Proposal to the New Congress of 2011

The following is what I have presented to my representative and senator to the US Congress and would appreciate if fellow Americans follow suit in addressing their 2011 members of the Congress of the United States:

Proposal for a Congressional Reform Act of 2011

Congress has a lower rating than President Obama, which may change when the new Congress gets into action. However, in order to truly reform and create a true change in the right direction, the following is proposed to be established as a US bill in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, with state governments following suit in keeping government limited and on the same course it was created to follow:

1. Term Limits. Twelve years tops. Two six-year Senate terms and three four-year House terms.
2. No Tenure – No Pension. A congressman or congresswoman collects a salary while in office by election – they are NOT government employees; therefore once they leave office, either by vote or misconduct, they receive no further payment.
3. Social Security. Congress members can rely on Social Security retirement pension and/or any personal investments made toward their retirement like the rest of the nation. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund will be moved to the Social Security system and the social security system will have the option to keep it as the social security laws provide now or have their paid funding go to a selected investment program/account. The People have a right to say how their retirement funding should be administered as well as the right to provide it to a person or charitable fund by administering a legal will for any funds remaining in their individual retirement account.
4. Congressional Pay Raises. Congress will no longer automatically provide their pay raise. Pay raises will be established by the lower of CPI or 3 percent, and it must be submitted as a regular bill proposed for legislation.
5. Health Care. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in private, individual health care systems such as the American People have. Once again, they are elected individuals, not employees.
6. Conduct and Rule of Law. Congressional members will abide by all laws they impose upon the American People and ensure that the President of the United States and the Executive Office enforces those laws; in example – immigration laws and rules of conduct as well as federal laws against perjury, fraud and congressional conduct.
7. Lobbying. All contracts will be reexamined and properly voided effective 2011 for the best interest of the American People and not special interest groups, et cetera.
8. Taxation. Presently the federal government and too many state governments tax everything and continue to use the unfair and intrusive income tax system. Whatever one earns as income is up to that individual to decide where and how it is spent. Thus, a flat tax of consumption is the answer, preferably at no higher than ten percent. Many advantages of this has been pointed out by prominent economists, intellectuals, and members of Congress – but has been ignored for far too long. Those that create more income will automatically pay more under the common denominator that one spends more when one makes more. Items like homes, used merchandise and food will be exempt from any consumption tax.
9. US Veterans. If Congress establishes that it is required, and/or the Commander-in-Chief that the US Armed Forces participate in a war or combative environment, then they must maintain their promises under the Veterans Administrative responsibilities, as well as provide proper funding to do so. The VA would benefit to using its funding more effectively and economically if they close all state VA hospitals and provide liaison in local hospitals to provide care required. Some VA clinics may remain, but this also can be an affiliation with a private sector clinic. Veterans have to travel so far to receive the care they earned. By having a liaison with local hospitals/clinics, this would not have to be such a burden to neither the veteran nor the government who provides travel pay compensation. Veterans will receive the care they deserve at less the cost of operating hospitals and clinics only for veterans. For those who are wounded and require special treatment and care while on active duty or medically discharged will have the Washington, DC hospital (Reese) and on post hospitals for their special care. The object is to provide the best care possible for veterans, while relieving the burden of cost to the taxpayer. A small VA administrative office within local hospital and clinic systems costs far less than a hospital or clinic as is the case in the present system of caring for veterans. Congress members should investigate into the cost savings, logistics and administration procedures for such a major change.
10. Government Charity. Congress is not in the business of charity in respect to using the funds provided by the American taxpayer. This Congress beginning in January of 2011 should strive towards not how many bills are presented or voted upon to be legislated, but the quality and constitutionality of anything that is presented. America has more charitable institutions that are private than any other nation and most Americans try to support useful and beneficial programs of their choice. Using any American’s tax funding for charitable reasons without a majority vote of the people is unacceptable. Charity is not social programs that help Americans help themselves or during national disasters, helping American victims recover from national tragedies.
11. Social Programs. Federal (and state) government programs that help people help themselves who need it in order to prevent starvation, homelessness, et cetera must be examined to ensure that it is running efficiently, fairly and the purpose for what it was intended for. Social programs should be used only to help people help themselves.
12. Bills and Legislation. It is the responsibility of members of Congress to ensure that all proposed bills and legislation passing the House and Senate to adhere to constitutional law and limitation of government. What belongs to the responsibilities of the state governments should be left to the state governments, such as matters pertaining to the education of American citizen children. Education is important and in the past the problems with our educational system has been addressed to be lack of funding – which has proven to be incorrect. Despite all the funding that goes to the national education system, America is slipping behind in educational standards compared globally. The answer is not how much funding is required, but what is done with what has been earmarked for educational funding. Primarily schools, colleges and universities are for the students, which should be the major concern. It is true that teachers and professors should receive proper employment compensation for the education required and meeting educational standards (that can be nationally standardized without federal interference with state and local authorities) – but has been proven in the private sectors, unions work against the system as well as the economic cycle. Unions were meant to be concerns of private industry – not government institutions. An example of how this works we can only look at the recent government intervention of the automotive industry, along with the wrongful bailouts of banking and financial industries that only encourage poor investing decisions of banking and financial institutions.
13. Government Employees. Government requires citizens to be hired to perform specific jobs, but the growth rate of government has increased the percentage between private sector employment and government employment greatly. To not drop a social program or any government agency due to inefficiency and the concept of limited government because citizens will be unemployed is a poor excuse for unacceptable government growth. Government is not intended to be a means to employ or engage in employment of the People of any nation – that is the private sector’s responsibility. Past history shows that limited government intervention has been better for the economy of the nation and the rights and liberties of its citizens. Opposite is the truth for the Big Government policies and procedures. In many cases government intervention into private enterprise and public institutions has been the key cause of rising costs. An example would be the recent bill proposed in Congress that would require that all automobile manufactures put rear-view cameras on ALL vehicles. This has and should be an option choice for the consumer. Safety standards are important, but in this case, rear-view cameras will not stop accidents of people backing up – but will raise the cost of the vehicle purchased.
14. National Self Sufficiency. America is blessed with natural resources, yet our federal government insists upon depending upon foreign crude oil sources. A recent oil spill accident that horrified many is no excuse for not seeking to tell the Middle East and other anti-American crude oil producing nations that they can drink their oil at the prices they cause to rise for the consumers. Oil is a commodity and its price is based upon supply and demand – recent heavy rise in crude oil cost has been because the OPEC nations have refused to produce more crude to meet the demand – not that they have a limited resource of it. The problem with the recent BP oil spill disaster regarding offshore drilling is that our government did not act upon BP’s numerous safety violations – as well as incompetence within the BP corporation. President Obama made the cost of oil rise as well because he has put a moratorium on new oil drilling off the shores of the United States and has not worked with Congress in seeking onshore drilling requested by states of the Union. Alaska and its government/people should decide whether they wish to drill more within their state – not the federal government. There is no reason, other than political that the federal lands within Alaska cannot produce American crude oil and still maintain ecological standards to keep America beautiful and protect its other resources such as animals in the wild.

These are the major problems I feel that need to be addressed during this historical year of 2011 when we have the opportunity to return our nation to the Jeffersonian republic for which it was created and what the majority of voters showed in the last election is what they want.

Serving Congress is an honor and a privilege – not a career or place to further one’s private enterprises. Politicians should be foremost statesmen and stateswomen – racial caucuses should be eliminated. The members of Congress represent ALL American citizens regardless of race, creed, sex or religious beliefs.

It is about time that once elected, politicians become statesmen and stateswomen – and regard honor, integrity and the will and welfare of the United States and its People above all else.

To correct mistakes and transgressions takes longer than preventing them. That is why our government was established with powers that are limited and the checks and balances system. The wisdom of our Founding Fathers should not be devalued or ignored.