congress

The reason we have so much pork barrel spending may be because both houses of congress consist of state politicians who are obliged to their constituents to get the national taxpayer to fund state projects. One advantage of having two houses is that each has de facto veto power over the other. Why don't we use this bicamerality to get one house to veto the pork of the other. I propose that the constitution be ammended to make the senate a national office whose members are elected at large by the whole country. They would serve for a single term and their votes on bills would be optionally secret. The house would have the same number of representatives elected from each state with no term limits and votes on bills would remain public. The equal number of representatives from each state would favor small states while the at- large election of the senate would favor big states. While state representatives are grasping for all the spending they can get for their states and for their reelection, the national senate would cancel any bill not in the national interest because they can't run again, they represent the whole country, and they can keep their vote secret. Another advantage of having an equal number of representatives from each state would be to end gerrymandering ; the dominant party would not be able to stay in power by constantly redrawing the congressional districts in their favor.