These suggestions from the Heritage Foundation sound very similar to our plans for spending reform, which is great.  Really, we don’t mind playing nice in the sandbox, particularly when the issue is spending reform, a matter of the utmost importance.  So, we say the more the merrier! The more of us that apply pressure on Congress, the more likely something might actually change.

Imagine that…change on the Hill….woooh, we just got chills!

Six Budget Reforms to Restrain Lobbyists and Special Interests

by Brian M Riedl  January 25, 2006 WebMemo #968

Aggressive lobbying is the predictable result of a larger problem: a massive federal government that imposes itself on every facet of economic life through high taxes, large subsidies, and expensive regulations. So long as Congress distributes largesse to favored industries and taxes and regulates disfavored ones, industries will do whatever they can to influence Congress. As columnist George Will recently wrote, “People serious about reducing the role of money in politics should be serious about reducing the role of politics in distributing money.”[1] Big government and corruption go hand in hand…

The six reforms described in this paper would do more to change the role of money in politics than any “lobbying reform” effort alone.

1. Ban Pork Projects
2. If Pork Remains, Add Sunshine
3. Make all Federal Grants Public
4. Term-Limit Appropriators
5. Rewrite the Outdated 1974 Congressional Budget Act
6. Enact a Federal Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights