End the farce

When James Madison developed the bicameral concept of Congress, he and the Founders gave the Senate terms of office three times as long as Representatives.  In part, this was to make that body less responsive to the immediate and ever-changes whims of the public, so they could be more deliberative and thoughtful about proposed legislation.

Yeah.  How's that working out these days?

The U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to approve legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff despite having only 3 minutes to read the 154-page bill and budget score.
Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM.
The bill is 154-pages and includes several provisions that are unrelated to the fiscal cliff, including repealing a section of ObamaCare, extending the wind-energy tax credit, and a rum tax subsidy deal for Puerto Rican rum makers.

This is like Pelosi's approach: passing Obamacare in order to find out what's in it.

Odd that Congress can pass significant legislation--including numerous unrelated riders--without a comprehensive reading, but can't conclude a proper fiscal year budget (much less on time).  

This is no longer about "throw the bums out."  Any new crop of bums is unlikely to be better.  The problem is that the rules are no longer honored--in fact, our nation's "newspaper of record" now dares suggest those rules are the real problem!!

If D.C. and the 'intelligentsia' are now openly denigrating even the charade of following the Constitution, it's time for the States to act.  The Federal government is their agent--a point made repeatedly by the Founders.  Anyone who's remotely been paying attention can write up the indictment for how that agent has abused and far exceeded its mandate.

Yes, this means confrontation--pitting the States against their runaway delegate.  What so many people fail to realize is that this is precisely the balance of federalism intended by design.  And it is far superior as a corrective to mobs of frustrated citizens "storming the Mall."  The States hold within their authority the ability to convene a Convention to change D.C. without the involvement (and interference) of the very agents that have run amok.  It's proper that this power has been reserved as a last resort, not to be used flippantly.  But it was designed for such a time as this, when it's apparent to just about everyone that a reset button needs to be sought.  

This need not lead to a complete discarding of the current Constitution... it isn't broken, just circumvented.  A carefully written agenda, passed by the States to seek specific correctives, should govern the process.  Time for us to stop asking Uncle Sam to fix himself.  Let's call on our local leaders to design an intervention!