUBAR.
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