General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSens Barrasso, Enzi, Risch, Crapo, Tester, Daines, Hoevan, Heitkamp, Thune, and Rounds . . . . . .
. . . . . represent less that 5 million people in the US Senate.
Sens Feinstein, Harris, Schumer, and Gillibrand represent more than 59 million people.
Mayors Eric Garcetti and Bill de Blasio represent 8.63 million people.
Fair?
flotsam
(3,268 posts)California on a quick look has nearly 40M people and 53 congressional reps whereas Wyoming with less than 600K has 1. The constitution (which now supposedly has strict constructionists defending it) says not more than 1 rep per 30K population which would give California about 1200 representatives and give Wyoming 19. Obviously a full implementation would mean the lower house would expand to more than 10K reps who could no longer meet in the capitol but with the internet it could easily be accommodated. Even small cities would have 2 or more reps and it would be much easier for every citizen to have direct contact. Currently the lower house in New Hampshire (pop 1.7M) is 400, The Chinese have 2980 members of their legislature and England 1443 for their population of less than 55M-IE:15 million more than California. In any system the lower the ratio of national rep to # of citizens the more responsive that system must be. I truly believe it is time to consider expanding the house of reps to a huge degree.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)Expanding the house will do nothing to address the OPs issue that some states and even cities have more people than other states.
MrsCoffee
(5,803 posts)Not by a long shot.