Ending the deficit in 5 minutes

Rockdoc Franz wrote: Now this makes a whole lot of sense to me. Let the OWS crown focus on something as useful as this.

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. 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.

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.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All
funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. .... Sorry, but if they first became a Federal Employee (congress members ARE federal employees), they DO participate in Social security, that is one portion of the current.Federal Employees Retirement

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans
do. In addition to paying into Social Security, they pay a portion towards the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) which will ultimately grant them a whopping 1% of their High 3 salary for each year of service... providing they have at least 10 years of service and have reached age 62 (or 30 years at the Minimum Retirement Age) In addition, they can put money into the Thrift Savings Plan which is the federal government's version of a 401K plan. Up to the first 5% is matched but contributions are limited the same as any 401K plan - currently $16,500 maximum is allowed in contributions per year.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
same health care system as the American people. Congress has the same health care that ALL federal employees have access to - granted a wide variety of options but they also pay the same amount as other federal employees.

I'm no expert on the compensation structure for Congressional representatives or for Federal employees. I think the idea is to have their benefits more along the lines of every American. Correct me if mistaken, but aren't congressional representatives eligible for pensions valued at up to 80% of their average highest salary for 3 years. And that is just for the start of their annuity, it can obviously go a lot higher than that afterwards. I think many of us would love to have that kind of pension available for ourselves. It's simply not possible because of existing legislation doesn't allow an employer to do so, nor is that option available to us if we wanted to fund it ourselves. But it is available to congressmen. Sure they contribute, but it is a miniscule percentage compared to the payout.

The thrust of the argument is equality. It's agreed that there are some misconceptions, BUT truth be told, election to congress is highly beneficial to your financial security and that is not what it's supposed to be about. The primary purpose, as I understand it, is to represent the interest of American people. Frankly, I doubt there are a dozen elected members of congress who are there solely for that purpose.

Science Chic wrote: www.snopes.com/politics/medical/28thamendment.asp
28th Amendment

http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialse ... nsions.asp
Congressional Pensions

Those are not very informative. Yes, they do address the original posting of informaiton I quoted. However it does not really get away from my comment above, that congress men can end up with wonderful pensions. This after Shilolady clarified a few points.
FYI
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongres ... esspay.htm

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.

The amount of a congressperson's pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member's retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.

Bold and highlighted red text mine. Note that it only talks about starting annuity. What happens afterwards is left open and therefore can exceed 80%.

So eligibility is 50 as opposed to 60 or 65 years of age for most ordinary citizens lucky enough to get a pension. Being vested in a pension is the same as in industry with which I'm familiar. Then the amount is as I outlined in my previous post. Way better than anything an high powered professional much less an ordinary American gets. Oh you can present it any way you want, but when you look at the nitty gritty of it they do very well indeed. In fact federal employees in general do quite well. I know a bird Colonel whose retirement was a hefty 5k+ a month. How does that compare to a well paid professional who after ten -15 years of service comes away with 0.8-1k a month? Yep. Or tax dollars do reward our federal employees wells. I've no grip with those who have put their life on the line for our well being. I just have a difficult time with a federal employee who (let's for the sake of argument use a geologist working for the USGS) who certainly does not encounter anything more life threatening than a geologist in the oil industry getting a pension on par with a bird Colonel? The displeasure is not in denying another to enjoy a good pension, but I dam well want to earn similar opportunities. Let's face it, legislation prevents us from contributing more than a certain amount to a 401k if were in a position to make larger contributions. This in effect is a penalty that does not seem to apply to the federal retirement plan.

Rockdoc ... I am a federal employee so I am very familiar with the pension systems - yes SYSTEMS... there was the old, Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) which did not include social security and did top out at 80% of the high 3 salary... to get to the 80% you had to have 41 years and 11 months of service. That system is still in place today for those who were lucky enough to enter federal service before approximately 1984 (I'm not sure of the exact date, sorry). Under CSRS you are eligible to retire with an immediate annuity if you are age 55 with 30 years of service as a minimum retirement age. Some in Law Enforcement can retire at age 50 but not most federal employees. If an agency is undergoing significant downsizing, they can offer Early Retirement under a variety of scenarios but you are penalized 2% per year you are under 55 (plus of course the annuity is calculated on a lower number of years of service)...

What I described previously is the new Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) which all new employees (since the early 80s) are placed in and CSRS employees were given the option of converting to.

Yes, CSRS pensions are relatively generous but it was relatively standard for the times when it was implemented and most federal employees actually earn less than they could in the private sector if you factor in their skills and responsibilities. News reports like to lump all federal employees and compare them to all non-federal workers but they don't compare based on industry, education, required skills, needs for a security clearance etc.


(for what it's worth, I'm covered by CSRS and plan to retire when I hit age 55 with 32 years plus of service - I certainly won't hit the 80% figure but I'll be comfortable)

Given your response, your federal ties were evident. I'm not here to begrudge you your pension or that of many other federal employees I have as friends. Good for you.

The issue is there is inequality in pension plans allowed by law and that needs to be rectified. The sign of the times is that the period of generosity is over and our government needs to go on a financial diet just like it's expected and experienced by the Americans in general. That at least is where I'm coming from in my thoughts.

I agree that the country needs to go on a financial diet. I also think that we need to get back to what our founding fathers envisioned of citizens taking a sabbatical to serve in congress for a term or two and then returning to the private sector. I do get tired of people thinking that congress gets a special deal on health benefits and retirement, they get the same deal all federal employees do. The FERS system is closer to what most in private sector see today and I know that there are proposals to even change that.

I honestly don't agree with some federal employees who post on a federal forum who complain about all the proposals that might impact feds... we all need to do our part and I understand that. We just can't keep spending as if there's no tomorrow and I'm sorry but 'cuts' that are actually reductions in the assumed increase in futures years are not true cuts.

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.

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.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

Dupe.