A major cause of the dysfunction in Washington is we have the same leaders in Congress and especially in the Senate who live and breathe what the special interests dictate. New leadership is a GOOD thing. Not without its own problems (committee heads, etc) but fresh ideas keep America fresh and up to date. Fresh faces will, also.

A petition to mandate that congress create and pass a Public Safety Legislation Bill. The bill would classify voting on any Public Safety issues, but in particular new laws involving:controversial Gun Violence Control legistration, to be classiffied as 'secret votes". Therefore, the law would prohibirt any senator/congressman's individual vote on public safety legislation from ever becoming known to the public in general and specifically prohibit their individual votes from ever being made publicly known to outside lobbying groups. PURPOSE: The newly created law would free legislatiors from the fear of their votes being published, so they would feel free to vote in the best interest of the general public safety issue and not at the coersion of some outside lobbying group, e.g., NRA, etc.

Every Race and Creed is suffocated by special interests', corrupting of our democracy. Middle America is the boss,our employees (the senate and the house) should volunteer their services.

Big money has had a corrosive influence on our democracy. Corporate and wealthy interests are flooding our elections with millions of dollars threatening to drown out the voice of everyday Iowans. Legislators will tell you that they don’t want to spend every moment of their free time out begging for money, but they are forced to in the current system. In the past election cycle alone legislative races averaged $135,000 for a state Senate race and $50,000 per House race. Thankfully, we now have a chance to break the stranglehold big money has on our state elections. This week the state Senate began work on a bill (House File 43 & Senate Study Bill 1072) which would implement a voluntary public financing option for candidates statewide and place contribution limits on those candidates who choose not to participate. This is how we take our democracy back, by ending the campaign money chase and passing clean elections.

Everyone knows killing people is against the law. Killing people with guns is also against the law. Laws do not stop bullets. Guns are not stopped firing by laws. I suggest more development of devices such as "Magna-lock" which does not allow guns to be fired by those other than the owner be developed, and required on all guns.

We are all affected by Corruption. All the petitions I have signed or read over the decades are all significant, in their own light. But, it is the influence of money in politics, which is responsible for every single one of these problems. The political whores that we call lobbyists need to get out of our government, whether they represent the 1%, corporations, unions, Department of Defense, media monopoly, police state advocates or any entity other than the true interests of the People as defined by the common, intelligent, working class taxpayers.

Stop vote rigging/gerrymandering for President and Congress representatives. Demand the popular vote.

Minimum is currently $7.25/hour. Minimum wage to meet the "livable wage" criteria is $12.50/hour. We need to be moving ahead to lift our workers out of poverty. We taxpayers are subsidizing business owners. Increasing the minimum wage and increasing our poorest workers' buying power is the road to economic recovery and expansion. It is the right thing to do!

Forcing Congress to adapt revised benefits to office holders.

Not only is the entire process carried out solely within the Executive branch - with no checks or oversight of any kind - but there is zero transparency and zero accountability. The president's underlings compile their proposed lists of who should be executed, and the president - at a charming weekly event dubbed by White House aides as "Terror Tuesday" - then chooses from "baseball cards" and decrees in total secrecy who should die. The power of accuser, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner are all consolidated in this one man, and those powers are exercised in the dark.

Their behind the scenes massive donations to individual state Republican candidates has resulted in entire states carrying out their personal right-wing agenda, including re-districting to insure Republican victories throughout the states. As a nation, we are ALL affected by this. Because of Republican gerrymandering, and in spite of receiving millions more votes than their opponents, Republicans still control the House. This "silent takeover" must be stopped because it is destroying Democracy,

Not only is the entire process carried out solely within the Executive branch - with no checks or oversight of any kind - but there is zero transparency and zero accountability. The president's underlings compile their proposed lists of who should be executed, and the president - at a charming weekly event dubbed by White House aides as "Terror Tuesday" - then chooses from "baseball cards" and decrees in total secrecy who should die. The power of accuser, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner are all consolidated in this one man, and those powers are exercised in the dark.