One of the things I have learned over the years when someone forwards a report alleging nefarious actions by public officials that are so bad they are hard to believe, is that they are probably not true. That is the case with this one.
It is a good idea to check with various sites that investigate possible internet hoaxes, such as snopes.com. In this case, here is a link to snopes.com's discussion of this particular item: http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp.
Snopes.com rates the e-mail as "mostly false." I rate it lower than that. It appears to be a concerted effort to discredit the entire U.S. Congress and to promote some really bad ideas on the basis of false information. By the way, I am fairly certain that Warren Buffet had nothing to do with the e-mails, though his idea about deficits is also a really bad idea. How does he propose to deal with emergencies such as wars and depressions?
I will insert my comments after each paragraph:
Sent: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 6:42 pm
Subject: Fwd: Warren Buffett's proposal
Warren Buffett
in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes 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
That's a really bad idea. What do we do in an emergency? Like a War? Like a depression? There are times when a deficit is really good. There are times when a surplus would really be good.
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, 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.
I doubt that.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have
the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
No such act has been introduced.
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they are out of office.
Members of Congress have no tenure now. Their pensions result from a contributory retirement plan just like that of other federal employees.We even have term limits. They are called elections.
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.
Members of Congress have participated in the Social Security program since 1984.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.
They do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional
pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
See Amendment 27:
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in
the same health care system as the American people.
Members of Congress have the same health care system as is provided to all other federal employees.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American
people.
There is only one provision in the Constitution relating to this: [Members of the House and Senate] "shall in all Cases, except Treason,
Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their
Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and
returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they
shall not be questioned in any other Place." This protects the people's representatives from harassment by law enforcement officials of the executive branch, especially of a different party.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective
1/1/12.
What contracts? Hard to make sense of this.
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.
Maybe it is time.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete. You are
one of my 20+.. Please keep it going.
Please don't.
It would be foolish of anyone to claim there are no problems with the Congress. There are. Mostly they are problems with the Senate, which was the least representative legislative body in the western world (except for the House of Lords) to begin with. Current procedures on cloture make it worse. That needs to be changed. But changes like that need to be handled with care.
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