We live in a broken country. The United States of America as a nation is intact, but broken. I use the word "broken" because our political SYSTEM is broken. It is the system that must be changed.

The political system is based on unlimited greed. The greed is for funds. The funds enable the election and re-election campaigns that perpetuate the broken system, that allow the elected representatives in Congress to attenuate their presence within the government.

Those sources of funds are the special interests that guarantee the votes of their funded representatives will be cast in favor of the special interests. Over the past few decades those same special interests have designed creative ways to capture and hold a grip on the Congress. Political Action Committees and their gargantuan bedfellows, Super Pacs, have made so much cash available to their political marionettes that their Congressional mouthpieces are almost guaranteed to win every time they seek re-election.

The disfunctional government we now 'enjoy' has been gestating for a very long time, but it has now become a breathing beast with the advent of Citizens United, which literally made corporate interests a fourth branch of the Federal government. The Supreme Court upheld the notion that corporations are "people" which unleashed the deep pocket contributors of Wall Street with little or no accountability.

It is broken now beyond credibility.

The two political parties have fallen to the control of their fringe wings. The Republican Party is handcuffed by the arch-conservatives and the Koch Brothers' creation, the Tea Party. The Democrat party is firmly in the hands of its left wing. With such ideological gaps between the parties there is no palatable compromise in sight. One side believes the top priority for legislative action is job creation and economic recovery. The other side believes that debt reduction is the ONLY priority. There has not been any progress on either agenda because of the ideological difference. Compromise, which moves legislation, is simply not going to happen.

Whatever you believe and whichever agenda you support, there will be no solution or achievement of that agenda so long as the system continues to block results.

The cash-rich puppeteers and their greedy marionettes in Congress will see to that.

I make the proposal that the political system can work, but only if it is changed.

Here are my proposed changes:

1. Eliminate the political parties on the national stage. The individual states can keep them. It would be impossible to eliminate them in the states, but for Federal elections the political parties should be banned from funding candidates in any manner, whether through PACs or other contributions. Candidates would run for office as non-partisans. No funds from state-based political parties may be contributed to Federal candidates.

2. Ban cash contributions to Federal office candidates. All contributions would be limited to one thousand dollars from any individual or corporate 'person.' All contributions should be by check or a method that leaves a paper trail record and cannot be made anonymously.

3. Campaigns by candidates for Federal office must maintain a single bank account for their campaign contributions, and the bank account must be registered with an auditing Federal office which should continuously monitor that account and authenticate that the contribution laws are being followed. Punishments for infractions should result in the candidate's name be stricken from the ballot. This will assure that the candidate's election staff will closely monitor where the contributions are coming from.

4. A candidate for Federal office should only have one single 'political action committee,' and it should be part and parcel of his or her campaign, not a separate entity managed by any other organization or office. Members of a candidate's staff must not receive salaries or benefits from contributors, lobbyists, corporations or individuals.

5. No 'in kind' or non-monetary contributions or benefits may be made to any candidate for Federal office, either during a campaign for election or once a President or member of Congress assumes office. This would include airplane flights, vacation perks, gifts or other contributions from interests of any kind, including lobbyists, corporations or individuals.