THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

[DataNcc1701c]

Warren Buffett, "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.

I am 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 2025*

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

2. 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.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

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

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

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

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 5/1/25. 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.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

[papawofboo]

Really, mine is a lot simpler than yours. The president and congress are elected for 6 years. No re-election. You vote for the odd districts then 3 years later you vote of even. At each election you vote on a bonus for the person going out of office. Their net worth can only have increased by the inflation rate, no more of this poor in, rich out crap.

Remember this, congress or no one else is going to work tomorrow to start something that will do away with their job. Until people realize that it is ELECTION day, not re-election day we are stuck.  

[GailL1]

@DataNcc1701c 

Sorry, I will not be a party to spreading MISINFORMATION and many of your enumerated points are just that - MISINFORMATION.  Like:

# 2 / # 3- Congress (and all of the Fed. employees) do participate in the SS system and have since 1984.  The Federal government even matches their contributions like any other employer.  It is SOME state and local government employees that have the exemption to not participate in the SS system - their state or local government opts to fund their pension plans instead of contributing to the SS system.

Congress.gov - CRS REPORT 07/25/2023 - Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress 

Personally, I think Congress should be classified as self-employed or a 1099 contractor - in that way, they have to pay their own contributions to the SS system and also that of the employer.  

# 4 -   Congress changes every (4) years based on the votes of their constituents - you either vote them back in or you vote in somebody else.  Congress can only vote on a pay increase when it is in a year when this vote is gonna take place - so they may not be voting for a pay increase for themselves but for the next person that takes their place for the next term. 

Other than a vote to increase their pay, which is very rare, they get increases based on the law which determines a formula for increases.

CRS.gov - REPORT 09/26/2024 - Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables 

#5 Congress and certain members of their staff get their health insurance through what is called the Small Business exchange as it was legislated by the PPACA,  As with other Federal employees and many other Americans who have employer coverage, the employer picks up the majority of the premium cost and the employee picks up a smaller portion.  Since many in Congress are very OLD, they also get Medicare and any choice of Medicare products like anybody else that has been vested into the Medicare program.

CRS.gov- REPORT 09/13/2017 - Health Benefits for Members of Congress and Designated Congressional St... 

Maybe it would be a good idea if Congress were more independent from other government employees in their benefits - like I said maybe they should be considered Self employed or an Independent Contractor and chose and pay for whatever they want in benefits as singular people.  I mean they really aren’t employees in the normal sense - employees can normally be hired and fired by the boss - it takes a vote to hire and fire a member of Congress so they aren’t really employees of the government - they are employees of their constituents.  

But here again, we have to understand the current system before we can speak about changing it.

[sgm55]

 I now remember why I hardly ever post, in here:  This site uses software from the Dark Ages!  Trying to find specific pages, like those where you can start a new topic, are almost impossible.  Getting around, in here, is anything but intuitive!  I guess I'm gone, for another year, or so.  Best of luck to those who use this monstrosity!