Letters to the editor for Aug. 29

A solution to our political problems

This is my solution to America’s political system problems.

The obvious one is to drain the American swamp of all politicians, but a more equitable plan would be to overhaul the entire system. Let’s start with one six-year term for members of Congress, the President and our Supreme Court. One and done.

Also, each state will have one Republican and one Democratic senator. The House can remain the same because the one-term occupancy law will keep both sides in check.

Lastly, every six years, each party will exchange positions in the White House. If good laws and policies are embraced by the public, they should obviously stay in effect with the next administration. How fair is that?

And the last law? All politicians will not be able to change parties every six years and will not be secretly groomed to represent the opposing party.

In short, everyone entering politics will start a historically long paper trail. I’d also be OK with them wearing ankle bracelets. Can it get any more simple and in being so, it would finally be a government that actually works for the people and not the politicians.

Time is money, and employers shouldn’t get both

As an independent home health care worker, I know what it means to work long hours. Often, the patients we take care of don’t just need care from 9 to 5. I also have a family of my own, and like so many other people, every time I spend an extra hour at work I think about that hour I’ve lost with my family.

Sometimes it can be worth it to put in overtime for some extra money. But today, too many of us are working extra hours and not getting paid for it. That’s because Washington hasn’t updated its overtime laws in more than 40 years.

That could soon change, thanks to a proposal that would raise the salary threshold under which salaried employees must be paid time-and-a-half for extra hours worked. Under the new rule, if you are salaried and make less than about $80,000 a year by the time it fully takes effect in 2026, then you have to be paid extra if you work extra hours.

This is simply a restoration of protections that we’ve let fall behind. It used to be accepted that the day of a middle-class salaried worker should be eight hours of work, eight hours of family, and eight hours of sleep. But today, the average salaried worker works 49 hours a week, and only 7 percent qualify for overtime.

This proposal will help more than 400,000 Washington workers get back more time, more money, or both.