I received this in an email and so I am passing it along - Let's Fix Congress

[solara]

This has probably been posted before, but I think we should keep it alive..Could we actually make this happen? I think we could..and should...


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, before e-mail, before 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.

This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

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, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and 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 is time.

LET'S FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

Pass it on if you agree

:patriot:

[FLAprogressive]

1. I stopped at "Term Limits".

[solara]

2. Why?

[FLAprogressive]

4. Term limits are anti-democratic and we already have them, they're called ELECTIONS. MONEY is the

problem. The silly email is full of right-wing populist bullshit and it doesn't mention campaign money for a reason.

[peacebird]

11. Term Limits might help to stop the influence of corporate lobbyists.

And that alone is a good enough reason to try it in my opinion.

[solara]

13. Hear! Hear!

:hi:

[FLAprogressive]

15. No, it actually increases the influence of corporate lobbyists.

http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/diary/5441/lobbyists-hold-sway-with-term-limits

As an example.

[dsc]

17. actually the exact opposite is true

once you install term limits the only people who have any institutional memory are the corporate lobbyists who aren't term limited from their jobs.

[FLAprogressive]

18. +1,000,000

[SharonAnn]

19. Actually, it would cement the role of corporate lobbyists in running our government.

No politician would ever be in office long enough to really know how the system works.

The lobbyists will always be there.

They have unlimited money and time and they know how the system works.

They would run rings around our inexperienced legislators.

It would be like deliberately shooting ourselves in both feet and then our head.

[FLAprogressive]

20. Which is exactly why right-wing types pushed for term limits so vigorously (see: 1994)

You can't sway certain people here, they get taken in by right-wing populist bullshit that is written to appeal to people on the left.

[SDuderstadt]

21. "It would be like deliberately shooting ourselves in both feet and then our...

head".

LOL! I love it!

May I borrow that?

[solara]

12. I don't get why you would say this is RW populist bullshit.. and yeah we have elections

But some elected officials serve for 20 or 40 or more years. I want to do something about the fat cats in congress. What's wrong with them serving a just little while and then going back to work? What's wrong with them having to deal with the same bullshit their constituents deal with every day? They are not the fucking elite and I am sick to death of them being treated as if they are.

:patriot:

[FLAprogressive]

16. What is wrong with a career in public service? Everything posted is basically RW screed.

http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/diary/5441/lobbyists-hold-sway-with-term-limits

[solara]

22. I don't agree with you at all -

Making a career out of public service... that is why most of Congress is so completely out of touch with WE the PEOPLE.

I guess I am naive because I believe that people would pursue public service out of a sense of duty and community, because they want to make their country BETTER. Why should we pay for their retirement? Or for their security after they have left office? Why should we pay for their health care? I don't get it. And they keep trying to cut essential programs like Social Security, Planned Parenthood, Headstart, Public Radio and TV, Funding for the Arts, Medicare, Foodstamps and School Lunches to fund their pay raises.

Maybe this idea doesn't have all the answers, but I think it is a good start. We need to apply some brakes.

[FLAprogressive]

24. No, again, that's pure RW screed. There are plenty of legislators who have served for a long time

because they've served their communities so well.

And I don't think it's unfair that a congressman should get a pension, instead of demanding it be taken away for congress, how about demand that the private sector should offer employees health care, a pension, etc?

[solara]

28. Gee, I didn't realize I thought like a RW Regressive, thank you for making me aware of my

short comings.
I am just trying to figure out how to bring more balance into our government, apparently everything is in perfect balance as it is and so nothing should be changed - I didn't realize that was the progressive view.

[FLAprogressive]

29. What needs to be changed is the money... and then everything else falls into place.

Citizens United is making it MUCH MUCH worse. A constitutional amendment banning corporate money along with numerous other campaign finance reforms will change EVERYTHING.

[SDuderstadt]

35. No one said there isn't a problem...

the issue is the "solutions" proposed.

[FLAprogressive]

37. Exactly. The "solutions" are convoluted and would do nothing to combat the main issue which is money

[cali]

55. Yeah, Bernie's just soooo out of touch with his constituency

and so are Pat and Peter. And the three of them fight harder than just about anyone in Congress to preserve those things we care about.

The idea sucks to the nth.

[jtuck004]

44. Nothing. They are free to join the Army or apply for a job like anyone else, after their one term

It is not a public service for them to spend their time taking bribes campaign contributions and direction from people whose interests are venal and likely not in the best interests of the country as a whole.

[FLAprogressive]

47. Then reform campaign contribution laws instead of doing all of this useless, anti-democractic BS.

[jtuck004]

49. Do both. We gain nothing by letting 27 million people continue to

be without living wages, 50 million without health insurance, and 40 million on food stamps
while a group of people who are clearly more in tune with lining their own pockets continue
to rake in $170,000 a year while spending 30% of their time making snide remarks to each
other and in public about their opponents.

I have no problem with limiting people to one term. I am not so sure I would be against a draft
in which people are conscripted to serve, instead of the priveleged snots we have now using
money, power, and family ties to gain national office, only to abuse that privelege by hiring
their banker friends into the government to direct policies that hurt ordinary people and enrich
the banking industry.

There is nothing democratic about that.

[tkmorris]

23. Because that's not what would happen

They'd spend their short time in Congress setting themselves up for life after it. Cast a few votes to throw billions in tax money to Goldman Sachs, get out of Congress, PRESTO!, consulting gig with Goldman Sachs. Like it or not very few of these guys would do anything in Congress besides try to benefit themselves. There is an awful lot wrong with the system as it exists now but the solutions offered in the OP would actually make much of it worse, not better.

[cali]

53. One of my Senators has served in the Senate for 38 years. Good on him

and good on us voters. Oh,and he's one of the least wealthy members of Congress. Pat Leahy has deserved my vote and he's gotten it.

[AlabamaLibrul]

32. Funny, because any time some brown people in a different country get rid of "term limits" we bomb

them.

[FLAprogressive]

34. There's a difference between a dictator and someone LEGITIMATELY elected to multiple terms.

[SDuderstadt]

38. Oh, please...

"anytime".

[Welibs]

41. Terms limits need to be shortened and no government employees,

including supreme court justices who should not serve more than 4 years without being re-elected or replaced with the most Qualified judge in the land and it should be an honour they respect. Life-time appointments are unacceptable and the SCOTUS 5 have broken every single one of the only 5 canons they are supposed to follow! I think having elections for judges a bad idea, you end up with left or right leaning justice when they should be neither.

I didn't read the email but I think terms should be renegotiated anyway.

[FLAprogressive]

42. Lifetime appointments are supposed to keep judges accountable to no one (i.e. politicians)

changes to ethics rules are sorely needed.

[Drale]

3. Self Delete

Double Post

[FLAprogressive]

6. +1 this solves everything.

[Drale]

5. The next Amendment need to overturn Citizens United

There is already a huge movement to get such an amendment. Without corporate money pouring in most of these people, especially republicans would never get elected and it will be much easier to get other significant democratic legislation passed.

http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/

[peacebird]

7. I suggest sending this to everyone you know, linking it on Facebook

Twitter - whatever social media you use, and writing letters to the editor stating the same...

[FLAprogressive]

9. No, do not send this to ANYONE. It only presents BS solutions (like term limits) and mentions

NOTHING about campaign $$. It's right-wing populist bullshit.

Term limits are anti-democratic (which is why, more often than not, you see GOP/Teabagger types advancing them) and does nothing to stop the scourge of corporate/wealthy campaign donors holding influence over pols.

[SDuderstadt]

8. This is...

RW populist bullshit.

[FLAprogressive]

10. +1 billion

[tkmorris]

25. I believe the OP is being sincere.

I sympathize with the goals she (?) has in mind, but agree with you that the solutions in that email are not solutions at all. However, since I DO believe she is sincere, I see no reason to be insulting towards her. I say we would be better served to explain WHY such ideas might sound good on paper, but actually aren't, rather than belittle or throw snark.

[FLAprogressive]

26. Agree on the sincerity, but the content is written by right-wingers to sound good to us on the left.

And get us in on their shitty ideas.

[tkmorris]

39. Oh yes it is written that way

Which to me is exactly why when it does sound good to someone on our side and they don't intuitively understand why it really isn't that we should have some patience with them as we explain that, rather than be rude to them. I think the OP has honorable goals in mind and yet some of the comments on this thread have been more than a bit unkind to her. I'd just like to see us rise above that more than we have at times in the past. DU has become somewhat known for being a cold and unforgiving place, and I'd like to see that change. At least when it comes to how we treat our own. Trolls on the other hand... :evilgrin:

[solara]

45. I am no troll...

I haven't posted on DU for a while because the hostility that I see here now intimidates me, but I read the email and it reflected a lot of my own worry and concern about Congress - and some of the ideas sounded right to me and and so I took the plunge and posted it. I posted it hoping that there would be some useful discussion and I am glad there was because that is how I learn, which is one of the main reasons I still come to DU.

But, I don't deserve the unkindness and I will probably go back to lurking and not post again.

I am not stupid.

The feel of this place has really changed.

[SDuderstadt]

40. The OP needs to learn to do...

a little fact-checking.

For the life of me, I don't understand why so many DUers embrace RW nonsense. For example, Congress already pays into Social Secuity and has for decades.

[dsc]

14. all of these are dumb ideas

First we have term limits they are called elections. If you don't like your congressperson vote them out. Second, as to the rest, if you lower congressional compensation you will get a congress of nothing but millionaires, the only people who will be able to afford to work at a job that will end up costing them money. I know we already have an over representation of millionaires but it will only get worse if you make congress a low pay no benefit job.

[MadHound]

27. That isn't the solution to our problems,

There is only one real solution to our problems with government, and that is to remove money from the equation.

This can be done by adding an amendment to the Constitution mandating publicly financed elections for every single office in this country, from dogcatcher to president. The candidate gets X amount of funding, X amount of free air time(since the public airwaves do belong to we the people, this can be mandated as a provision of the government's leasing of public airwaves), and you have X amount of time in which to conduct your campaign. No more of this beginning your reelection campaign the day after you're sworn into office.

Take private, and especially corporate money out of the equation and the rest of our problems will gradually be solved.

Without this, no other campaign finance reform, no other restrictions, no other ethics, nothing will correct the problems we are currently experiencing. For the root problem is money, and it is allowed to continue to flow, it will continue to find a way to corrupt the system.

[AlabamaLibrul]

30. Right on! And RAISE the cap for payroll contributions for Congress too! nt

[FLAprogressive]

33. Nope. All "ideas" in that are right-wing populist screed.

See above discussions.

[damntexdem]

31. More anti-democratic crap.

Term limits are voter limits.

[FLAprogressive]

36. +1

[OHdem10]

43. Term Limits were tried in California and they ended up with

lotsa new members all at once. Very few had
previous experience. Only a few old timers
knew all the Legislative History and processes.
Guess what these people held all the power
and time and energy wasted trying to get everyone
on the same page.

If people make sure the people in their state
knows exactly what their Congressmen is doing
in D.C and how they are voting. The people
will vote them out.

[FLAprogressive]

48. +1

[cheri010353]

46. I think our time and energy would be better spent

in working on an amendment to nullify corporate person-hood. If money weren't such a big part of elections, we would probably get better representatives.

[NYC Liberal]

50. No. Pass THESE Amendments if you want to fix the problems:

These have already been sponsored in Congress.

AMENDMENT 28 - REGULATION OF CORPORATE ELECTION CONTRIBUTIONS
Section 1. Congress shall have the power to regulate the contribution of funds by corporations and labor organizations to a candidate for election to, or for nomination for election to, a Federal office, and the power to regulate the expenditure of funds by corporations and labor organizations made in support of, or opposition to, such candidates.

Section 2. A State shall have the power to regulate the contribution of funds by corporations and labor organizations to a candidate for election to, or for nomination for election to, public office in the State, and the power to regulate the expenditure of funds by corporations and labor organizations made in support of, or opposition to, such candidates.

Section 3. Nothing contained in this Amendment shall be construed to allow Congress or a State to make any law abridging the freedom of the press.

AMENDMENT 29 - RIGHT TO UNIONIZE
Section 1. Every person has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.

Section 2. Every person, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

Section 3. Every person who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for themselves and their family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Section 4. Every person who works has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT 30 - NATIONWIDE ELECTION STANDARDS
Section 1. All citizens of the United States who are eighteen years of age or older shall have the right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides. The right to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, any State, or any other public or private person or entity, except that the United States or any State may establish regulations narrowly tailored to produce efficient and honest elections.

Section 2. Each State shall administer public elections in the State in accordance with election performance standards established by the Congress. The Congress shall reconsider such election performance standards at least once every four years to determine if higher standards should be established to reflect improvements in methods and practices regarding the administration of elections.

Section 3. Each State shall provide any eligible voter the opportunity to register and vote on the day of any public election.

Section 4. The Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.

[Scuba]

51. The problem is money. This doesn't address that. But I like the idea of an ...

...ammendment. No, two.

27. Corporations are not people.

28. Individual campaign contributions only. Limit: $5,000.

[cali]

52. NO. NO. No.

If I want to vote for Bernie Sanders for Senate that's my fucking right. I couldn't disagree with this idiocy more.

[B Calm]

54. Right Wing Talking Points