Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Congressional Reform Act of 2010


I have often lamented that we as a people would be better off if we used a national lottery to determine our next Senator, Representative or even President. I am not sure that anyone who truly wants to be President should be allowed to have the job. Think about it, would you want to be President? Me either. What does that say about the people who want to serve?

Since I doubt we will be able to institute a lottery system to determine our public servants, I would settle for these changes. I don't think it matters which side of the aisle you are on, these changes would benefit you. Are you aware that there is someone in the Senate who will be 93 years old this year...should someone that old really be deciding the laws of the land?

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security: All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

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

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

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11 . 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, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government," --> lots of this is because of the crappy economy, though
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1476/unemployment-presidential-approval-ratings-1981-2009-reagan-obama

anyway, 1. term limits -- the founders didn't say anything about term limits so it's sorta weird to assume they wanted it but didn't include it:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/the_folly_of_term_limits.html
besides, this takes a constitutional amendment. do we have term limits in the private sector? no, because we want knowledgeable people -- if they're not knowledgeable in Congress, we vote em out!

2. no tenure: there's problems attracting non-rich candidates now, and this'll only make rich, self-funded candidates run the show.

3. congress should join social security:
they are already a part of social security -- this is a variation of an old chain email myth:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialsecurity/pensions.asp

4. they do? the idea behind this though -- that congress gets riches thrown at them by the government after serving in congress -- is false......... most of them are rich though and can live nicely after serving in congress -- making the "little guy" congressman feel more pain than the billionaire politician seems sort of dumb.

5. pay raises are actually automatic, according to some complicated formula. they should be making the politically painful choice to vote...

6. THIS HAS BEEN CALLED "THE MYTH THAT DOESN'T DIE" (and is in other chain emails)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/the_proposed_28th_amendment.html

7. they are subject to the same laws .......

8. huh? congressmen aren't running around, enriching themselves by making contracts with businesses -- they do that after they leave congress. that sucks, but getting rid of contracts violates the constitution's contract's clause......................

Kris said...

I agree with you. While most people may seek political office with the idea to make a difference, many fail into the trap that government has become more about a business of making money then promoting change.

Many are unfortunately out of touch.

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