Rules for congress

Rules for congress

Lets talk about our elected officials. This will be ALL elected officials from school board members to federal congress. Each level would have its own limits. I will be focusing on state and federal congressional reps. (Senate and congress, state and federal) .
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elections:
Let's start at the beginning:
Any naturalized US citizen who has lived  in the United States for 10 years or more can run for office.
Funds used for the election: this includes advertising for TV, radio, and print, parties and other gatherings. As well as handbills and any other media used to pass out to the General Public. 
Election funds from all sources can not exceed $20,000. Excess funds will be returned to donors or distributed to a school fund. This will address the old adage that one has to be rich to run for office. It also puts the candidates on equal footing. People can decide which candidate they like based on what the candidates are about, less on their budget.
Contributions: Every penny of campaign funds will be traceable up to the ultimate donor. Each candidate can raise only
Any person who has owed the government any back taxes over the past 10 years and/or who has paid their taxas late more than twice in the past 10 years it is forbidden from holding public office.
All candidates will make their Financial and all personal records available for public scrutiny at least one month before the campaign starts. Once elected if the representative is late paying taxes or doesn't immediately pay fines or make arrangements to pay fines within 2 years, they will be immediately relieved of Duty. Their pay (past and future)  will be garnished ubtil all fines sre paid. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner Once Sold over $200,000 in back taxes while he was in office. This was a travesty!
All election details like duration of the election and other election details will be handled by a civilian panel.
Election panel is volunteer then compulsory with no one serving for more than two elections.

HOW ARE WE DOING?
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No campaigning can be done in Washington DC.

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Annual Congressional pay (from ALL SOURCES INCLUDING speaking engagements, published works, salary, benefits and fringe benefits). Congressional shall never exceed the average annual pay of the citizens in that district. NOT TO EXCEED $100,000 regardless of whether average annual pay in the district exceeds that amount .
Sources of income would also include gifts from all sources.

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All "special" perks are instantly disbanded.
This includes but is not limited to:
congressional social security program. Congress will participate in the same social security as the citizens without any suppliments
Lifetime postal support. While in office, postage from Congress to constituents will be covered. Any other postage will be paid by the congressional rep.
Congressional real estate including but not limited to apartments,  condominiums, Townhomes, single and multi family homes.
These will all be sold with all proceeds going to district schools.

Lifetime bodyguards : ends immediately after term of service. If you've pissed off your constituents so much that you need bodyguards, you should probably just move. If on the other hand if you've treated your constituents well, they will protect you.

Congressional doctors/lawyers/ mental health, other services. Ends immediately.  Congress will employ the same healthcare as their constituents. All monies that we're going to the services will now be added back into the general fun for the United States.

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Lets set some ground rules and definitions here. A “representative” is ANY official, elected, appointed or whatever who draws a government salary. That means the senators granddaughter who draws pay as a paige is a representative. I will capitalize Senator and Congressional rep when they deserve it. Right now, I’m afraid that none of them do.

Ok, let's talk about the debit limit. We don't need to raise the debit limit, we need to review state and federal congressional an senatorial "benefits package". For example:

Let them pay into and draw from social security instead of the secret special fund they use as a substitute for social security. They get a almost 100% of their pay for the rest of their life. The average citizen gets considerably less from social security. With benefits like that they have no incentive to fix the social security system of the common person.

Let them taste the swill called Medicare that they are so quick to dish out to Americans and so ready to skim money from at their whim. Let them use Medicare instead of the secret government medical plan which gives them FREE medical for LIFE.

Let them buy their postage after they're out of office instead of the free postage for LIFE they enjoy now. Even if they were impeached, found guilty and removed from office, tarred and feathered, they would STILL enjoy FREE POSTAGE FOR LIFE after leaving office.

If our elected representatives spent as much time in their own districts as they did overseas, their constituents (we the people) might actually KNOW WHO THEY ARE. Honest to God, I’ve NEVER met a representative spontaneously.  Heck for the 10 years I was un or under employed, I never saw ANYONE from the government. During the telecom exodus, reps should have been waiting outside the buildings to talk to the steady stream of newly unemployed. How can your government help you? But NO, you have to set up an appointment, only during these months, only during these times. HEY, I NOW WORK for a living. You should be available to ME. On MY SCHEDULE. Representatives should canvass their constituents DIRECTLY. Go to the malls, set up a booth. TALK to your people. Get their reactions of the people to their, their travel schedules… UNCENSORED.
Let them experience the limits of gifts that most of corporate America lives with. If they go on some exotic junket paid for by a prince or king or worse yet LOBBYISTS, they should forfeit their pay for the duration of their "expedition". No gifts in ANY form are allowed to be taken from these trips. After all, their expenses are most likely covered and then some. Likewise if they get a gift of $100,000; deduct that amount from that years pay or sell the gift and put the money in the general fund of the districts represented. There will be a lot fewer “objects d’art” in Washington that’s for sure. Staying "home" will give them better focus on what matters; their CONSTITUENTS. I don’t care where you go or what you do; no foreign travel will ever be more important than seeing your constituents! That is what I’m sure is an uncomfortable truth for you…DEAL WITH IT.

Let's talk about SALARY. Can WE THE PEOPLE vote ourselves a raise? NO! Well representatives can! AND THEY DO...ALL THE TIME. WE THE PEOPLE need to pass legislation so ANY changes to their salary must be approved by their constituents and have a CAP of 10% UNDER the average American wages. Let’s see how good an idea it is THEN to farm work out of this country. Maybe this would be a REMINDER that being an elected rep (at ANY level) means you SERVE your constituents. A rep who makes so much more than most of the people they represent might tend to think they are BETTER (or as George Orwell said "more equal") than the rest of us.

These people are living the high life making 6 digit salaries while their constituents have LOST THEIR JOBS because of LEGISLATION designed to encourage outsourcing of American work to other countries. Our representatives need a REALITY CHECK!

Did you know about the secret apartments? YEAH part of our money went and goes to build a whole neighborhood of townhomes for use by a representative who wants to spend some "quality" time with a mistress or lady (or gentleman) of the oldest profession. AGAIN no one of ANY of their constituents EVER approved construction of said houses. Very few know, BUT they're there!

Now, let's talk about nepotism. Our governmental representatives MUST have a STAFF or a team or whatever they call it these days. Let the pay for these staff members come from that representative’s pay, NOT the taxpayer’s pocket. Most of their "staff" are directly related anyway. How many representatives do you know that don’t have a brother, cousin, aunt or uncle working in the government? An allowance for their office space could be paid for by taxpayers but nothing over 10% of their monthly prorated income. And BO MORE.NEPOTISM !

Since we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we should limit use of government aircraft to international use. Most government owned and operated domestic only aircraft should be sold. Use of any remaining government domestic only aircraft must be approved by the president and vice president.  Any time a government rep wants to fly to any state in the union, they should be comfortable on commercial airlines; with the people. With their constituents. This will give “we the people” more access to our elected representatives and ensure they are doing their LEVEL BEST to ensure the safety of U.S. travelers.

One of the problems our elected representatives have is they think they are entitled to MORE. Right now (and for a long time before) the consensus in D.C. Is "you can't talk to ME that way, I'm a US Senator! (like they're BETTER than us). What the consensus NEEDS TO BE is "you CAN talk to me BECAUSE I AM A US Senator! I serve YOU." Right now, it seems to be the other way around.

ANIMAL FARM: this conspicuously appropriate work of art should be required reading both in grade school and again in high school and again in college. AND YEARLY BY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES! They should know the lessons taught by this work of literature by heart and live those lessons every day.

Crime and Punishment: ANY representative found guilty of violating ANY law will forfeit their job effective immediately. Any representative LATE paying their taxes MUST pay their taxes in full then forfeits their job immediately and face charges of treason. Anyone drawing government pay without contributing is a TRAITOR. We must not allow traitors to be a part of running our government.

TERM LIMITS: let's talk about that. If you spend more than 4 terms in any combination of government office, you're pro

As a "commoner" (not part of the ruling elite) I'd like to suggest some improvements for congress

Rules for congress

Lets talk about our elected officials. This will be ALL elected officials from school board members to federal congress. Each level would have its own limits. I will be focusing on state and federal congressional reps. (Senate and congress, state and federal) .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
elections:
Let's start at the beginning:
Any naturalized US citizen who has lived  in the United States for 10 years or more can run for office.
Funds used for the election: this includes advertising for TV, radio, and print, parties and other gatherings. As well as handbills and any other media used to pass out to the General Public.  Election funds can not exceed $20,000. This will address the old adage that one has to be rich to run for office.
Every penny of campaign funds will be traceable up to the ultimate donor.
Any person who has owed the government any back taxes over the past 10 years and/or who has paid their taxas late more than twice in the past 10 years it is forbidden from holding public office.
All candidates will make their Financial and all personal records available for public scrutiny at least one month before the campaign starts. Once elected if the representative is late paying taxes or doesn't immediately pay fines or make arrangements to pay fines within 2 years, they will be immediately relieved of Duty. Their pay (past and future)  will be garnished ubtil all fines sre paid. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner Once Sold over $200,000 in back taxes while he was in office. This was a travesty!
All election details like duration of the election and other election details will be handled by a civilian panel.
Election panel is volunteer then compulsory with no one serving for more than two elections.

HOW ARE WE DOING SO FAR?

Lets talk about "Congress"

Webster says : the chief lawmaking body of a republic that in the United States is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

For our purposes, we'll have State and Federal Congresses. They do different functions but administratively we can treat them the same.

WHY ARE OUR TAXES SO HIGH?

IF THIS WERE TRULY A GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE, we would have laws preventing those WE ELECT AND THAT WE PAY from SCREWING UP OUR TAX SYSTEM. There should be a law stating that if the candidate for office (appointed or otherwise) has back taxes due (remember Tim Geithner?) they cannot hold office until and for 2 year after they brought their taxes up to date: I.E. PAID IN FULL. I'm proud of our country and it's President Obama... but when Obama allowed him to waltz through WITHOUT PAYING ANY PENALTIES, I was truly disguisted. Below is a quote from the "Wall Street Journal"




In 2006, the IRS audited Mr. Geithner's 2003 and 2004 taxes and concluded he owed taxes and interest totaling $17,230, according to documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. The IRS waived the related penalties.





During the vetting of Mr. Geithner late last year, the Obama transition team discovered the nominee had failed to pay the same taxes for 2001 and 2002. "Upon learning of this error on Nov. 21, 2008, Mr. Geithner immediately submitted payment for tax that would have been due in those years, plus interest," a transition aide said. The sum totaled $25,970.



IS IT ME OR DID WE JUST LET A CROOK, CHEAT AND LIER into office?

Post from Lars Larson about federal employees paying their taxes

the following is from the webpage listed below.


Lars Larson: Federal employees not paying their taxes


by In the news Sunday, March 7. 2010

You know I’m not crazy about paying my taxes either, but if you’re working for the government you really ought to pay the IRS.



The story is kind of stunning. Hundreds and hundreds of people who work for the federal government simply haven’t paid their taxes. According to Politico, 447 House employees and 231 Senate workers didn’t pay their taxes in 2008.





That’s 2008. We’re going on two years since then and the total amount owed is $10 million. And, now the Democrats have pulled a bill that would have made all those people to either pay their taxes, come to some kind of settlement with the IRS, or lose their job in the government.



If you expect all of us private sector citizens to pay our taxes and support the government, then the very least you can do is to make sure that everyone working in the government, and especially in Congress, has to pay their taxes and pay them somewhat on time.


http://oregoncatalyst.com/index.php/archives/3111-Lars-Larson-Federal-employees-not-paying-their-taxes.html

Profitable?

Here in the bottom rungs of the private sector, we find quickly that if the company does not do well, WE do not do well. That is, no more bonuses, no raises, COLA? WHAT'S THAT?

BUT IN THE GOVERNMENT, they vote themselves raises EVERY CHANCE THEY GET! If the were working in an actual COMPANY, it would be out of business by now. Because despite a $3+TRILLION deficit, THEY'LL GET ANOTHER RAISE NEXT YEAR! It SAYS in the rules that no U.S. representative HAS to accept a raise. But I'll bet in the time since they started accepting pay, we could count without going over 100 how many reps turned their raises down. And even then, if they turned a raise down, what other perk got added to their purse?

We all know that the CEO's of companies make obscene amounts of money while they lay off workers because they "can't afford" to keep them. But our representatives just keep on accepting raises. Maybe we should give them $100 a year until the deficit is $0?

GREED AND AVARICE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

OK, let’s look at a few things here: Mainly, (right now) the concept of a “CAREER” in politics. The founders of this country were basically farmers. When the idea of our own government came up, they knew that SOMEONE had to “run the country” and that everyone would be looking at the founders and signers of the Declaration of Independence to show the people how it was to be done.




The founders looked upon working in politics as a necessary evil. They had to give over the running of their farms and businesses to someone else for the duration of their term in office. Let’s face it “jack of all trades master of none” meaning you can’t effectively run a farm/business and a country at the same time. So they GAVE UP their jobs (and their pay) to work for a GOVERNMENT PAYCHECK. This was a FRACTION of the pay they would have made at their trade! Ben Franklin even wanted government work to be done free of charge. Just a small per diem reimbursement. THAT would have been nice...THEY NEVER expected that the government they started would pay such ridiculous salaries and benefits! So they never even THOUGHT about term limits. THAT’S why there is no term limit written into The Constitution! They thought “You’d have to be crazy to want to spend more time in office than was absolutely expected of you.” Ah, crazy like a FOX.



Every rep in office is benefitting from the GREED and AVARICE of every rep that came before them. DOUBT IT? CHECK UP ON THE BENEFITS THEY GET! THEY DON’T PAY INTO SOCIAL SECURITY! They have their OWN SPECIAL social security. They get FULL PAY after they retire! They don’t EVER pay for ANY postage from the time they’re elected to the time they die! EVEN IF THEY’VE BEEN IMPEACHED AND REMOVED FROM OFFICE! There’s more, but I’ll post that later.



If you doubt what I’ve blogged here, take a few SECONDS and check it out yourself! MOST people have NO IDEA about the OBSCENE BENEFITS these people have voted for themselves!