So I received one of those email forwards yesterday asking me to forward its contents to twenty people so the entire nation would get the news in three days.  And when that happened everyone needed to put pressure on their congressmen.  I didn’t forward it on however the contents were rather interesting.

First, it says, “Warren Buffett, ‘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.’”

Ok you have my attention.

The email then outlines a proposed “Congressional Reform Act of 2011″.  Below are the seven parts listed in the email.  It concluded with, “This is how you fix congress”. Now I don’t actually think any of this is going to happen.  But I must say, the content below is the most thought provoking email forward I have ever received.  Thus, I wanted to preserve the idea somewhere before deleting the email.

On a side note, if PRO is the opposite on CON, then what is the opposite of PROgress?

The contents:

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

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 01/01/2012. 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.