No Labels - 12 Ways To Make Congress Work

'No Labels' is yet another of the more or less populus movements out there and like the rest, has little to no chance of making policy - but - at least someone is trying something.

On their site, they've listed 12 Ways. I've picked 6 that I RAVE about!

#1 - 'No Budget, No Pay'
'The Problem'
'The most basic responsibility Congress has is deciding how much money the government takes in and how much it spends. But Congress has passed its spending bills on time only four times since 1952. In the last 14 years, annual spending bills have been submitted an average of four months late'.

#2 - 'Up or Down Vote on Presidential Appointments'
'The Problem'
'When our Founders gave the Senate "Advise and Consent" power over presidential appointments, they hoped it would encourage the president to appoint qualified people and avoid conflicts of interest'.
'Today, it's the senators themselves who seem to have conflicts of interest, with key presidential appointments routinely held up for trivial reasons or to serve the narrow interests of a single senator. In one notorious case from 2010, a senator held up over 70 presidential nominees at once to secure more federal spending for his state'.

#3 - 'Fix the Filibuster'
'The Problem'
'The filibuster has been used for good and for ill, but for most of the Senate's history, it was rare, and it required members to stand up for hours on end to make their case. Neither is true anymore'.
'In the first 50 years of the filibuster, it was used only 35 times. In the last two years alone, it was used over 100. And senators don't even have to show up on the floor to explain themselves – just signaling their intent to filibuster effectively stalls legislation'.

#4 - 'Make Members Come to Work'
'The Problem'
'Members of Congress routinely fly home to their districts on Thursday nights to meet with constituents or attend fundraisers, and they often don't return until the following Tuesday'.
'Former Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle said that, "When we scheduled votes, the only day where we could be absolutely certain we had all one hundred senators there was Wednesday afternoon'."

#5 - 'Question Time for the President'
'The Problem'
'In January 2010, President Obama attended a House Republican retreat to publicly debate the merits of the president's proposed healthcare law. For a few hours at least, the American public got to see our leaders engage and truly debate with one another'.
'We haven't seen anything like it since. Today the president and members of Congress can more often be found talking past one another through the media. The issues facing our country are too important to be decided by a war of partisan talking points. Let's get the ideas on the table, debate them and let the American people decide'.

#6 - 'No Pledge but the Oath of Office'
'The Problem'
'One of the biggest barriers to solving problems in Congress is that many members literally sign away their ability to do it. A case in point: 238 House members have signed a pledge to never raise taxes. Another 110 members have signed a pledge to never cut any Social Security benefits. That's 80% of Congress refusing to even consider compromise on two of the biggest issues driving America's long-term budget deficits. Is it any wonder Congress can't balance our books'?
From : http://nolabels.org/