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We desperately need a Congressional Reform Amendment!
Imagine working for a company that has about 500 employees with the following results:
29 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
The above results apply to the 535 members of the United States Congress.
Congressional Reform Act ~ We need a nationwide petition drive to demand
a 28th Amendment with provisions such as these:
- Term Limits. 12 years maximum for Senate and House combined.
- Any time there is a spending deficit of more than 3% of the U.S. GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.
- No Tenure / No Pension - Elected representatives should receive a salary while in office, but receive no special retirement other than Social Security for which they may qualify when they are out of office.
- Congress should participates in Social Security on the same basis as all other legal U.S. citizens.
- Congress should no longer be able to vote pay raises for themselves.
Congressional pay should be adjusted only at the same rate as Social Security adjustments.
- Congress should participate in the same health care system as all other legal U.S. citizens.
- Congress must abide by all the same laws as all the rest of the American people.
- Any and all special contracts or provisions made by Congress for themselves should be ended. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, not professional politicians.
In a 2010 CNBC interview, Warren Buffett offered this solution to the out-of-control U.S. debt. He said, "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. Just pass a law that states that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."
In 1971, the 26th Amendment granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified because the people demanded it. That was before computers, e-mail, and cell phones. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven took one year or less to become the law of the land because of public pressure.
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