Differences over budget priorities are only part of the reason Congress has tied itself up in knots over raising the nation's debt limit.

Let's face it: This pillar of our representative democracy is badly broken, and in need of fixing.

Although hardly exhaustive, the following six suggestions could start the task of repairing both houses of Congress:

1. Return to a one-step rule on the budget and debt ceiling.

Since 1980, House internal rules have required that when the House set spending levels in the annual budget resolution, it also set the appropriate level of the public debt. This combined the budget resolution and the debt limit into a single step, as other countries do.

House Republicans repealed this rule in January, one reason for the current debt ceiling crisis. House Republicans also suspended the rule in 1995 under the leadership of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, sparking two government shutdowns. The House ought to scrap the two-step process and return to the one-step rule. If members vote for the budget, then they have to pay the bill, a basic matter of responsibility.

2. Create more independent redistricting commissions.

The perpetuation of "safe" congressional districts has resulted in the election of Democrats and Republicans more extreme than their party and far more partisan than what independents desire. Other states should follow California's lead and establish independent redistricting commissions, to take the job of drawing legislative districts out of the hands of self-interested politicians.

3. Change the work schedule.

In the past, members of Congress were more likely to move their families to the nation's capital. Congressional families socialized with each other and had children in the same schools across party lines. That has changed. And leaders have set schedules so lawmakers spend less time in Washington. D.C. – making Congress more of a "Tuesday to Thursday Club."

The consequence, writes Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin in her book "Fight Club Politics," is that "lacking any real personal connection to politicians across the aisle, representatives now tend to demonize their opponents rather than engage in genuine policy negotiations."

4. Give us more sunshine on campaign finances.

For years, the U.S. Senate has stubbornly and arrogantly thumbed its nose at the public by refusing to provide ready Internet access to Senate candidates' campaign finance reports. Rather than display the reports, including the identities of the donors, on the Internet, the Senate clings to its tradition of filing reports in paper form in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Election Commission must feed the reports, which typically runs thousands of pages, through a copy machine and send the copies to a vendor who keys in information about the donors for display on the FEC website. That is a time-consuming and costly process, but one that suits senators just fine. Last-minute donations, which often are delivered by the most controversial donors, usually do not become public until after the votes are counted.

Heading into the 2012 election, voters in all 50 states should summarily reject any senator who fails to file his or her reports electronically. The only politicians who hide the identities of their patrons are ones who have other things to hide.

5. Reform the Senate filibuster.

Arcane Senate Rule XXII, known as the filibuster, is not in the U.S. Constitution. It's an internal rule requiring 60 of 100 senators to vote to end debate before moving to a majority vote on a bill. Ideally, the filibuster is supposed to assure deliberation and prevent arbitrary action by a 51-vote majority. Unfortunately, it has morphed into a way for a minority to kill bills or to extort special favors.

Over the last decade, both parties have abused the filibuster, staging more than 240 of them since 2007. From 1950 to 1970, the Senate averaged fewer than two filibusters a year.

This replacement of majority rule by minority rule is unacceptable.

6. Eliminate 'secret holds' in the Senate.

Senate Rule VII has allowed a single senator to place an anonymous hold on any bill – without offering any public explanation. Like the filibuster, these holds were uncommon until the 1970s. In January, the Senate amended the rule, requiring a senator to acknowledge a hold in the Congressional Record within two days. But senators already have figured out how to circumvent it by tag-teaming a hold.

One senator (anonymously) places a hold on the legislation, and then, before his or her name is entered into the record, releases his or her hold. They repeat this indefinitely. One or two senators should not be able to prevent legislation anonymously and indefinitely.

The Senate ought to end secret holds clearly and definitively.

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