Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, the world is more dangerous than ever. This is no time for Liberals to expect Obama to come up with all of the answers. But this is also no time for Conservative Tea-baggers to whine about taxes being raised to 10 percent less than during the Reagan Administration, according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. It is a time for critical political thought.

College students in particular should try to educate themselves more about the government and pay closer attention to politics. One day we will be the establishment.

While we have lots of free time, we should try to come up with some fresh ideas to improve America to avoid the pervasive silliness in today’s politics.

Fellow students, think critically about your government. Do not blindly support or blindly criticize it. Be informed. Come up with fresh ideas and call your Congressman or Senator.

It is up to you to make this great country even better. Here are a couple of ideas students of all political stripes could support.

Congress has never had many fans throughout the history of the country, especially during recent years. Why is this? There is a flaw in the Constitution that should be addressed immediately.

Article I, section II of the Constitution states: “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states.” This section shows it’s age by the phrase “several states.” We have plenty more than “several states” and possibly more on the way (Puerto Rico anyone?). This passage was written for a society that is much smaller. This is not the case today and it shows.

To address this problem, I propose extending the terms of members of the House or Representatives from two-year terms to either four or six through a Constitutional Amendment. When a Representative has only two years to try to carve out a niche, craft meaningful legislation, get bills passed and impress constituents it’s tough, to say the least. It seems to be a next-to-impossible task in a House of 435 voting members with the same ambitions. 

So how would extending terms help the political process? If representatives serve longer terms they would, at least in theory, spend less time in their district campaigning and more time in Washington learning the ropes of policy-making. This would also avoid much of the sneaky addition of earmarks in bill to impress a district as an easy way to get reelected.

According to the Office of Budget and Management, there were 11,524 earmarks totaling $16.5 billion from members of congress in 2008. While this constitutes only 2 percent of the total budget, it is public perception that matters in politics. Many projects are important and vital to our country and that money should be spent by people who are able to spend more time studying each case.

 I propose an elected body called “Pork Street” whose sole purpose is to divide up pet projects for the states. The House and Senate should vote on a lump sum allotted for projects for the states that is given to “Pork Street” where the members debate and vote on exactly how it is spent.

This will free up the Senate and the House to focus more on substantive issues and divide the lobbyists in half. If the power to distribute earmark money is separate from Congress, the legislative process will be less clogged and more efficient.

Let Zakk know your thoughts on the legislature at [email protected].