Enduring solution to debt and budget wars is needed
3 so far! Help us get to 5 signers!
The Treasury Department is also bound by the Constitution including the 14th Amendment and must pay our debts regardless of whether Congress is working or not.
Secondly, we need a longterm plan for budget wars. Responding to each one as it arises is not enough. It causes anxiety and financial upheaval. Perhaps someone is making money off this financial upheaval. I hope some appropriate agency can look into this.
I suggest that each year the budget and debt management must be finalized by some reasonable date well in advance of the actual deadline, such as April 15. If there is no agreement by that date, then there will be some legal consequence (i.e. not rational but illegal such as reducing or stopping congress members' pay) that is appropriate to the severity of these incidents, for example kicking everyone off the Finance Committee: everyone who was on the Finance Committee in either house cannot be re-elected to the Finance Committee for 4 months. I'd like to find some way to target it to unreasonable members, but haven't thought of a way that wouldn't be, or be perceived as, partisan or couldn't be used in a partisan manner.
In addition, there should be some additional legal provision that if Congress fails to do this basic task, the Treasury will continue to pay all our debts and interest.
Finally, I hope you do get to use DeSaulnier's “Breaking the Gridlock Act” for reproductive rights, right to privacy and personal determination (medical decisions are between a pregnant or trans person and their doctor, for example, or bedroom decisions are between someone and their partner), gun control legislation, climate legislation, or some such emergency.
All the best.