Listening to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, many of the callers expressed the same concern and frustration I have felt for a long time regarding how our federal government works…and more recently over the last several years, how it does not work.
Regardless of which party or President is elected in November, I hope the American people will demand Congress and the President overhaul the entire federal system. Not only does the regulatory systems need to be completely overhauled as witnessed by the current financial meltdown, but the various departments and Congressional committees need to be overhauled. It’s out of date, no longer efficient or effective. Instead of looking at the entire system as a whole and how to streamline it for efficiency and effectiveness, Congress continues to apply bandaids. This has to change.
We’re living in a world now that is interconnected in ways previous generations never though possible, where global transactions take place in seconds, where information spreads faster people can keep up with. Yet, our government, in far too many ways, still exists as it did in the 1950s. This has to change.
Overhauling the federal government and Congress won’t be easy, though. There are far too many vested interests involved. Too many people who would see their own power diminished as a result of streamlining regulations, departments, and committees. This has to change.
The American people need to stand up and demand that the new Congress and President seriously undertake a major reform of the entire federal government. And we have to keep at it — continually pressing Congress and the President — until it’s done.
