This is an invitation to play the lobby game. To me it reads like "we should bribe Congress too".
But can we do that? Large corporations will have disproportionally much more economic power to bribe Congress. They can throw money at the problem repeatedly until they have exactly the law they want.
If Congress cannot work, then Congress should write the laws but not vote them. Citizens should vote the laws, like in California or Switzerland.
Have you looked at how that's worked out for California?
Thanks to ballot measures, the people of California voted to never raise their own property taxes, and then later voted to require massive spending initiatives in education and other places, which of course went unfunded, because they'd voted not to pay for anything.
Now California has regular budget crises that are essentially unsolvable, thanks to citizens voting on laws.
There are at least 22 states that allow for both voter initiatives and referendums[1], and not all of them suffer from the issues you are outlining. Also, it isn't setup so that every issue is addressed in this manner.
The only difference with other states of countries is that California got the budget crisis sooner, so it woke up first. It's better to have the crisis when you can still raise taxes (or cut spending).
Couldn't this be addressed by requiring all spending bills to have their funding built in? ie, the bill must include what they are proposing to spend, and where the funding will come from (tax hike). This would also help people understand the costs of what they are voting for.
I think it's a particularly interesting idea for citizen initiatives to have to be in the black, but a lot of times when it comes to policy/program issues, there's disagreement over whether or not budget figures are realistic.
Think about how hard it often is for developers to estimate the time and effort involved in a project. Programs that involve putting together networks of people, hard assets, and information systems are going to be just as hard to estimate properly if not harder.
Yeah, I see how that could be an issue. How is it handled now, though? If government approves a project to improve [community service here] for $X, and the project goes over, what happens? Does the contractor have to eat it? Does government have to approve an additional extension? The project can't just run on and on, right? Sorry, I just am not that familiar with how it all works, which is kind of sad, I suppose.
It's even worse than that. Ballot initiatives, like all electoral endeavors, are extremely expensive, so most of what actually makes it onto the ballot are bills written by the exact same monied interests that would otherwise be lobbying the state government if we didn't have the initiative system.
In a way, every "innovation" in democracy becomes a cheaper, simpler pathway for the same interests to run the game in their favor.
North Dakota has ballot initiatives and is running a surplus. It isn't the ballot initiative that is going to kill California, it is the unfunded pensions and public union pressure.
One thing still counts more than money, and that is votes. I know that sounds naive, but there is still truth in it. There are multiple problems with using the power of the ballot box, including safe districts for incumbents, apathy of the electorate, etc., but for issues on which the public can be successfully rallied, there is still real potential to leverage much smaller sums of in terms of dollars to have real influence. Also, individuals and small organizations can lobby directly, too - make an appointment with your congressional office, either locally or in DC, and sit down directly with a staff member to express your concerns. You need to be organized and prepared, but it is your right, and they do listen - it's just that the small voices often get drowned out. If you don't have money to give, use your time and knowledge.
A rule of thumb I've heard for the weighting of different constituent opinions is that 1 office visit = 100 letters, 1 letter = 100 phone calls, 1 phone call = 100 emails. (One email might be a million names on an online petition, I don't know.) Faxes count as letters, but both only count as above if they are (or look) personal, not a form letter. Opinions from people outside a Congressman's district don't count for much, unless they have a direct business or other interest in the district.
(-1 for citizens voting the laws. California is not a model of effective democracy. Fix the Republic!)
There are plenty of large corporations that oppose SOPA that haven't been throwing out as much money as the entertainment industry. I think that was his point.
But can we do that? Large corporations will have disproportionally much more economic power to bribe Congress. They can throw money at the problem repeatedly until they have exactly the law they want.
If Congress cannot work, then Congress should write the laws but not vote them. Citizens should vote the laws, like in California or Switzerland.