Forum Post: How to end the US federal deficit (and fix corp greed at the same time)
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 23, 2011, 10:23 a.m. EST by jimrwashington
(9)
from Montgomery, NJ
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 1:34 PM
Warren Buffett, in a recent 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 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 2011
No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
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.
Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
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.
Me likey
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/congressional-reform-act-2011.htm
Thank you for the link. This info did come in an e-mail from one of my more conservative friends and I accepted it was probably like most chain-emails, part truth and part agenda. I still believe it raises many good points. I'd like to see our politicians more responsive to the 99% who vote, but can't overwhelm the process by their flood of campaign money. I'd also like to see them live with their decisions, no longer isolated by their special healthcare plans and retirement packages.
Great idea.
congress, in my opinion, should be paid a stipend to cover living expenses at the most. if they are not self-sufficient to take care of themselves they should not be leading a nation of people who need to take care of themselves.
I can't get on board with that thought. I personally would love to see a bunch of normal folks who can't afford to be without pay for 2-4 years, but who love their country and want to serve in its stewardship. Their perspective on living within our means and keeping an eye out for the middle class would be refreshing.
What a noble and glorious answer. But the wrong answer. If you paid the congressmen on a stipend, you would have more money to go toward paying off the national debt that your liberal congress approved. If you had "bunch of normal folks who can't afford to be without pay for 2-4 years, but who love their country and want to serve in its stewardship," they would not be able to think like a capitalist. They would feel so so sorry for the poor and vote in favor of screwing the capitalist pigs through higher taxes for the rich, further propagating the make-believe battle of class warfare. I'm not the capitalist pig. But I work for one. I work for a whole board of capitalist pigs who hold shares in my employ. They value me enough to pay me 19.20 per hour of my time and effort to look out for their best interest. What I just described to you is what is known as the natural exchange. What you are advocating will not act in favor of my capitalist pigs. If you are dirt poor and love your country JOIN THE MILITARY! I'm dirt poor. And that's what I did. I served proudly in the Air Force for 5 years. I'm not rich. But I'm not on welfare. And if capitalist pigs are making more money, they will not just pull the money out of the economy, they will re-invest it into the economy by purchasing goods and services that will benefit other capitalists pigs and the people that rely on their employ. SO DON'T SCREW WITH MY CAPITALIST PIG!
You and I are not really that far apart. I agree with and support the greed motivation in a capitalistic society. I have made a nice living in it. I only want appropriate oversight of the market and power exerted by the concentrating wealth. My total focus is on the broken political process where wealth buys too much access. I'm pushing for term limits, campaign finance reform and a national referendum process to bring congress back to a constituency-focused body of representatives. As to saying folks who can't donate 2-4 years to contribute to leadership, don't deserve the opportunity because they are somehow inferior is sad; you should be ashamed... if you remember that they had to be elected to have that honor. That said, thank you for your service to our country.