Brinksmanship.

Brinksmanship. That's what our government has become. It's no longer a group of elected officials that work together to solve problems, it's a group of people that practice brinkmanship. Brinkmanship is the ability to create deadlines and crisis only to get to the point and create a new deadline for a new crisis. And We The People are allowing it to happen.

Our Congress, Senate and even our President have become superstars in the game of 'Kick the Can'. Instead of addressing problems with real solutions they instead put band-aids and a patchwork of 'fixes' that move the actual consequences of the problem to a different point in time. These individuals that ran an election in which they preached they were part of the solution are in fact the problem. Our elected officials have been given a pass for too long.

I believe we need to create a different compensatory system for the people that run the government. Congressional, Senatorial and Executive Branch staff members have put themselves on a higher plane than the rest of us. Let's knock 'em down a peg or two. I've outlined in a previous post some details on how to reign in our elected officials. I'd like to expand that a little bit.

My original post:

• Tie congressional compensation (pay) to the median income level of that congressman's home district. 
• Tie senatorial compensation (pay) to the median income level of that senator's home district. 
• Take control of the office budget from the offices of elected officials and create a board of CITIZENS from that elected officials home district that oversee that budget. 
• Realign the benefits packages that congressmen and senators receive to be on par with the benefits of normal government workers.

My additions to this list:

•  All elected officials INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET are subject to ALL laws and rules pertaining to the people of the United States. ALL elected officials shall make no law or rule excluding them from the governing laws and rules of the United states. Effective immediately and retroactively. 
• No elected official should be allowed to profit from investments directly tied to his or her position. If an elected official is found to have broken this rule, he or she is subject to immediate dismissal, possible criminal proccedings and/or forfeiture of any/all monies made over the course of that elected official's terms. 
• Any elected official accused of infractions will be judged by a citizen jury and a legal team that shall be called by lottery. All elected/appointed legal official's shall be excluded from said lottery. Only unelected/appointed citizens shall serve in this capacity. 

And stole this one from Warren Buffet:

• If at any time the deficit is equal or greater than 3% of  GDP all sitting members of Congress, (and I added) the Senate and the President are ineligible for re-election.

I would be willing to bet that our elected officials would begin to drop like flies. Only people truly interested in fixing our nation's problems would become elected officials. No more 'Brinksmanship'. Kicking the can down the road would be a tough pill to swallow for people that have morals. What we have now is a nation run by liars, cheats and thieves. They make law and regulations that they directly profit from.

Maybe a citizen's initiative to effect change. We need to come together as a nation.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.