It seems clear to me that America’s elected officials, for the most part, have no deterrent to discourage making unsound decisions when related to budgetary issues. That is the only explanation as to why both Democratic and Republican congresses spend more than they make year in and year out, through recessions and times of economic growth. Never has any thought been given to that of the future, our children nor our great grand children. I believe that this mentality has arisen from two main errors in our system; the first of which being that there is no punishment for congressmen to inhibit them from making poor financial decisions and secondly congressional terms are so short that decisions made in office don’t bring their full repercussions until those that made those poor decisions are out of office leaving their successors to deal with the problems created by their irresponsibility.

Not wanting to be one who points out problems without offering some form of solution to the debate I believe that the most effective way to get this country back on the track of fiscal responsibility would be to create short term repercussions to both the congressional and executive branches for unnecessary budget shortfalls. The first example would be to have the salaries of all elected officials in these branches proportionally tied to budget surpluses and shortfalls of a given year, a salary penalty of sorts based upon the fiscal decisions of said branches. This of course should have an override for unforeseen and uncontrollable events that would warrant such a budgetary shortfall (i.e 9/11, The Great Depression, War etc). This override should be very difficult to attain and I would suggest a ¾ override vote by congress and if approved congress must make its case to the Supreme Court for final approval. If approved, said override shall expire in two years time when Congress must then repeat the process again for re-approval. My reasoning for such an unattainable override is simply that you cannot trust a child with the cookie jar and by making the process so difficult it secures this override for only the direst of situations.

It is my dearest of hopes that this is taken to heart and not dismissed as a pipe dream. If my suggested solution does not seem reasonable that is fine, I only wanted to bring something to the table for possible debate; unlike most of our elected officials who would sooner ignore the escalating situation and continue to spend what they, no WE, do not have and leave the mess for our children and our children’s children. Ultimately leaving a financial burden for future Americans that they may not be able to sustain, our parents and grandparents built a house of cards and left it up to us to build a strong foundation for the future. Its not an easy truth to hear but it is just that, the truth; and it may not be fair for us to be put in the position of having to fix the errors of our predecessors but a sacrifice must be made and I learned long ago that the longer you put off a problem for tomorrow the bigger it is tomorrow. Thank you for your time, open mind and careful consideration.

-Jamie Drane