A new Congress has been sworn in, but the same old problems continue.

At countless kitchen tables across the United States, common people look at the state of the Union and scratch their heads. They understand that the government is supposed to benefit the people, not the other way around.

Partisan bickering with an indifference to problems facing families causes a familiar question to arise: “What precipitated the disconnect between Washington and Main Street?” Several factors arguably affect the situation such as a lack of mainstream candidates, the widening gulf between left and right and political action committees funding candidacies.

However, one obvious fact generates little discussion.

Career politicians and lawyers dominate Washington suburbs. Where is the average guy who knows the cost of a gallon of milk and scrapes together pennies to fill his gas tank?

Until we get some regular folks in office we will continue to be a nation run by elitists for elitists. The yearly wage in Washington will continue to be out of reach of most Americans, and the outrageous lifetime pension of elected officials will continue to be the dream of poor folks trying to eke out groceries from Social Security and slashed company pensions (if they were lucky enough to even get one).

Term limits and elimination of lifetime pensions would go a long way toward weeding out the opportunists and opening the field for genuine public servants. Get real, folks.

Running the government is like running a large family and it isn’t rocket science. If some of these yahoos can do it, so could the average housewife who multitasks several schedules while juggling house payments and groceries and clothing budgets.

If the government is broken, let’s put some people in there who know how to fix an engine or repair a foundation or find a missing comma in computer codes. If countries can’t get along, let’s elect a preschool teacher who handles squabbles for a living.

I know you’re thinking that it can’t be that easy. The argument that laws are very complex and hard to understand only means that lawyers worded them to ensure job security.

Rewrite the laws so we can all understand them.

The national budget is ginormous. Surely it takes a person with a herculean brain to understand it.

But strike out the zeros and it’s not that difficult. Yes, there are specialists who have presided over certain committees for years on end and know the workings inside and out, but these same people broke the government. I’m not impressed with their credentials.

I find it interesting that our republic was founded and run in the first place by common people with no legislative background. Farmers, scientists, teachers, and yes, a few lawyers, but basically, working-class people created the Constitution of the United States of America.

Most served at great personal cost. Many received no reimbursement. Compare that to the benefits of public “service” today. Returning the country to the hands of the working people is a concept whose time has come.

All in all, the advantages of putting the government back in the hands of the people outweigh the disadvantages. Let’s add them up: Simpler laws, a smaller budget, new thoughts on old committees, less pork, less international back-scratching, more common sense, less cronyism, less self-interest and more public service.

Yup, let’s hear it for the common people. Let’s demand legislation with term limits, reasonable compensation and no lifetime pensions. And next time, let’s boot out the career politicians who refuse to support it.