[Freedom.news] The following is based on a email that has been zipping around the world recently. It actually laid out some interesting changes many Americans would like to see made to the broken political and governmental processes we are currently burdened with.
Before getting into the details of the proposed changes, consider what can be done when ordinary people get passionate and involved in making a better world. According to the email, the 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only three months eight days to be ratified. This was before email, personal computers, smart phones, Twitter, Facebook, and other modern ways to communicate. Furthermore, according to the email, of the twenty seven amendments to the Constitution, seven took one year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.
So, let’s call this movement the “Congressional Reform Act of 2016,” an act that would include the following components:
1. Term Limits. This is consistent with the old adage: “If you are not part of the solution then you must be part of the problem.” Many, many of our politicians have been around for decades. If they have not solved any of our major problems in that time, there is no reason to keep them around in the vain hope that they might eventually figure things out.
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 and 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. Most Americans no longer have any chance of receiving a traditional pension. Politicians, whose pensions are paid by the very people who no longer can get a pension, should not be entitled to something most Americans can not receive.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3 percent but only if the voters agree that they are doing a good job. This approach requires that the political class actually be successful in their job before getting rewarded, much like the plight of most working Americans.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. No argument on this one.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. No argument here either.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressional members are void effective 1/1/17. In agreement but there might be some legal issues here, i.e. can you renege on past agreements? If you can, then great. If not, then at least start with future generations of politicians.
9. Allow only individual Americans to contribute to election campaigns. No corporate donations, no PAC donations, no union donations, no fancy sounding front group donations, just individual Americans exercising their freedom of expression by sending directly to a politician’s campaign fund.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressional members. They 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.
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Walter “Bruno” Korschek is the author of the book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government – Fifty First Stpes To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroyiing The American Political Class,” which is available at www.loathemygovernment.com and online at Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble. Our daily dialog on freedom in America can be joined at www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com.
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