Congressional reform act might help to prevent another Jaczko fiasco
I rarely, if ever, open email that is obviously part of a chain letter. I have never ever, passed them along to anyone else. However, this morning I received the following message that seems quite timely because if it was in effect, people like Harry Reid and Ed Markey would have never developed the clout that they have. Representatives of small segments of the American population should never develop the ability to impose their will on the rest of us by taking advantage of the arcane seniority rules and campaign finance rules that bequeath long sitting Senators and Congressmen with outsized power.
If the law described below was already in effect, there would have been no possibility that an inexperienced Washington, DC insider would have been elevated to the position of being the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The position would have been filled based on demonstrated competence instead of “pull.”
In a recent interview with CNBC, Warren Buffett offered the following quote about the debt ceiling: “I could end the deficit in 5 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 3 months and 8 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 1 year or less to become the law of the land, all because of public pressure.
…
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
- No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when 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, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
- Congressmen can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
- Congress will no longer vote itself a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
- Congress loses its current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
- Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
- All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
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.
I had seen this several weeks ago, and while several of the ideas would be nice, I don’t think anyone is actually proposing this.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp
So I googled the Reform Act to see what came up, and this link is what I found.
http://factcheck.org/2011/03/congressional-reform-act/
I’m not in Congress, so I’m not sure which to believe, but factcheck.org brings up good points and uses references that the viral email does not.
Lorien: Thanks for the link. I was thinking many of the same things pointed out in that factcheck post, especially that exactly what is being called for in the text, in certain places, is ambiguous/poorly defined, e.g. that Congress must participate in the same “health care system” as everyone else – there is no one health care system that everyone else participates in, there’s a bunch of health care systems that people and employers can choose to use (although I did learn a few things).
Rod – an interesting post. I’m in Canada and I’m interested in keeping a leash on politicians just as much as anywhere else, so I checked out the Snopes and Factcheck links given above. The claims in the “reform act” seem to be all false. You might want to have a look yourself and edit the post.
The Warren Buffet quote seems to be accurate, and it sounds like a very good idea. But thinking about it, it would have prevented the “stimulus packages” that the Canadian and US governments provided for the 2008 financial meltdown. Whether the “stimulus” actually worked is a matter of debate, and I’m not competent to have an opinion. Just saying…
As always, I appreciate your posts and insight.
This provision does not make sense and would favor the rich against ordinary people:
No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when out of office.
In Canada, many politicians who leave office have problems finding work again. I think that if you serve, you deserve a pension.
On that point, Daniel, another angle to look at is the positions that American politicians get after being in office.
Perhaps a properly structured pension, in addition to rewarding service to one’s country, could serve to provide a very small amount of incentive for career politicians to not take actions while in office in part as a means of furthering their post-politics careers?
Very possibly the biggest problem with modern American politics is that so many politicians are far too self-serving, rather than truly serving their constituencies (the American people).
I have heard that many member of the US Senate and Congress have criminal records.
That would be my number 1 rule. No criminal record if you intend to serve.
I’m not so sure about that. There are a lot of dubious laws on the books.
Eg: I wouldn’t want to exclude someone convicted of smoking marijuana from running on a platform of reforming the drug laws.
The White House will not testify or attend Jazcko’s hearing. The guy is not going anywhere anytime soon.
It looks like a third party will try to help alleviate the tensions.
http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2011/12/white-house-issues-apology-by-jaczko.html
This is interesting and what Reid and Jazcko do not understand:
In the world of political appointments in Washington, DC, when people get mission focused tasks like that (ie stop YM), they are supposed to do their job, and then keep their head down on all other matters.
Its time to go home:
From NHK World News : Fukushima releases radiation checkup results:
Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture says a survey shows that radiation exposure levels among residents near the damaged nuclear plant are low, with little health impact.
I’d like to see something added to that list which would prohibit employment in any industry, for at least 5 years, that has donated large sums of money or benefitted from any bill that the congressman sponsored or authored. Too many times we have seen senators and representatives leave office and then land some cushy $300,000+ a year job in the very industry they became cozy with during their term. They don’t need any more incentives that would persuade how they vote or do their job.
What are the odds that when Jaczko leaves office he will work for some company or non-profit that works against nuclear energy?
Good proposals. More people should support them instead of waiting for others to support them. A lot can be added to that short list – conflicts of interest and legal loopholes have become an entrenched part of American politics. Without direct personal and financial responsibility, without real “skin in the game”, it’s only going to get worse…
Rod, I hope you paused for a second when typing
“I rarely, if ever, open email that is obviously part of a chain letter. I have never ever, passed them along to anyone else. However, this morning…”
Perhaps we are all susceptible to believing that which we assume to already be true. Its not just anti-nukes who do that.
As too many of the people replying. Is it a real statistical correlation between post-office employment and campaign contributions and/or votes? Or, does the media just sensationalize when it happens and simply forget all the other times every day where it does not happen.
I’m not here to defend anybody. Just want people to make quality evidence based arguments.(so that I can read something and learn.)