One Day in the Year

Section 4 of Article I has an interesting statement: “The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.”

What a different country this would be if Congress only met one day each year! We the People would have true freedom, unfettered by the gadzillions of laws, some of them ridiculous, that Congress has enacted over the years in order to give themselves “job security.”

Our Senators and Representatives wouldn’t vote themselves exorbitant raises, full retirement benefits, plush health care system, private banking, perks of every kind and description, because serving in Congress would not be their job. They would take a week’s vacation from their real jobs in the real world to allow for travel time, meet for one day, maybe two or three at the most, to consider a few important bills, shake hands and go home for the year. No filibusters, bloated partisan speeches, pontificating, or otherwise making a pompous spectacle of themselves day after day after day.

Because “serving” in Congress has become a profitable enterprise, Washington D.C. is a true “ivory tower” insulated from the real world and the real concerns of We the People. In voting for themselves lavish lifestyles separate and apart from the laws they enact for the rest of us, members of Congress have become totally out of touch aliens from another planet in comparison to the original vision of the Constitution.

“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” --James Madison