Mr. Still wrote a very good letter on March 3 about restoring checks and balances to Congress.  Repealing the 17th Amendment, would do just that.

For the last year I have been pushing for all Montana State Senators to be appointed by the counties. One senator for each county. This would give checks and balances to state government. Before the 17th Amendment, federal senators represented the states. Congress had two houses, the House of Representatives elected by the the people and the Senate elected by the states.

As it stands right now, the States are not represented in Congress; in fact most federal senators represent the federal government. To prove my point, look how big the federal government has grown. The feds have grown so much we can no longer afford this intrusive federal government.

The same thing for the counties: They are not represented in Helena. Their are 56 counties in Montana, so we would have 56 state senators. This would restore checks and balance to state government.

Plus look at the money we could save. It costs a lot of money (millions of dollars) to run for the federal senate and it cost a lot of money to run for the state Senate. And most of the money raised by Baucus and Tester was raised outside Montana.

Hammel is a resident of Kalispell