Have you received an e-mail from a friend, relative, or an aquaintance that looks like this:

-----Original Message-----
From: Xxxlx Xxxxlxxxl 
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 3:12 PM
To: Xxlxx Xlxy
Subject: FW: Reform Act 2011


In a recent interview with CNBC, Warren Buffett
offered the following quote about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,"
Warren Buffett 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 and 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
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) Congressmen can purchase their own retirement
plan, just as all Americans do.

4) Congress will no longer vote itself a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower
of CPI or 3%.

5) Congress loses its 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.

If you agree with the above, pass it on.

If not, just delete it. You are one of my 20+.

Mr. Warren Buffett did comment that he could end the deficit by passing a law that says anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. That part is true. The rest of the e-mail message was invented, fabricated. Warren Buffet did NOT comment on any more than that. Who invented the rest of the message said to have come from Warren Buffett?

Currently we are about 93% of GDP (as of 2010), a far cry from the measly 3% of GDP . . .

In 2010 GDP was $14,526,550,000,000 (according to "International Monetary Fund").

In 2010 federal debt was approx. $13,500,000,000,000 (see U.S. Government Spending page)

Currently we are about 93% of GDP (as of 2010), a far cry from the measly 3% of GDP. Even if great congress members were elected, none of them would be re-elected because there is no way for them to reduce the debt in time for their next re-election. House members only serve in 2 year terms which would make it impossible to reduce the amount of debt in that short of time down to 3%.

Secondly, Warren Buffett is suggesting (the part that he actually said) it as a super wealthy corporate head. Of course he could do the job without benefits because he already gets a huge salary. The common person could not afford to quit their current jobs and then serve in congress and then return to the work force 2 years later where there are no jobs. So who would be motivated to take congressional positions?

You guessed it: big corporate heads or people whom the corporate heads pay for (which is already being done to a large extent).

Corporate heads don't care whether they serve one term or multiple terms because it would not be their career nor a source of income for them. All that would matter to corporate heads is that they get to dictate policy for their own corporate benefits during their terms and then the next corporate head takes his/her turn for the next term. All the corporate heads or their paid puppets will pass policies for their own benefits, not for the common person's benefit. It's the "good old boys club" in over-drive!

Thirdly, the national debt would never get reduced because the super rich have no motivation to reduce the debt. In fact they caused most of the debt in the first place by passing policies that enable the rich to not pay their fair share of taxes, get massive bailouts, and to have the government pay them subsidies (in other words corporate welfare). The rich are by far the biggest welfare recipients around and they want to keep it that way. IF they are the only ones in office, they will ensure that they never help pay off their fair share of the debt themselves. WE the poor will be forced to pay for their debt (if they have their way).

The only people that are slowing down slightly the complete corporate take-over of the USA is the occasional little guy who wins an election here or there, but that is so rare you could count the numbers on one hand. Basically the corporation Big-Wigs have reasoned that if they discourage the little guy from running at all, then they will have completely free reign of all congressional offices without any sort of road blocks. Of course the super rich already exert massive power, but it would only be worse if this "Warren Buffett" plan were to be enacted.

With that said...

...You can pass this along to all your friends if you like.