Let's Pay Congress What They're Worth

A friend of mine passed along this message which urged me to pass it along to 20 people. Since I don't do social media, I will pass this along to those who haven't seen it before.

If everyone forwarded this email to a minimum of 20 people, and to ask each of those to do likewise.
In three days, most people in the United States will have the message. This is an idea that should be passed around.

The BUFFETT Rule

Let's see if Congress understands what people pressure is all about.

Salary of retired US Presidents .. . . . .. . . . . .. . $180,000 FOR LIFE.

Salary of House/Senate members .. . . . .. . . . $174,000 FOR LIFE. This is stupid

Salary of Speaker of the House .. . . . .. . . . . $223,500 FOR LIFE. This is really stupid

Salary of Majority / Minority Leaders . . .. . . . . $193,400 FOR LIFE. Stupid

Average Salary of a teacher . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. .$40,065

Average Salary of a deployed Soldier . . .. . . .. $38,000

Here’s where the cuts should be made!

Warren Buffet, in an interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in five 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 three months and eight 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 one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2017

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman / woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're 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/women are void effective 3/1/17. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.

Congress 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 go back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three days for most people in the U.S. to receive the message. It's time!

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree, pass it on.
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I could think of additional laws to go with this, but this recommendation is succinct and clear.

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Comments

The first is that it was written or even supported by Warren Buffett.

It is, however, a pretty good example of why the reliability information gleaned from the Internet has such a questionable patina.

Snopes.com goes into it in some detail.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49 I wouldn't call snopes reliable info. anymore either.

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eliminate health care and pensions. Then I would like make them hourly and only pay them for time actually worked that isn't fundraising.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Lily O Lady's picture

of the things that is killing the biosphere.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

TheOtherMaven's picture

Most of them, anyway. Blum 3

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Lily O Lady's picture

@TheOtherMaven

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

sojourns's picture

Thanks Ed.

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

asterisk's picture

were going to send me a cut of their campaign contributions.

If we cut their salaries how would they get by? They might have to get part-time jobs speaking or getting tanked or something.

Now that I think about it--I could do with a retired critter-type job.

So where do I go to get $200K speakers fees? I can talk real good, especially for that kind of money.

How do I get paid for thinking in a tank? Is it like a fishy tank or like a Dukakis-type tank?

I would be good at being a bored director for some big company. I guess the job just means voting the CEO more golden parachutes? Gold is really dense. We should send some of the bankster CEOs out over the ocean with their golden parachutes.
Dang. I guess that as a nonviolent person I should be opposed to that.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@asterisk They're not worth the gold. In fact, I'm not sure what they are good for except maybe dialing-for-dollars.

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@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed

Think of the already polluted fishies! Lead's toxic - isn't the (edit: financial industry) responsible for creating/enabling enough (edit: poverty) and other suffering, death and destruction already!

How about giving them nice parachutes made entirely out of nice non-toxic-leaching bricks?

(Lol, need to be able to check on what I was answering once I get back to the computer - can't easily on this system, drat it!)

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Ellen North

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