Congressional Reform Act of 2010: Let's kick the lifetime politicians out of office!

I want to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of 2010". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.

We'd need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heros.





Congressional
Reform Act of 2010

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

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



2. No Tenure / No Pension:

A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.



4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



6. Congress looses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

S
erving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



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, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.



All who agree with this bill, I urge you to present it to your senator or congressman. Let's try and lobby this bill into law. No one should make Washington politics a lifelong career. This is how corruption starts. No retirement plans. No special privilages. Do your terms and leave. We need to start new from time to time. God bless you all.

[edit on 1/1/2010 by Locoman8]

I made a similar thread once.

Good thought, good idea.

If Congress had any integrity, they would have passed such a measure a long time ago.

However, I also have to blame we the people for being so dumb to fall for the same line time and time again.

If we were smart there wouldn't be a need to pass such a measure. We would vote them out after two terms.

reply to post by Locoman8


Good post. I'm with you on most of those....although I don't agree with term limits. If a man is doing a exceptional job...then he should be able to run as long as he wants to. It is afterall...the people's choice. Term limits wouldn't have much of an effect on their own anyway. It doesn't matter if we get a constant cycle of new politicians if they are all corrupted by what will still exist.

Otherwise...nice job.

reply to post by jam321


Indeed, "WE THE PEOPLE" need to get off our lazy @s$e$ and make congress along with the rest of Washington's bigwigs answer for their actions. This is the whole point of this bill. I don't know the inner-workings of lobbying though so I give freedom to anyone who does lobby in washington in support of this bill to present it to congress and senate members.

reply to post by David9176


Term limits keeps the "power-hungry" in line. The only real patriots trying to make a real difference in congress is Ron Paul. He's in support of term limits though. If the president has to, so should congress. 12 years is plenty of time to make changes in the country and your district or state. Term limits creates a power limit beyond the liberal words of the constitution concerning congress. You can't twist the meaning of "term limits" the way they did with our monetary policy.

reply to post by Locoman8


Shut up! I'm currently working on a movie script about such things.



Don't give it away before I earn a few bucks.

Naw, your sentiments is what drives me.

S&F. I like where you are headed good sir. But my personal feeling in the matter is that some of your proposed terms are still too lenient! It's a good starting point though!

Originally posted by Redwookieaz
S&F. I like where you are headed good sir. But my personal feeling in the matter is that some of your proposed terms are still too lenient! It's a good starting point though!

Well, please give us some additions or changes with the bill. This is a work-in-progress right now. I want freedom-loving patriotic ATS members to help write this bill. Add to it or suggest a change in the bill and we can see how people react to it. Thanks for the critique and support.

Originally posted by Locoman8

Congressional
Reform Act of 2010

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

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

Of the 435 house representatives, 78 have served longer than 12 years. That's about 18%, those 78 have been elected more than six times (two year election cycle). While 38% of the 100 senators has served longer than 12 years, those 38 have been elected more than twice (six year election cycle).

Term limits are imposed by the people of a given district. You may not agree with a particular congressperson but if their constituents do, you may be out of luck.

2. No Tenure / No Pension:

A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

This already happens, members of congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they've completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. Please also note that members of congress have to serve at least 5 years to even receive a pension.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Congress already pays social security and has the same retirement program that every federal employee has called the Federal Employees' Retirement System.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

They can and I'm sure many of them do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Congress actually will recieve less than a 3% raise this year, it's considered a Cost of Living Allowance rather than a base pay raise.

6. Congress looses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

The congressional health care system is the same as all federal employess are allowed. Think of it as a large business buy-in option. You pay a percentage of the cost of the plan and the company (in this case federal government) pays the remainder of the percentage.

I want to add that they pay private insurance companies for this, there is no federal insurance...with the exception of the military's TRICARE and the Veterans Administration for retired military.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

I mentioned this in a different thread, but they already do. Unless you can point me to a law that they don't have to abide by that you or I do.

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.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this exactly, private contracts between two individuals? Specifically a congressperson and a private contractor? If they can afford to renovate their home, who's to say they can't?

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but i wanted to touch upon this subject for some time and did not want to steal this OP's thunder flags or stars.

i had more to say and still do but after reading this thread settled on adding just this:
some of these senators are well into there seventies, and have been in congress for over 40 years.most of these career politicians had there seats handed to them after they were groomed by the previous senator who is ready to retire . thus continueing the same agenda and thought process.a thought process and an agenda that has ratified law for perhaps the last 80 years (possibly longer). noone notices, cares or remembers that these are the people who pass the federal reserve act, offered us the new deal , passed social security, signed NAFTA ,patriot act and the health care reform among other things,it happens on both sides of the aisle .this is a major problem that continues to fly right under the radar of most people.We need to end career politicians and legislate for Term limits in the house and senate

this is a subject that constantly tugs at my brain.its hard to not comment so i feel the need to do so, i find it difficult to believe that such an important issue is so"overlooked".unfortunatley if you are even thought about being nominated by either party you must prove to them that you are willing to do what is needed by the establishment ..in otherwords they want to make sure you " play ball " so in reality you are only voting for someone whom one of the parties already pretty much control, alot of this is done in back room deals some through "political blackmail " once these guys are "currupted" they are no longer working for us.the longer these politicians sit the more "favors" or "debts" they have to honor, when one person builds up alot of these "favors" and uses them to force through agendas they become dangerous. term limits is a way to interupt the "pass my chair on " mentality and force them to have to restart this process and make sure one man isnt sitting in a seat collecting favors for 40 years. .

~meathead

I just received an exact copy (word for word) of the opening post in an email from someone that is not an ATS member.

Interesting how information travels.

The house and senate are chosen by the states I feel this is a bill that needs to be introduced in each state.

Each state needs to pass term limits on its representatives.

reply to post by Locoman8



I thought that looked familiar.

www.thepetitionsite.com...

Are you the "fed up American" that wrote that?

good job!

reply to post by deepred


Isn't it amazing how misinformation and downright lies can propagate in the information age? Maybe we should start calling web 2.0 the DISinformation age.

I hope you promptly replied with concern over the misstated facts and presumed prejudices. I hope.

I do have a problem with a bit of this...primarily the amount of turmoil that could be involved in regularly recycling politicians in a legislative body.

I'm not saying an infinite term limit, but do you have any idea how hard it is to accomplish things out of the gates in a legislative body? Very few first term legislators get to do any of the work. Not because they aren't respected enough, but because they don't have the strategies to do it.

It could lead to a partial gridlock of the system after term limits expire.
And then there's another fact: what if the people do in fact want a legislator in office for 40 years? If they do a good job, let them keep going. This isn't a position of executive power, this is a position of direct representation of a portion of people which is balanced out by 99 others in the Senate and 438 in the House.

People that devote their lives to politics might be what we actually need. However, we might need them to be dedicated to the people rather than the positions. Wouldn't you rather have someone dedicated to the job rather than someone who knows they won't be involved in another few years?

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Normally, you would be correct. However, this is shaping up to be a red-letter freshman class. Already, the GOPs have created a new spot in the House leadership for a freshman, Rep Kristi Noem. This is also the largest in-coming freshman "class" in decades. It seems like the GOP leadership is prepared to give them a spot at the table. This freshman class is so large that they may just be able to band together and keep from being indebted to the lobbiest... for a few years at least.

Also, please consider that if all congressmen were under term-limits, any freshman congressmen would have an easier time getting their foot in the door. For the most part, it is the more senior members of congress that keep in-coming freshman from gaining too much power until they are fully integrated and corrupted into the system like themselves.

I would gladly give up the few diamonds in the rough to prevent another Kennedy run.

Originally posted by whaaa
reply to post by Locoman8

 

I thought that looked familiar.

www.thepetitionsite.com...

Are you the "fed up American" that wrote that?

good job!

That is actually a bill my father, his former co-worker and myself worked on together. We made it freely available for anyone to present, post, or promote. I don't care who takes the credit for this bill, as long as it gets through.... or something similar. The point is, we need term limits. Why does the president only get to serve 2 terms and congress doesn't? Many people here are saying that constant new congress rotations would not allow for any work to be done. I beg to differ. Get the old dogs out of the leadership positions and let the new dogs take charge with the fresh mindset that they only have 2-12 years to get what they need done.