Forum Post: Let's give them some incentive.
Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 2, 2012, 9:52 a.m. EST by ChadJVigue
(11)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Warren Buffett, in an interview with CNBC, offered 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 (grant voting rights for 18 year-olds), only took 3 months 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before technology. 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.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
No tenure or pension. Like Americans, Congress is to only collect a salary while in office and receive no pay when they're out of office just like American citizens.
Congress, past - present - future, participates in Social Security. All funds from the Congressional retirement fund will be infused into the Social Security system immediately. Moving forward members of Congress pay into the system along side American citizens
Congress is to purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans Citizens have to do.
Congress can no longer vote themselves pay raises, Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Congress to lose their current elite health care system to participate in the same health care systems American Citizens.
Congress to be equally accountable to all laws imposed on American Citizens.
Congress will report which Lobbyist they meet with, what topics are discussed, and for how long. These meetings will be available online for all constituents to review.
Congress will abide by a new code of ethics, mess up and your tossed out immediately, we shouldn't have to wait for you to resign. Leave now, don't let the door hit you in the ass.
All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective immediately, American Citizens did not make or enter contracts with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women created contracts for themselves on thier own. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so modern Congress should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
Salary of retired US Presidents ............ $180,000 FOR LIFE (Top guy has the toughest job, I'm cool with this) Salary of House/Senate ....................... $174,000 FOR LIFE (BULLSHIT, robbery of American Citizens) Salary of House/Senate Widow ............. $174,000 FOR LIFE (BULLSHIT, robbery of American Citizens) Salary of Speaker of the House ............. $223,500 FOR LIFE (BULLSHIT, robbery of American Citizens) Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders ........ $193,400 FOR LIFE (BULLSHIT, robbery of American Citizens)
Income of soldier DEPLOYED IN A WAR ZONE ... $38,000 Income of seniors on social security ....... $12,000 Income of middle class Americans ........... $40,000
These are areas where cuts should begin. With perks like these now wonder we can't get anything done, Congress doesn't have an incentive to do a good job, they are given everything up front for life.
While in office most make more money from insider knowledge. They barely keep government running, almost let the country default on it's debt, caused the country's debt to be downgraded, and has been working hard to protect their own incomes while leveraging all debt on American Citizens!
These same people saw a 3000% raise in overall salary over the last 5 years. For this they get an inordinate retirement and perks? When did America vote for this?
Good post... these are reasonable demands...
We do want to be careful that we do not seem too adversarial when trying to resolve such things, if possible... We do not want to appease the use of questionable policy either, but as long as we are firm and reasonable and helpful, this my help us forward thru these kinds of concerns...
Congress people are simply people too, and and it is a fine line for reform to seem like we are going after each other, what we are really trying to do is very firmly make sure that appropriate practices and opportunities are available for everyone, not just a few... But i agree that lifetime very disproportionate extended salaries are not appropriate.
I do not have too much issue with some very moderate extended assistance, based on performance and incentive, if they served well, because they are still an aspect of the political machinery, but what we we see now is way out of control...
How members of congress behave and policy can be oppositional to the well-being of us the public, often because of systemic culture in congress, fundraising, etc, and special interests, but also by the ineffective and compromised nature of the legislation that does pass.
I also think that we should look at individual policies as being separate votes, rather than bundling all this stuff up into giant bills with all these 'riders', so that when they currently vote it's harder for us hold them accountable for each specific thing they vote for, and is harder to evaluate their performance, and judge their interests...
But very good points and post, good job...
Dave
Thanks for the thoughtful critique. I am not the original author I think needs pointing out. Something I agree with is the adversarial tone. It would behoove us to speak kindly when advocating our opinion.
Any idea of when the lifetime salary was instituted?
A simpler solution that does not require a Constitutional change or undermine our democratic system as Buffet's idea does.
A law requiring that elected members of government will be paid only when the deficit is no more than 3% of GDP.
Personally, I have a problem with the arbitrary 3% number. And basing it on GDP that fluxuates so much can really make a mess of long rang policy planning. Buffet has a good idea for business but government is not a business.
Shouldn't it be?
No.
America threw a Revolution to end the British parliament's predatory business oriented oppression of the colonies. Government protects people from the predatory excesses of business.
Not anymore.
Seriously, who thought that this style of forum was not going to be invaqded by spammers?
Spam is killing this forum. Legit users with one account must wait two hours per post while spammers have hundreds of dummy accounts post at will, drowning out legitimate political discourse with spam.
I'm working on a script so that I can login a user, do something like post, then logout automatically. This will permit me to rotate a list of users and do stuff very quickly in the forum. For example, if I have 10 users, I could create 10 posts in about 20 seconds. Once this works, I want to create open posts that have no topic, but are reserved for us. After people start posting, I'll add topics depending on what people choose to discuss.
Sound exactly like what the spammers are doing.
They are using scripts. Yes.
Where would you get 10 users? 9 dummy accounts? This is the problem. I understand the need for anonymity but this is out of control. When you can't hear the discussion through the advertisements.
Yeah, we're going to make some fake accounts that you'll never see. When we bump, we do it silently. We don't leave a trace, except for Javascript notices. The comments we use to bump are instantly deleted.
I guess that doesn't seem so bad.
[Removed]
Wow, someone who actually advocates Zeitgeist on this forum. Bold.