A CongressPerson's Time is Valuable, Let's Share !

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It's no secret that money talks and BS doesn't make it into the parking lot, when it comes to the time of your CongressPersons. The House of Representatives and the Senate are the true capitalists' marketplace, with admission by campaign donations, or private wealth, and often both.

Now I think that 1/2 of the time a CongressPerson spends should be with people of "their own choosing.," i.e., the campaign donors.

The other half of available time should be up for auction, on a site like Ebay. What's more, the initial ownership of a month's worth of available time (remember, 1/2 of the time the CongressPerson spends with people beyond their staff and other members of Congress), should be split up among all registered voters by lottery. The units could be as small as 1/1000th of a month, and scheduling would be lots of fun, with watchdogs and rules to make sure the CongressPerson didn't try "ditching" a legitimate owner of time. Our lobbiests deserve what they pay for, we deserve to know about our lobbiests' activities in detail.

The initial owner of a given CongressPerson's time would probably reap at least $100,000 for the month, and the options could be tracked just like the stock market, giving a simple number or two showing who really has the power in Congress, just like the stock market. Congress minute ? Nah, too short a time. I think 20 minutes would be a minimum, and this would vary, depending on how available a CongressPerson was (some make more time available than others). It would make for 1/2 hour appointments, with 10 minutes of review, relax, and prepare time.

The owners and eventual users of all units of time would be public record, as would the names of all the rest of the people a CongressPerson sees (of their own choice, times), other than directly related family members. All of this data comes with complete with names, times and dates, and is posted on the web within a week of completion.

Just a little accountability, some spreading of the wealth (since we've given up on democracy as a marketplace of ideas), that's all I ask. As usual, much more thought and discussion is needed to work out the fine points.