From: Lee Gibbon <leegib@MICROSOFT.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:15:32 +0800
To: "'Ryan Anderson'" <roy@scytale.com
Subject: RE: New Laws in Oregon - "Land of the Legal betatest"
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Why do you want Congress to function?  "The best government is one that
governs least" (Who am I (mis)quoting?).  If Congress doesn't do much,
we're better off - especially if we had sunset clauses in every law...  

Assuming a government like ours, the problem I see with "eliminating 90%
of the sitting legislature" is the question of who really rules?  I
favor term limits - only one term per position.  I don't like the idea
of professional politicians.  But, where would the power reside?  The
bureaucracy and the political parties?  -Sounds dangerous to me.

Lee
<standard disclaimers>

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Ryan Anderson [SMTP:randerso@ece.eng.wayne.edu]
> Sent:	Saturday, June 21, 1997 10:07 AM
> To:	roy@scytale.com
> Cc:	cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
> Subject:	Re: New Laws in Oregon - "Land of the Legal betatest"
> 
> 
> On Sat, 21 Jun 1997, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:
> 
> > > How do you propose to deal with such things as the
> Telecommunications Act
> > > of 1996 (which incidently included the CDA)?   I can see a problem
> where
> > > one sentence or clause gets thrown out of a major bill (say a
> compromise
> > > budget, that someone screwed up one minor ammendment), and if you
> have
> > > that happen 3 times in 6 years, you've lost 90% of your senators!
> I'm not
> > > saying that your idea isn't without merit, just that it's got a
> few
> > > problems that strike me as somewhat major..
> > 
> > Please elaborate, as I can't see _any_ problem with eliminating 90%
> of
> > the sitting legislature.
> 
> You've completely missed my point.  This would be an on-going problem.
> Congress can only function with some idea of compromise in it.  When
> you're passing budgets, especially the kind of budgets we have right
> now,
> they get big and complicated, I can't see that changing significantly,
> even with a massive turnover of members.  But having no consistency in
> Congress at all, even for some "good" reps would be horrible.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> Ryan Anderson - <Pug Majere>     "Who knows, even the horse might
> sing" 
> Wayne State University - CULMA   "May you live in interesting times.."
> randerso@ece.eng.wayne.edu                        Ohio = VYI of the
> USA 
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