How to fix congress

THIS IS HOW TO FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

A friend sent this along to me. I can't think of a reason to disagree.

  

I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we may disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends.  My friend and neighbor wants 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 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 hero's..

Thanks,

A Fellow American

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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 move 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, serve 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 loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as 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.

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 these contracts 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.

Obamanomics II: Budget Busting

Bored, I engaged in a little mental calisthenics and pushed around a few numbers this morning before leaving for Austin , TX and came up with the following using Congressional Budget Office ("CBO") stats over a period of decades:

Federal debt per CBO stats in Billions           Increase in debt from Nixon forward
                                                                     administration-to-
                                                                     administration

Richard Nixon 1969-1974 = $343.7 (a third of GDP) 0   = Our Base Index for Calculations   

Gerald Ford 1974- 1977 =$549.1                            $205.4
Jimmy Carter 1977-1981=$798.5                            $249.4
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989=$2,190.7                    $1,392.2
George H W Bush 1989-1993=$3,248.4               $1,057.7
Bill Clinton 1993-2001=$3,319.6                                $71.2
George W Bush 2001-2007=$5,035.1                   $1,715.5

2009 Obama (est.)  $12,867.5                               $7,832.5
   (over 90% of GDP!) 

(more than the debt of all previous presidents combined even when adjusted for inflation, which includes the Louisiana Purchase, umpteen wars, space program, depression bailout, "Great Society", etc., etc., etc.)

rising to over $18 Trillion in 2014, which is after the
next presidential election year..how convenient!     $13,964.9   which is off the charts

So why aren't we hearing about this in the lapdog press?  Leaving aside the fact that the press and the American public are innumerate, let's do the math: 

Forty-two percent of households pay no income tax (AKA "zero liability voters"), thanks to the earned income credit, among other gimmicks that violate equal protection.  If there are 300 Million people in the U.S. and an average of 3 per household, then there are 100 Million households, only 58 Million of which actually pay income taxes...so, $12,867,500,000,000 divided by 58 Million taxpaying households (i.e. roughly 12.8 Trillion divided by 58 Million) equals a debt of $221,853 per taxpaying household.

Clinton appears to have acted responsibly, but when you consider he destroyed much of our offensive and defensive capability by slashing military spending and shifted current account welfare liabilities "off balance sheet" to Social Security SSI as a future deferred funding mechanism, his slashing and burning just pushed these inevitable defense and welfare expenses off into future generations.

The scary thing is none of these numbers include social security, a Ponzi scheme which has been in the red for decades and will continue to worsen due to the graying of the workforce and continued unemployment/underemployment resulting in lower payrolls and, therefore, lower payroll tax receipts, plus Medicare, which WAS "pay as you go" program and is now squarely in the red, PLUS Dubya's Medicare Part "D", which has no funding mechanism and will grow with the graying of America...the situation is actually worse than it seems...much worse. Almost a year's worth of production has been swallowed by federal debt with over 90% of GDP in borrowed Federal money, which does not even include the states, counties, cities, quasi-governmental units like sewer and drainage districts, airport authorities, etc.

I am also worried about the continuing integrity of the CBO, which until now was non-partisan, non-political, but Pelosi, Obama, and Co. seem to be wielding influence there, so going forward, we might not be very well-informed as to what is really going on...depends who gets appointed by the Dems...use your imagination.  As you know, civil servants are like a rocket...if they don't work, you cannot fire them. It all points to rising rates and inflation just over the horizon, probably when employment ticks up...unless we end up like Japan with 23 years of no growth and stagnation...the worst case would be a combo of the two...stagflation.  Like on the Titanic, "...and the band played on..."

Cash For Clunkers: An Obamanomics Lesson

Ready for an Obamanomics lesson, kids? Let’s say you traded in your clunker worth $3,500, you got $4,500 off for an in cash for clunker "savings" for a net plus of $1,000 in savings. In case you did not know, you have to pay taxes on that $4,500 by April 15th (the dealer did not mention that???). Let’s say you have a 30% combined federal and state marginal rate, guess what? You’ll pay $1,350 on that $4,500 cash-for-clunker payment.

Instead of saving $1,000, you pay net $350 to the feds. If you traded in a paid-for car , congratulations: you now have 4 or 5 years of payments on a new car; that working car you had involved less expense to run than the payments that you will now be making, even if the thing had to be repaired occasionally. It gets better, though: you also got ripped off by the dealer. Why?

Dealers were selling the Ford Focus, for example, well-equipped (A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc.) for $12,500 the month before the "cash-for-clunkers" program began; afterward, the dealers stopped discounting them and instead, sold them at the list price of $15,500, $3,000 more than you would have the month before. Yeah, Honda, Toyota, and Kia, all bigger beneficiaries than our own car companies, played the same list price game as Ford, Chrysler, and Chevy.

Do the math: You traded in a car worth: $3,500
You got a discount of: $4,500

Net so far +$1,000

But you have to pay $1,350
in taxes on the $4,500

Net so far: -$350

BUT you paid $3,000 more than the car was selling for the month before

Net -$3,350

Add in the more taxes (ad valorem tax, state tax, registration, etc.) on the extra $3,000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan, but you get the idea. So who actually made out on the deal?

The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4,500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3,000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks/rebates/incentives from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. The poor, stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe Consumer that he was getting $4,500 in "free" money from the "government" when in fact, Joe was giving away his $3,500 working car and paying an additional $3,350 plus salesand other tax plus interest for the privilege.

Think this was stupid for those who were crazy enough to swallow this wonderful scheme? Just wait until we get health care with "no additional costs" over what most of us now pay for health insurance and the best medical care in the world. Think that scheme might be designed by the same people who came up with Cash-for-Clunkers?