New Rules

A certainly incomplete list of new rules for Congress.

1. No "Pledges" - a candidate or sitting member of Congress may make no pledge beyond "to evaluate each piece of legislation on its own merits and make my decisions reflecting to the best of my ability the intent of my constituents and my personal judgement.
2. "Pocket Confirmation" - any and all appointments made during a Congressional term not receiving an up or down, clean confirmation vote by the end of the following session are deemed to have been approved by the Congress.
3. "Shutdown Charge" - should a federal budget and all the associated allocation bills for the next fiscal year not be complete by 3/4 of the way through the current fiscal year each and every member of that congress shall have their term expire with the end of the current Congress (provided the delay is not the result of Presidential action).
4. "Shutdown Penalty" - should a continuing resolution be required to prevent the federal government from shutdown, or should the Federal government be forced to shut down due to the lack of a budget or associated allocations each and every member of that congress shall have their term end at the end of that Congress and those members shall be prohibited from running again for a period of not less than 12 years.
5. "Answer the Damn Question" - candidates and sitting Congress members are required to answer the actual questions presented by media and constituents. They are allowed to say "I choose not to answer that question at this time" but simply pivoting to talking points is not allowed. A bi-partisan panel shall referee complaints as filed by the actual person that asked the question. For each adjudicated transgression the candidate must make a $5000 donation to the other party's congressional campaign committee (candidates may elect to prepay).
6. "Factual Error Penalty" - for each and every "pants on fire" rating a Congress member receives from Politifact they are docked 10% of their salary for that calendar year (re-figuring after each offense). For every 10 infractions within a year (including repeating the same item) the member is docked one year of standing for their retirement benefits (candidates may accrue negative calendar standing). Personally held beliefs do not trump the independent audit.

Bonus item:

• All candidates and sitting members of Congress must listen to "This American Life" and may never be more than 2 weeks behind.