How to fix Congress

[Cheyenne]

Seems fair (Interesting concept, will it work?)
This idea is so simple that it's implementation would saves us the time of trying to change a million other things that are really caused by this problem. Pass it along if you think it is worthwhile--



Warren Buffett, in an interview with CNBC , offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC . "You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP , all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds)
took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple!
The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail,
cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year
or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to
a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask
each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will
have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed
around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2012

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social
Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and
participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the
American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers
envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their
term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will
only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive
the message. Don't you think it's time?


THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree, pass it on. If not, delete.
You are one of my 20+ - Please keep it going, and thanks

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

One observation, however, I must be permitted to add on this subject as claiming, in my judgment, a very serious attention. It is, that in all legislative assemblies the greater the number composing them may be, the fewer will be the men who will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is known to be the ascendancy of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and of weak capacities. Now, it is precisely on characters of this description that the eloquence and address of the few are known to act with all their force.
Madison Federalist 58.

 

[Cheyenne]

One observation, however, I must be permitted to add on this subject as claiming, in my judgment, a very serious attention. It is, that in all legislative assemblies the greater the number composing them may be, the fewer will be the men who will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is known to be the ascendancy of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and of weak capacities. Now, it is precisely on characters of this description that the eloquence and address of the few are known to act with all their force.
Madison Federalist 58.

But what do YOU think? What's YOUR solution?

 

[CandiCame]

I think it's pretty fucked up you get infinity terms.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Congress cannot be fixed.

I just read a quote about Europe's politics that applies:

The difference between the Centre Right and the Centre Left (for they are all that remains of the two sides of that old titanic struggle) is now almost entirely rhetorical. The CR wants a free-market economy with an entitlements programme attached to guard against social unrest. The CL wants an entitlement society with free-market activity attached to provide the necessary funds. The argument about the mix is very much confined to the margins – and about how you describe it. The actual differences being so slight (and there being so much flexibility needed to cope with fluctuating reality) that it is necessary to lard the descriptions with emotive, absolutist language to generate some faux passion.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...-Boris-Johnson-sing-from-same-hymn-sheet.html

Buffett is merely bouncing around trying to gain favor with the political class in order to be looted last, for plunder is now the normative morality for both major parties.

Buffett knows that any such law has zero possibility of passing, but it does mend the bridges almost burnt by the "Buffett Rule."

We are in a death spiral.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I think it's pretty fucked up you get infinity terms.

Term limits only make the parties stronger; they do not change the dynamic.


What class does not solicit the favors of the state? It would seem as if the principle of life resided in it. Aside from the innumerable horde of its own agents, agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, the arts, the theatre, the colonies, and the shipping industry expect everything from it. They want it to clear and irrigate land, to colonize, to teach, and even to amuse. Each begs a bounty, a subsidy, an incentive, and especially the gratuitous gift of certain services, such as education and credit. And why not ask the state for the gratuitous gift of all services? Why not require the state to provide all the citizens with food, drink, clothing, and shelter free of charge?

... under the name of the state the citizens taken collectively are considered as a real being, having its own life, its own wealth, independently of the lives and the wealth of the citizens themselves; and then each addresses this fictitious being, some to obtain from it education, others employment, others credit, others food, etc., etc. Now the state can give nothing to the citizens that it has not first taken from them.
Frédéric Bastiat

 

[Cheyenne]

Congress cannot be fixed.


We are in a death spiral.

Well, that's pretty depressing.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Well, that's pretty depressing.

It's merely observation.

Anyone who proposes any sort of drawback on the social spending front is instantly lame-ducked. We are divided into groups fighting over dwindling largess, no one group willing to surrender that which is won, and ever more groups demanding relief from government, taxation and the cost of living. It is an impossible model to sustain, but sustain it we will until it collapses, which, it must.

Europe will most likely go first, but we cannot be far behind having purposely interlinked our economies and banking systems in order to make it to costly to go to war again.

But, there will most likely be war over the scraps.

Even now, you can see the looting and the shrinking of the middle-class and the only reaction from the Federal Government is to expand benefits for the relief of the middle-class. I see no way out of it at this point short of hastening the collapse in the hopes that sooner is easier to recover from and perhaps save the Republic from a dictatorship than putting the collapse off as far into the future as possible, where by necessity, it must be worse for having waited.

Sorry to be such a downer, but reality so often is not as nice as fantasy and fiction...

 

[Water_Melon_Man]

I have some explosives I use to remove stumps out of the ground that would do the trick.

 

[Wok]

Bondholder: "Sell!"

 

[Liar]

Warren Buffett, in an interview with CNBC , offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC . "You just
pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more
than 3% of GDP , all sitting members of Congress are ineligible
for re-election.

This only means that HOW you balance the budget will be held hostage to those with enough ideological zealotry to throw themselves on the fire.

 

[KingOrfeo]

That won't fix Congress, because a propensity for deficit spending is not what is wrong with it.

 

[tactful]

Term limits and more women involved, quickies the way it should be, 'cause men just don't cut it, when political intercourse is in the makings.

 

[richard_daily]

It's merely observation.

Anyone who proposes any sort of drawback on the social spending front is instantly lame-ducked. We are divided into groups fighting over dwindling largess, no one group willing to surrender that which is won, and ever more groups demanding relief from government, taxation and the cost of living. It is an impossible model to sustain, but sustain it we will until it collapses, which, it must.

Europe will most likely go first, but we cannot be far behind having purposely interlinked our economies and banking systems in order to make it to costly to go to war again.

But, there will most likely be war over the scraps.

Even now, you can see the looting and the shrinking of the middle-class and the only reaction from the Federal Government is to expand benefits for the relief of the middle-class. I see no way out of it at this point short of hastening the collapse in the hopes that sooner is easier to recover from and perhaps save the Republic from a dictatorship than putting the collapse off as far into the future as possible, where by necessity, it must be worse for having waited.

Sorry to be such a downer, but reality so often is not as nice as fantasy and fiction...

So, how come rich people and corporations are doing so well, mr. doom and gloom?

 

[TexasWife25]

Term limits and more women involved, quickies the way it should be, 'cause men just don't cut it, when political intercourse is in the makings.

I agree. Term limits, more oversight on lobbyists, more oversight in corporate donations.

 

[Wrong Element]

A couple of points:

First, Congress can't raise its pay now; it can only raise the pay for the next Congress. You'd think a spam e-mail about a proposed 28th Amendment would be a little more up on what the 27th Amendment says.

Second, we've had numerous experiments on term limits in the various states with their legislatures, and I doubt anyone is going to say that anything has changed for the better.

The way to get a more accountable Congress is to have more competitive elections, but as long as the Supreme Court has mandated government-by-tycoon, and as long as we have the sort of micromanaged gerrymandering that's routine these days, that's not going to happen.