>>Really good article from Jonah Goldberg from 2001. I agree with his premise that congress should be larger to be more representative of the will of the people. When the country was born, the population ratio was 1 to 30,000. Today, it’s 1 to 600,000!!<<
Do you really want the House to be 2,000-5,000 representatives?
That would be unwieldy to say the least. I am all for gridlock, but since the House controls the purse strings nothing would ever get financed, even the good stuff.
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>>Really good article from Jonah Goldberg from 2001. I agree with his premise that congress should be larger to be more representative of the will of the people. When the country was born, the population ratio was 1 to 30,000. Today, it’s 1 to 600,000!!<<
Do you really want the House to be 2,000-5,000 representatives?
That would be unwieldy to say the least. I am all for gridlock, but since the House controls the purse strings nothing would ever get financed, even the good stuff.
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Care to define ‘the good stuff’? My copy contains *VERY* little Congress need ‘worry’ about to begin.
IMO, nothing should be done until the 17th is abolished. Even so, I see nothing wrong w/ a better ratio of representation.
Nobody would be saying the same % would be just swell if it came to doctors or the check-out lines.
That would be unwieldy to say the least.
It would make alot of sense, but only if you gutted the entire rule making part of the executive bureaucracy and replaced them with congressman and their small staffs. Congressional committees would become issuers of regulation. Every government rule would be an act of congress. So you might still have a Department of the Interior, but they could not write rules or issue regulations. The could only enforce what they were given by Congress.
That would not be an awful idea if Representative were a part-time job and Congress weren't in session most of the time.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives is 400 members, the third largest in the English-speaking world, and members get $200 (and free use of state toll roads) for their two year term. Nobody thinks of State Representative as a full-time job.
Of course, in a country the size of the United States, that wouldn't be possible. Hotel bills for when Congress was in session would be enormous.
In Ukraine their legislature the Verkovna Rada represents the nineteen regions of the country. It has 400 members. Your point is well made.