Our congressmen spend four to five hours a day making phone calls and going to fundraisers to raise campaign money, according to Potter and Penniman in their book Nation on the Take (Bloomsbury Press, 2017).
This is shameful. It is shameful that our elected representatives put up with this system, that corporations and the hyper-wealthy think they are entitled to buy political influence and that we ordinary citizens passively accept this system as unchangeable.
No wonder Congress is unproductive and fragmented while our elected legislators only work for us half-time. We taxpayers are paying decent salaries to Sens. Bennett and Gardner and Rep. Tipton. They should be working full-time for you, me and the common good.
We, the majority of citizens who are not billionaires or corporate officials, must demand reasonable, citizen-funded campaign financing. Fair limits must be strictly enforced. Congresspeople and their staff members must be banned from lucrative lobbying jobs for the rest of their lives.
Surely, legislators would be relieved to shed their thankless, degrading fundraising burdens and to be able to totally focus on governing.
Constance Fox
Mancos
