Fellow Oregonians:
Abraham Lincoln said in the conclusion of the Gettysburg Address; “that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” However, we must ask a simple question. Who does the government “WORK” for? The government does NOT work for the People, the government works for the People WE Elect and the People the Elected appoint to office.
It took a little more than 100 years for governments in Oregon and several other States to figure out how to convert a “government of the people by the people for the people” to a government “of the government by the government for the government” via compensation based on pensions, healthcare, insurance, and any number of benefits to the People we elect and subsequently appoint. Loyalty to the government has been bought by the government and paid for by the taxpayer.
At the last four platform conventions, there were several times where some of the attendees were almost brought to tears over how the Republican Party has got to get control of the “Gavel” or the Judicial branch of Government. Unfortunately, this is something that could take years, if not entire lifetimes.
The Problem:
I believe that at the heart of the problem is that our Judicial Branch of Government must protect Government from the People in order to protect their own pensions and benefits. There is no way that the Judicial Branch will ever protect the Constitution if that means they could lose their precious benefits. We have already seen this in action with decisions over making changes that would make the PERS system solvent.
The Solution:
What “We-the-People” need to do is to convert the entire Judicial Branch of the State of Oregon to a form of Contractors. I use the term “Independence Contractor” to represent the People of Oregon instead of their own self-interest of protecting their benefits and protecting the government from the People.
All of the Judicial branch of the Government, down to the County level, would be converted to Contractors instead of employees of State by having them all start up a Self Employed Pension (SEP) in a bank of their choice. The State of Oregon would then deposit an amount equal to 20 times their yearly salary. My estimate on how much this would cost is from $240 Million to $320 Million. The money would come from the PERS assets that are alleged to be more than $55 Billion. The tax payers of the State of Oregon would NOT be forced to shell out any money to do this.
The only thing that the Judicial Branch of Government could get from the government is money. They would be forced (as I have for more than 30 years as a self-employed engineer) to write checks to pay for healthcare, pay for retirement, pay for their pension, pay both sides of Social Security (15%), and pay for everything that the government has in mind for taxation. Aside from a parking space with their name on it, virtually no other form of compensation would be allowed. And none of the time spent in office would be applicable to PERS should they leave office and take a government job.
Intent:
Our Judicial Branch of Government would again have the Freedom to represent the Constitution instead of what is necessary to protect their-own benefits. And would completely remove any form of influence that could or has come from the other branches of government or come from corruption or any other form of extortion.
More importantly, the Judicial Branch of Government would have their assets in the hands of public rather than tax payers that may not have even been born yet. This means exactly that the Judicial Branch of Government will have to live with the laws that are created and enforce by the government. The Judicial Branch will have their “Skin-in-the-Game” and will be far more likely to protect the public from Unconstitutional Laws” or actions, because they are now part of the People instead of the Government.
Half of the job of Judge is to protect the Constitution from the Legislative Branch of Government. The other half of their job is to protect their personal integrity. With all of the perks, benefits, and pensions being thrust upon Oregon Judges, is it any wonder that they would protect themselves by throwing their integrity out the window by making judicial decisions that ultimately protect government?