Those who work in the field of software engineering may be familiar with the phrase eating your own dog food[1]. For example, if a company creates word processing software, one would expect that the company would do all its business word processing using the software they created. Or, if a company created a search engine, would mandate that all employees use the search engine in their day to day activities. How would you feel about Microsoft Word if the employees at Microsoft used OpenOffice (created by Sun Oracle) or if Google used Bing as their desktop search engine? What if all the desktop computers at Microsoft’s headquarters were running Linux —what would that say about their flagship operating system, Windows?

You see the logic: by subjecting the software engineers to be the end users too, the quality of the software increases.  Since they use the software frequently in various ways and must rely on it as would you and I, they know what works, what doesn’t, what should be added and what should be removed. Result: higher quality software.

I bring this up to suggest that our beloved Congress adopt the same policy when it comes to lawmaking. In this instance, congressional members and their immediate families would be subject to the base implementation of the law for as long as they live or as long as the law exists. For example:

• Taxation  – all members of congress must comply with income tax laws without use of a consultant or tax preparer. Members must do their own taxes by hand or use commercially available software. Tax returns will be subject to a mandatory audit.  Members will be subject to fines, penalties and/or jail for incorrect tax returns.
• Security  –  all members and their families traveling will be subject to both an X-radiation scan and a pat down by TSA officials every time they travel through U.S. airports.
• Crime – any politician found guilty of breaking the law will receive the maximum penalty for the infraction that is prescribed by the law.  No more reprimands, get out of jail free cards or passes on tax evasion.

The same motivation applies here as it does in software engineering: increased quality. Such a policy would transform an “aware” Congress to an “affected” Congress. And you can expect a more rational approach to taxation, security, crime and punishment—and fast.

Now how do you get Congress to pass a law that stipulates they must eat their own dog food on every form of legislation?

Good luck with that.