Warren Buffett, In A Recent Interview With CNBC, Offers One Of The Best Quotes About The Debt Ceiling

[PorkChopSandwiches]

"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.


*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.


THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

[Muddy]

Sounds like a plan to me.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

There's a simpler way without amending the Constitution...you just put in term limit laws like a lot of states already have

[PorkChopSandwiches]

There's a simpler way without amending the Constitution...you just put in term limit laws like a lot of states already have

That doesn't "fix" the deficit issue.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

No, but it throws out politicians ;)

[PorkChopSandwiches]

True, but I think if you force them to be held accountable then you end up with better people in office and less need for turnover. I dont know if starting fresh with a whole fed full of rookies is always the best option. Unless they are fucking us like now :dance:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

How can it be any worse? :nana:

[Deepsepia]

There's a simpler way without amending the Constitution...you just put in term limit laws like a lot of states already have

Term limits don't put the incentives in the right place.

Think about it: if you can only serve 8 years, then you only have 8 years to deliver enough bennies to constituencies to ensure that you can get employed as a lobbyist when the 8 years are up.

The Buffett idea is a subtle one-- it connects incentive ("want to stay in office") with power ("keep the deficit within reason") at the time the decision is being made.

As with all one sentence solutions, it leaves out a lot of details . . . Congress has lots of ways of spending stuff off-Budget, and counting money that isn't really there to be spent as revenue.

Still, as one sentence solutions go, I like the Buffett notion more than others.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I hate to break it to Warren, but since a Constitutional amendment needs to be voted on by the sitting members of Congress, there's a better chance of snow in Bora Bora than anything like this being passed ;)

[Deepsepia]

I hate to break it to Warren, but since a Constitutional amendment needs to be voted on by the sitting members of Congress, there's a better chance of snow in Bora Bora than anything like this being passed ;)

I dunno. There are Tea Party types who would go along with something like this, and Buffett is seen as liberal. You might get enough people with money -- who fund the campaigns-- to demand this.

Stuff like this seems impossible . . . until it happens.

The thing is, Congress' own solution the bipartisan deficit super-committee, now seems likely to fail to reach agreement, in which case we get the automatic cuts. Some are now saying that if the committee fails, that may lead to another downgrade of US debt -- at which point the heat does turn up on these guys.

[FBD]

pfft, the deficit commission was another set-up-to-fail entity, plainly evidenced by the jamokes they chose to staff it with on the D side. there was never going to be any agreement on this - the republicans chose serious candidates, the democrats chose some of the worst spendthrifts in their ranks.

all Obama 2012 is, is a campaign of setups to make the republicans look obstructionst and gosh how can you vote for a racist kill grandma bunch of whackos that want to take away your kid's education, award the billionaires, and make sure women die on the floor of the emergency room!?!

its more of a joke than ever.