It's Only Fair!

This is something I believe in and I hope you will take a moment to read it all the way through.

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, before e-mail, before 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.

I'm asking each person who reads this to forward it to as many people as you can.  Post it to your status on social networks.  Tweet it.  Email it.  Just get it out there.

Legislative Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits:

12 years maximum, pick any 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

2. No tickee, no laundry:

Legislators collect a salary while in office and receive no pay when they are not. If they are one of those slackers who rarely bother to show up for votes, or are never actually present in their office, they don't get paid.  Hell, put a time clock in and see how many hours they actually work and pay them by the hour.  There aren't any other jobs in America where you get paid for not doing your job and you get a full retirement without contributing to it or doing the time.  Why should our elected officials be any different?

3. Social Security:
 
Just as with every other government employee, and American worker, for that matter, legislators participate and contribute to the Social Security system. 

4.   Retirement:

Legislators purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.  They can buy into the regular government employee's retirement system, but abide by all the same rules, regulations and limitations as all other government employees do.

5.   Pay:

Legislators will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  They get the same percentage of increase as all other government workers.  If it's good enough for our military and every other government employee, it's good enough for them.  Most of them are millionaires when they enter office anyway, voting themselves huge annual pay raises is just unconscionable.

6. Health care:

Legislators lose their current health care system and have the option to participate in (and pay for) the same health care system as all other government employees.

7.  Laws:

Legislators must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people without exception.  I know they're already supposed to do this, but they don't.  Additionally, if they are convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, they go to real penitentiaries with real prisoners, not country clubs.

Serving as a legislator is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home.

If each person passed this message to twenty people, almost every citizen of the United States would receive it within 3 days. What good would it do?  I don't know, but we need to take control of our destinies.  Somewhere along the way, our legislators have lost all grips on reality.