Posted by
David on Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:44:50 AM
I came across this commentary while visiting WorldNetDaily yesterday. It was written by Dr. Walter E. Williams. I highly recommend you read Dr. Williams' column as he writes much better than I. Basically, the idea is this: James Madison, in the "Federalist Papers" says the best ratio of Representatives to people is about 1 Representative for every 30,000 people. Today it is about 1 Representative for 700,000 people. In order to get back to this ratio we would need to increase the size of the House from its current number of 435 to roughly 7,500.
I can hear you now. "David! If you're all for a smaller, less intrusive government, how can you be for increasing the size of the House from 435 to 7,500?" Well, I'll quote from Dr. Williams' column...
"In addition to venality and corruption, restricting the number of representatives confers significant monopoly power that goes a long way toward explaining the stranglehold the two parties have and the high incumbent success rates. It might also explain the power of vested interest groups to influence congressional decisions. They only have to bribe, cajole or threaten a relatively small number of representatives. Imagine the challenge to a lobbyist, if there were 7,500 representatives, trying to get a majority of 3,813 to vote for this or that special privilege versus having to get only a 218 majority in today's House."
You might also say with 7,500 members the House would have an extremely hard time getting anything done. I would say, Good! The harder it is for them to do anything, the harder it is for them to mess things up for the rest of us!
Now, as to the first idea, if you're not familiar with it or simply want more information, be sure to check out the
FairTax site.
Also, if you're tired of al those Che Guevara Tee shirts, check out these... Freedom Tees
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.Knowledge is power. - Francis Bacon