Some enterprising people have created a petition to get a bill introduced before Congress that specifies the following—
- Congressional Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below:
- No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
- 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; Congress participates with the American people.
- Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans do.
- Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of the CPI or 3%.
- Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
- Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.
- All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective one year after passage of the bill. The American people did not make contracts with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
Here at DOTE I don't propose solutions—I don't think there are any. Even a revolt—see the American, French, & Russian revolutions—would surely only make our situation much worse. On this point, look at Tea Party Patriots.
One obvious problem with these excellent proposals is that Congressmen must vote to undo the undue privileges they have bestowed upon themselves. Short of an armed mob storming into the Capitol building and holding Congress at gunpoint, I don't see how we would overcome this small but substantial obstacle...
Of course, I'm not recommending that an armed mob of irate American citizens storm the Capitol! †
I urge you to sign the petition as a gesture of your disgust that our elected representatives have forgotten that they are public servants. Only 844 people have signed it so far. Their modest goal is 1000 signatures.
† Standard DOTE disclaimer just in case our paranoid, humorless Big Brother is listening or reading... My point above was stated as a counterfactual, and I believe all such actions would be futile, counterproductive and needlessly disruptive, not to mention illegal and unsuccessful—did I mention futile? I would not participate in such an action nor do I urge others to do so.
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