Time to end full-time government

As I look at polls around the country, it is clear that voter disgust is driven primarily by the dysfunction in our legislative bodies. In fact, I do not think this election will be decided on issues but rather who best taps into that disgust that the system is broken and needs to be overhauled.

But how can we change our system—the worst one in the world except for all the others? I have now come to believe that we must eliminate the full-time aspect of the Congress and of those states that have full-time legislatures (incidentally the ones with the biggest problems).

Why? Because we need to end the idea that it is a job rather than a service. We need to take away the prestige and status and benefits that come with the responsibility and make it so intoxicating to those in office (visit part-time Arizona, state legislators are treated like meter maids). If Congressman X is only in Washington for two or three months to pass a budget and make whatever critical decisions need to be made about the welfare of our nation, they will focus on those things and get back home where their real job is and make their living.

Instead, 535 electeds spend about 10 months of the year in the Congress feeling like they need to justify their being there and finding things to do—things we don’t need them to do and things that always cost the us, the taxpayers, more.

Yes, it is time to end this crazy idea that we are better off with these people on the job. The fact is we are never safer from our government than when those we elect to go to Washington are absent from Washington.

Jason Cabel Roe is a partner in Revolvis Consulting, a Republican campaign consulting firm with offices in San Diego, Sacramento and Washington. He is the former managing partner of the Federal Strategy Group and was chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida and Rep. Jim Rogan of California.