Clean Up That Cow Lot!

This past Monday four Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives presented a 14-point plan to reform the corruption in that body which has led to the current train wreck we're watching on a daily basis. The four congressmen::

David Obey of Wisconsin
Barney Frank of Massachusetts
David Price of North Carolina
Tom Allen of Maine

Some of the high points of their suggested reforms (full transcript of their presentation on Monday is in a PDF file here):

Forbid any congressional travel if lobbyists or their clients are involved in any way in financing that travel.

Forbid ex-members of the House, who have by tradition "floor access" during important votes, from using that access to lobby for any law in which they have a financial interest.

Strike a blow for budgetary sanity by requiring that reconciliation bills must be tailored to reduce the budget deficit, not increase it, except by a two-thirds vote of the House.

End the practice of holding votes open for hours while the leadership strong-arms members to change their votes.

Prevent the use of "earmarks" (special appropriations aimed at specific member districts) as internal blackmail in the legislative process.

Require that printed copies of all bills be available at least 24 hours before they are called up for a vote. (In other words, actually encourage members to know what they're voting on.)

Require that conference committees of the House actually meet and vote in open session rather than turning everything over to staff members or leadership aides to negotiate in secret. Etc.

Sensible reforms, which mean, naturally, that they will NEVER be adopted until the voters throw out the present rulers.

David Broder wrote a column about these proposed reforms in the WashPost here.