Untrue, But Not a Bad Idea

June/04/2012 16:40PM
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Every few weeks, I get this e-mail. Most of it is not true.

 

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 justpass 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.  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 of2012

 

1.       No Tenure / No Pension.

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

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

4.       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.

5.       Congress can purchase their own retirement plan,  just as allAmericans do.

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

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

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

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.

 

The only part of all this that is true is the following comment from Mr. Buffett.

 

 

 

“I could end the deficit in five minutes.  You just pass a law that says that any time there’s a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.  Yeah, yeah, now you’ve got the incentives in the right place, right?”  (Laughs)

But, whoever attached Buffett’s brief on-air comment to their creative suggestions, was on a track that many people would support. It’s time to take the crowns off the elected members of Congress.

Their jobs in the private sector would be mid-level management jobs. As such, they would be hired for as long as their performance merited their employment. No contract, no security. Their benefits would be like all white collar mid managers. Their retirement would be a 401K.

Their budgets would be much smaller than that of a Representative or a Senator. For the work produced, they might have up to six employees. No cars, no separate offices(cubicle), and a travel allowance based on necessary travel to do the job.

They would not get millions of dollars for  campaigns.

They would face a mandatory retirement age, probably 60 or 65.

To survive to that age in the private sector, a mid level manager would need a great performance and a lot of luck. In the typical career you will have mergers, bad economies where goals might not be made, and reorganizations. Plus, you might need to satisfy several supervisors and it only takes one to shorten your career.

We have treated these people with reverence far beyond what we ask them to do. We  have given them the rights to raise their own pay, increase their budgets, increase their benefits, spend their campaign cash when they quit, staff so heavily they have no real work to do, and screw up without recourse.

Will we ever have enough. We rate them at less than 10% on job performance. It’s time to demand a change to the way we hire them, pay them, reward them, and retire them.

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