Laws - Too many, Not Enough, Not Clear, Too Old?

[Stiganator]

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[fskimospy]

This would be such a massive undertaking that it would take decades to accomplish. In addition, loopholes and oversights would certainly occur to a large degree, leading to the potential for a lot of mayhem.

The average person DOES know what is legal and what is illegal. Sure there are exceptions here and there, but when was the last time you were arrested/convicted for doing something that you didn't know (or strongly suspect) was illegal?

 

[Arkaign]

Accumulative government is a horrible thing. EVERY legal document of these United States should expire on the dot 50 years from passage to be forever expunged, unless voted on as something to keep. On that note, our Senators and Congressional Representatives should work a full year just like everyone else.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Accumulative government is a horrible thing. EVERY legal document of these United States should expire on the dot 50 years from passage to be forever expunged, unless voted on as something to keep. On that note, our Senators and Congressional Representatives should work a full year just like everyone else.

Some kind of Time Limit probably would be a good idea. Many outdated Laws usually just get ignored, aka no one bothers to enforce them. They still exist though and sometimes someone dredges one up for some nefarious purpose.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Accumulative government is a horrible thing. EVERY legal document of these United States should expire on the dot 50 years from passage to be forever expunged, unless voted on as something to keep. On that note, our Senators and Congressional Representatives should work a full year just like everyone else.

All you would get from that is a bunch of rubber stamped renewals each year. It's not practical.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Accumulative government is a horrible thing. EVERY legal document of these United States should expire on the dot 50 years from passage to be forever expunged, unless voted on as something to keep. On that note, our Senators and Congressional Representatives should work a full year just like everyone else.

All you would get from that is a bunch of rubber stamped renewals each year. It's not practical.

That's true. Some transparency/honesty in gov't would be nice.

(1)- REQUIRE everyone voting to fully read all documents related to what they are voting on.

(2)- REQUIRE them to write at least a one-page document explaining why they voted the way they did on that issue.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: eskimospy

All you would get from that is a bunch of rubber stamped renewals each year. It's not practical.

That's true. Some transparency/honesty in gov't would be nice.

(1)- REQUIRE everyone voting to fully read all documents related to what they are voting on.

(2)- REQUIRE them to write at least a one-page document explaining why they voted the way they did on that issue.

While I see where you're coming from and I agree with the principle of it, Congressmen have staff to read the bills for them and distill the important parts down so that they can make a decision. They already have a significant disadvantage in staff vis a vis the executive, and I think requiring them to personally read every bill would only make that imbalance worse. Same goes for the one page explanation of a vote. I mean I'd love to find out why these idiots vote for things sometimes, but politicians are masters of the evasive non-answer. You know as well as I do that all we would get in the end is a mountain of one page documents that tell us absolutely nothing as to why these people voted the way they did.

I really do agree with the spirit of what you think, I'm just not sure of any way to wrap it around people in a way that would work.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: Arkaign

Originally posted by: eskimospy

All you would get from that is a bunch of rubber stamped renewals each year. It's not practical.

That's true. Some transparency/honesty in gov't would be nice.

(1)- REQUIRE everyone voting to fully read all documents related to what they are voting on.

(2)- REQUIRE them to write at least a one-page document explaining why they voted the way they did on that issue.

While I see where you're coming from and I agree with the principle of it, Congressmen have staff to read the bills for them and distill the important parts down so that they can make a decision. They already have a significant disadvantage in staff vis a vis the executive, and I think requiring them to personally read every bill would only make that imbalance worse. Same goes for the one page explanation of a vote. I mean I'd love to find out why these idiots vote for things sometimes, but politicians are masters of the evasive non-answer. You know as well as I do that all we would get in the end is a mountain of one page documents that tell us absolutely nothing as to why these people voted the way they did.

I really do agree with the spirit of what you think, I'm just not sure of any way to wrap it around people in a way that would work.

Fair enough. It's just a frustrating issue

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

We have somewhat of a solution to this already. It's called jury nullification. Don't convict if the law is obsolete, poorly written, misapplied, or just plain stupid. Force the lawmakers to rewrite the law or the prosecutors to stop prosecuting on it. Too bad it's never used.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Accumulative government is a horrible thing. EVERY legal document of these United States should expire on the dot 50 years from passage to be forever expunged, unless voted on as something to keep. On that note, our Senators and Congressional Representatives should work a full year just like everyone else.

Personally, I think it should be more like 10 years. Or even 5. Making it a pain in the butt to keep laws in force will mean that only the truly important laws stay in force.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Arkaign

That's true. Some transparency/honesty in gov't would be nice.

(1)- REQUIRE everyone voting to fully read all documents related to what they are voting on.

(2)- REQUIRE them to write at least a one-page document explaining why they voted the way they did on that issue.

This also is an excellent idea.