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.
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 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!
Stolen from Facebook but, sounds reasonable to me.
Edited: Although, I would add one thing, forbidding any elected official (or his/her family) from investing in any business deal in which insider knowledge is used due to the elected official's knowledge of any potential legislation effecting the invested corporation/company. The penalty should be imprisonment and loss of any profits attained.
Rams
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 09-09-2025).]
I agree with it, but I would be surprised if Warren Buffet actually said this. He benefits significantly from a bloated budget.
I think this is all much more nuanced, and Congress is its own enemy in this case.
A law like that could be beneficial, but it would realistically need to be a long-term solution (I realize we don't have too many years left). It would need to be something where we make cuts year over year, while agreeing to lower interest rates. Under COVID, "the Government," became +30% of the GDP in the United States... where as traditionally it's been more like 10-11% in a very healthy economy. I think (last I checked) it's around 21-22%, which is still outsized.
We'd need a four year plan that sought to achieve a zero deficit budget, and then the next four years of an increasing budget surplus to get us back on track.
Otherwise... because the government is so intertwined with the economy, we run the risk of total economic collapse by dramatically cutting Federal spending. Even right now, with DOGE... the Government has cut tons of spending, and there are even ~750k fewer Government employees in 2025 (by the end of this month). These are almost all people with degrees, and relatively high earners... most of them 6 figures or higher. That has a dramatic impact on the economy. I agree with it of course, but this is the reason why Trump is so pissed with Jerome Powell for refusing to lower the interest rate. It's not a magic fix of course, but it spurs investment and spending.
To be completely honest, with the tariffs, the massive Federal lay-offs, and the DOGE cuts, it's amazing that we haven't gone into a recession. It speaks volumes about how strong the economy is, and the trust / enthusiasm people have (long term) for Trump's economic plan.
I have a different and simpler plan to fix Congress. Repeal the 16th and 17th Amendment.
The counter to the excesses of Congress was not more amendments to the Constitution. It is the states. Each state was supposed to use their representation in Congress to fight against other state's abusing the power of Congress. Those two amendments took power away from the states and by default gave power to political parties.
The 16th Amendment did away with apportioning taxes based on representation to the states. States that pay the most taxes would also have the most representation. That means that they also have a bigger stake in where their money is being spent. Each state would have a bigger interest in seeing money spent properly. This might even fix the illegal aliens being counted for represenation problem if those states were also taxed on their representation.
The 17th Amendment removed the state's direct representation in the Senate. This weakened the states and gave power to political parties. Senators have more loyalty to their party than their states since it is their party that gets them elected.
The 17th Amendment removed the state's direct representation in the Senate. This weakened the states and gave power to political parties. Senators have more loyalty to their party than their states since it is their party that gets them elected.
Yeah... this is the one that bothers me the most. Obviously, it happened way before my time... but when I eventually learned about it, it made perfect sense as to why the framers did this originally. Having direct elections for the senators eliminates the interest of the State's representation in the Federal government. If we hadn't removed this... the senate would be overwhelmingly Republican by the simple fact that most state legislatures are Republican. It was a means of further democratizing our government.
Yeah... this is the one that bothers me the most. Obviously, it happened way before my time... but when I eventually learned about it, it made perfect sense as to why the framers did this originally. Having direct elections for the senators eliminates the interest of the State's representation in the Federal government. If we hadn't removed this... the senate would be overwhelmingly Republican by the simple fact that most state legislatures are Republican. It was a means of further democratizing our government.
Arguably, that was the start of the massive, intentional, damage done to our Republic by the start of the "Progressive era".
That rat-bastard, "Father of American Progressivism", Woodrow Wilson, later took an axe to more fundamentals enshrined by our founders with his tariff reduction, the creation of the Federal Reserve system, and establishing the Federal Trade Commission....and much more.
Like all Leftists though, his rancid racism remained abundantly exemplified with his showing of the KKK film "Birth of a Nation" at the White House.
Leftists gotta Leftist
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 09-10-2025).]
