Warren Buffett..."I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "

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

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.

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*

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. (There is no government retirement pension for any member of congress, regardless of how long they are in office. They must rely on the same retirement vehicles that the working class must rely on.)

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

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

5. Congress loses their 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.)

>> 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.<<

I will add the following to what he has proposed:

 8. In the interest of the PEOPLE of the United States of America and to preserve the democratic-republic form of governance by the People, for the People, and of the People, non-human (PEOPLE) entities will be prohibited from using their financial power to influence the political process and to retain the power within the PEOPLE.  Any political campaign for any elected public office by a declared candidate and any political party or political group, organization or subset of a political party or group is prohibited from receiving monetary contribution or in kind contribution or assistance in their campaign for elected office from any entity that is not a qualified voter within any state, territory, protectorate and their political subdivisions of the United States of America. All campaign contributions received by the candidate and political party must recorded and then provided to the Federal Election Commission as provided for by law. Subsequently to be published, both in written form and on the Internet,  easily locatable, listing the names and amounts of the persons who gave funds or in kind services. Such publication shall be completed and published every 30 days from the date the first dollar is received.

9. A qualified voter is a human (person) who is a legal citizen of the United States of America. 
   a) Corporations or any other legal entities are NOT qualified voters and are prohibited from voting in any election or for any ballet measure of any kind.

10. Only a qualified voter may contribute monetary funds or in kind contributions to a political candidate and political party and the combined of both candidate and party may not exceed the maximum limit in any election cycle as set forth by a two thirds vote of both Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by the President and ratified by two thirds of the states within the Union. In no case shall the total contribution maximum limit exceed 10% of the mean income of the 85% of the lower income of the population at that time, as determined by the U.S. Census and Department of the Treasury.

11. No entity, person or citizen may collect funds separately or expend funds or in-kind services from the funds as set forth herein for the purpose of campaigning, advertising, marketing or other activity that may directly or indirectly assist or benefit any political candidate or political party or political group or subgroup.
  a) This section in no way prohibits or restricts an entity or organization from publishing by any means available their views and opinions related to an issue of interest, however it may not directly or indirectly advocate for, support any candidate or political party, political group or subgroup.


12. Elected public office holders, their employees, and any government employee, or any volunteer who is providing a service to the government may not accept any gifts, money or in kind value on any kind while engaged and employed by the government or a member of Congress.

 13. No member of Congress upon leaving the Congress may NOT engage in any activity, to include, but not limited to, lobbying, legal representation of an entity that may have a vested interest in creating or maybe affected by legislation before the Congress or special interest group or be engaged in any other form of service which solicits or otherwise has contact with any seated members of Congress, their staffs and family members, with the exception of non-profit charitable organizations. 
  a) A violation of this article will result in a fine and/or imprisonment as set forth by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress, signed by the president and ratified by two-thirds of the States of the union.
  b) Any member of Congress found to have engaged in communications or other influence by a prior member of Congress for the purpose of influencing the creation or outcome of any legislation shall be in violation of this Article and subject to immediate dismissal as a member of Congress.

14. Any elected political office holder that is found to have violated this article shall immediately be removed from office and prohibited from holding a position of trust or elected office of any state, territory, protectorate and the federal government of the United States of America. Additionally, he/she may be subject to a fine that equals double what the value of the violation for which they were convicted of and a prison term not less than one year.

14. Any citizen, member of Congress or the Department of Justice may investigate and call for a hearing before a committee consisting of equal members of each party within the current seated Congress, as selected by their leadership and in their respective chamber of Congress and presided over by two members of the Supreme Court. If the member or prior member of Congress is convected of the offense as charged by the tribunal of Congress members, the Supreme Court shall sentence the offender under the provisions  set forth in paragraph 13 and 14 above. 

15. A member of Congress shall be paid no more than 150% of the 60th percentile of the lowest 90% of incomes of the population as reported by the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce and the Internal Revenue Service of the Department of the Treasury for the last tax filing period. 


16. A member of Congress will be provided housing in the Congressional Housing Unit while they are in session. The publicly provided housing shall not exceed 1,200 sq ft of finished living space and such housing shall be within a single structure or limited multiple structures. However, at no time shall the be single family dwellings. The utility costs of the housing shall be expended from the salary received by the member of Congress. If a member of Congress elects not to utilize the public provided housing, then no credit or other compensation shall be provided to the member of Congress for independent living outside the provided house unit. (The concept here is to reduce the cost of living in Washington D.C. by building high-rise residence towers near the Capitol that have adequate living space type condos for the members of Congress to live. Nothing extreme, but adequate for the job they do. This would also add to the security of the members by having controlled access to the living area. There should be a public meeting area on the first floor that allows the public to interface with the members of congress safely and securely. This also take out of the argument that they need a high salary to maintain a costly home in D.C. and retain their home in their hometown. We are suppose to have a citizen government and not royalty that are catered to or opulence in their living style paid for by the taxpayer through the high salary and perks they currently receive).

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!