As the United States now faces another financial meltdown, our elected officials from both parties are treating it as an opportunity to portray themselves as representing their constituents, when in reality they are a major contributor to many of our country’s ills and problems. The U.S. House and Senate members are addicted to the special-interest money from lobbyists filling their re-election coffers. They no longer represent their constituents.

• Limit election campaigns to six months prior to the primary elections with town hall meetings with free network coverage.

• Prohibit political hit ads run by special-interest groups and require that the full truth be used in all political advertising, not just sound bites taken out of context.

If our representatives truly placed the country’s and citizens’ interests ahead of their own, they would pass legislation making any and all contacts by legislators with special-interest groups and lobbyists illegal and a felony for both.

Lobbyists should present their positions and proposals as most citizens must, in writing, and their written requests would become public record. All media under FCC rule would be required to provide unbiased reporting; failure to do so would result in their operating license being revoked.

They should impose term limits upon themselves and allow our government to be returned to citizen legislators as the Founding Fathers intended. We now have professional politicians in office for 30 to 40 years and most are multimillionaires by their second or third term.

Washington, D.C., isn’t just broken and partisan, it’s corrupt to the quick.

I see similar problems in our state government.

Harry Kodis

Renton