Great ideas from Warren Buffett regarding Congress aligning with the public

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.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn, ask each of those to do likewise.  In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1) No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when 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) Congressmen can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4) Congress will no longer vote itself a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5) Congress loses its 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 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 would add that any increase in Congressman’s pay be tied to GDP growth instead of CPI.