Congressional Reform Act ?

[kieefer]

You may have gotten this email too....

Sounds good but unlikely to happen.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are 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 are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.

Congressmen 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. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

[Ed Zachary]

Nice rant.

But do you think that Congress would take away their own lush perks. Even if every voter in the US told them to?

[vontar]

I like it

[wjh2657]

You can only fix Congress by starting all over again, and the two political parties have made sure that will never happen. They control all of the election process and pick who will be on the ballot. I am a Constitutionalist, a Conservative and an Independent voter. But as I am not very, very wealthy, I have absolutely no say in how this country is to be run. There will never be Congressional reform coming from the Congress! The "Millionaires Club" is not going to relinquish its strangle hold on the American people.

[DaveTN]

On one hand I don’t think Politicians should hit a lifetime home run on a pension and health care.

On the other you would be hard pressed to find qualified people to interrupt their careers to serve, if it weren’t for those perks. You would end up with people that can’t hold down a job anywhere else running for office; we already have too much of that.

Being a politician certainly is a career. I have never supported term limits and I never will. “The people†should be free to elect who they want. If they have a good one; they deserve to be able to keep him. All we have is our vote, and that should not be able to be taken away.

[Guest WyattEarp]

I have no problem with a career politician, so long as he or she serves honorably and represents the interest of the People fairly, ethically and without bias instead of serving themselves, their desires, or ambitions for personal gain.

Even if all that was put into place, who is going to regulate it and who is going to ensure they follow the rules? Congress be dammed if they'd allow some watchdog agency to oversee them and their conduct to keep them accountable. In essence, they would be "overseeing themselves" and to me that's the same as letting the wolves guard the sheep.

[kieefer]

Nice rant.

But do you think that Congress would take away their own lush perks. Even if every voter in the US told them to?

NOPE, but if the right people are voted in over the next several years perhaps there's hope

RPaul's new economic "plan" calls for a trillion dollar in cuts...including cutting salaries of representatives. Many good ideas in there but it will fall on deaf ears and not likely not go anywhere just like RPaul himself.

The founding fathers never intended government to be what it is today. If we could ever get back to limited government the better everyone will be. This CRA would be a good start.