Fixing Congress

In the last Congressional election, there were fewer votes cast for Republicans than for Democrats. Polls show approval ratings lower for Congress than for bedbugs. Everybody complains, but it never changes (at least not for the better). And most of the problem is that it's always somebody else's representative we don't like.

As things stand now, we are not fairly or equally represented by our Congress. Because the number of representatives was capped at 435 in 1929, states with high populations, or states with populations not quite enough to get another representative, get shortchanged. The only thing the Constitution says is that a single representative will not represent fewer than 30,000 people. The limit of 435 is a simple act of Congress, and could be changed by Congress.

As more and more people move to more urban centers, the bulk of the population is becoming underrepresented. But some small states are underrepresented as well. Montana and Delaware are first and third on the list of People per Representative, presumably because they don't quite have enough people in them to get two representatives.

So here's my suggestion: Set the number of people per representative at half of the population of the least populous state. There will still be inequities, but not as great in magnitude.

Trouble is, that means we'd have to have about 1300 Congresscritters.