(The sender of this email expressed his delight to pass this along. I call bullshit.)
"THIS IS HOW TO FIX CONGRESS!
"Congressional Reform Act of 2010." It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I know many will say "this is impossible." However, Congress has the lowest approval rating of any entity in Government. Now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes.
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Congressional Reform Act of 2010
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 1/1/11.
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, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete."
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Jiminy Christmas, people,the earth is flat and commonsense is not a word, but two words improperly fused together to save one valuable space in Sarah Palin's twitter posts. She could just shut up and save 140! Wouldn't that be grand?
If each and every attendee at a tea party rally (or take back America to the 1700s rally or a white sheet conference) were polled, I would be willing to bet that less than 10% have ever read the United States Constitution or its XXVII Amendments and yet, they want to change it. And, don't even get my started on that proposed 28th Amendment crap. Sheesh!!
In the first place, the Congressional reform act of 2010 email has been floating around since Fall 2009. There are a few petitions in favor of it (most of which are closed) and a few facebook groups and pages (with 2791members & 943 likers ), the largest having little activity in several months. I get a warm feeling knowing that less than 4000 people out of 150 million facebook users in the U.S. are idiots that propagate this junk.
Anyway, and yada yada, my reply to the sender follows. I signed off with my name, degree and concentration - Legal Studies (I read the U.S. Code, court opinions and legal briefs for fun) - and I grinned with satisfaction.
"Term limits are already in place, via elections. If an employee doesn't do a good job, that employee is terminated and a new employee steps in.
Members of Congress have been required to pay Social Security taxes since 1984.
"Congressional efforts to pass a 'public option' for health insurance would have required everyone except members of Congress to participate in the new federal insurance plan. But, in the final version of health care reform legislation passed in March 2010, 'Members of Congress and congressional staff' will only have access to plans that are created by the health care bill or offered through the exchanges established by the bill."
The size of their pensions is determined by a number of factors (primarily length of service, but also factors such as when they joined Congress, their age at retirement, their salary, and the pension options they chose when they enrolled in the retirement system) and by law cannot exceed 80% of their salary at the time of their retirement.
The passage (in 1992) of the 27th Amendment limits pay raises for members of Congress. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am27
The passage of Public Law 104-1 (the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, also know at CAA) made a variety of laws related to civil rights and workplace regulations applicable to the legislative branch of the federal government.Section 201 of the CAA specifically prohibits sexual harassment (as well as harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin). http://www.compliance.gov/publications/caa-overview/congressional-accountability-act/#caa_201
http://www.c-span.org/questions/weekly68.htm
http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C*PLC8%22%40%20%20%0A
http://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/pay-and-perks/do-members-of-congress-pay.html
The bulk of this info was retrieved at
http://www.snopes.com (the skeptic's friend)"
