The Pro-Transparency Plank

This is the most complicated of the planks in my proposed platform, but that's because it's going to take a lot to reform the government. The first goal here is to make individuals in government more responsive to the needs of the citizenry by putting them on the same ground as the citizen, eliminating special privileges and immunities that allow them to callously destroy lives, careers, businesses, etc. An equally important goal is to restore public faith in the institutions of government.

Part 1: Let's begin with Rand Paul's proposed constitutional amendment that no law can be made "applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to Congress ... the executive branch of Government ... the judges of the Supreme Court ... and judges of such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Then let's expand it to do away with judicially created immunities, as proposed by the Sage of Knoxville.

Part 2: Require laws to be written in common language and require a review period of 1 business day for each 10 pages in a bill. Once introduced, no vote can be taken on a bill until its review period has passed. Any changes to the bill require a new review period based on the total number of pages in the bill. The review period could be circumvented in the case of local or national emergencies, but only for bills that deal solely with the emergency (i.e., if someone tacked on an amendment for building an amusement park, the bill would have to go through the normal review period).

Part 3: Work together with private transparency organizations to create better transparency laws. Work with privacy organizations to create safeguards for privacy from government snooping. Put teeth into transparency and privacy laws by making non-compliance or overly-long response times by government officials or employees crimes, potentially leading to prison sentences.

Part 4: Another pair of Instapundit suggestions:
A. Cut pay to Congress and cut presidential travel when they haven't passed a budget.
B. If a government official or employee takes a lobbying or other private, government-related job within five years of leaving office, they must pay a 50% tax on that income.