I'm beginning to believe that reforms are not possible and "burn down the house" may be the only option to escape the current mess. There are too many vested interests, and the problems are too abstract/complex for normal people to care (and put pressure on representatives). Even if the general populous put pressure on Congress to do something, Congress would pass some law that at best did nothing, and at worst went in the opposite direction, all while politicians proclaimed 'victory' in reforming the system, and the general populous settles down because 'something' happened, and the technicalities of why it's bad are too hard to understand in a 10 second sound-bite.