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With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
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 move to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
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 by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
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 move to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
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 by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
Outstanding suggestions but I fear you will find that the Constitution would have to be amended to establish points 1 and 5, since the Constitution does talk to both of them. I am also not sure about point 8 since we do have laws about contracts of the sort you mention.
I would like to see term limits but it won't happen right away since Congress has to propose Amendments by a 2/3 vote in each house and then 3/4 of State legislatures would have to approve it. Amendments take an average of around 7 years to approve or turn down and that would call for Congress to propose a shorter period, which they have been doing recently.
Do you think the Congress is likely to vote any of your suggestions into law, even considering that they have to propose term limits? I sure don't.
With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
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 move to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
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 by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
What you will end up with is a congress, full of people that will run and get elected to fix or change one thing, that would benefit themselves (and their corporations) the most and move on.
You might as well bid out the seats to the highest corporate bidder, and make a few bucks, since that is what you will get.
Automatically giving at least 2 seats to the Koch brothers, a seat to Mike Bloomberg
A seat each to Christy, Robson, Alice and Jim Walton, maybe more.
1 seat to Jim Ellison
Many seats to Warren Buffett and one for Bill Gates
Save one for Larry Page and Serg Brin
Lets not forget George Soros - how many can he have.
Michael Dell and Paul Allen each could have a seat.......
Hey, even Bernie Madoff could of had a seat, or two.
Maybe one for the next Kenneth Lay?
the list goes on and on.
[quote=Mouser;17226728]With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
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
Why should we limit great leaders to so much of a term? Should Washington have been limited? If a person from another state wants to elect the same official over, and over, and over, to twenty or more years, its none of my business. I will take precautions in my state to vote for whom I think is the best person for the job.
I know what you're thinking "Guys get into Washington and get corrupted over time". This is true, but there are better ways of fixing that problem than term limits, which really wouldn't solve anything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they are out of office.
They should get a pension, but only for the time that they spend in Washington. If you are working in congress 365 days a year, you earn x amount. 364 is one day minus the previous amount. That way when you're at home campaigning, then you aren't getting paid for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
3. 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.
Social security isn't a retirement account, its a minimum safety net. Do you really want people making 30,000 a year running the country? Or would you rather have people who have a successful business and have a certain level of education to run the country?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
Congressional pay raises should be based on economic conditions. I get a COL raise every year, if they are doing their jobs, I don't mind them getting one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
Don't they already?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
The founding fathers only allowed those who owned land to vote, and owned slaves. They didn't want the "average" man in congress. Voiding all contracts on 1/3 would be silly as the congress that was duly elected by the people to represent them passed it. Everything they did was with representation, and should be just like anything done before it.
Congress under the same conditions as are now passed civil rights, sent men to the moon, won the cold war, and the list of accomplishments goes on and on. We need campaign finance reform, and we need a bill to be available online for two weeks before any vote, yay or nay can be signed for it. This would still exclude military action, because the President could send troops wherever in the world for that time while the American people could view a proper declaration of war.
With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
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
I say No on term limits because I would want the opportunity to vote to keep my representative if I think he is doing a good job after his 11th year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they are out of office.
We are hiring by vote these guys to do a job. In order to get good people to apply for the job perks need to be offered. A pension is a perk. The pension needs to be adjusted in order to fairly represent the amount of time the representative has served. In other words, if he has served a small amount of time, he gets a small pension.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
3. 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.
Congress has participated in Social Security, by law, since 1984.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
This is a choice that Congressmen have had since 1986 (FERS).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
I agree with taking that vote away from Congressmen, but I don't agree on the automatic raise based on cost of living. An independent commission should determine pay raises.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in
the same health care system as the American people.
Congress participates in the same healthcare plan as all other federal employees. There is no advantage there because I'm sure their plan is just as *****ty as mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
They do. If they created a law with a congressional exception, the Supreme Court would nix that law in a second.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
We all agreed to the contract when we re-elected our congressmen; thereby, validating their actions. That's the way it works. Even for people who voted against their representative. Life should be fair, but life isn't fair.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouser
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.
Honor and career are two separate concepts. One can serve honorably or not for one term or over a career. Personally, I want honorable career men in Congress-- emphasis on honorable.
Just a word on term limits... they have been a disaster in California.
The only professionals we have in Sacramento are lobbyists. The State legislature is entirely filled with rank amateurs who are term limited out just about the time they manage to find their asses with both hands. And then they become lobbyists.
Do not underestimate the value of experienced legislators if you really care about governance.
With all of the issues facing America this might be the place to start
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 move to the Social
Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social
Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
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 by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/3/11.
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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
Great suggestion, but it will NEVER happen. Those in power will never vote themselves out.
Great suggestion, but it will NEVER happen. Those in power will never vote themselves out.
Those in power never voted themselves in to begin with.
American people did.
And if they keep sending them back, who is to blame ?
You have term limits every 2/4 years for every elected official.
Your fellow Americans are to blame for lifetime politicians.
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