Someone posted this on Facebook and I sorta liked it. I don't think there are very many Americans on either side of the aisle who would disagree with most of the provisions. But I also don't think that our Congress would ever do anything like this.

Winds of Change.... 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 this message. This is one idea that really should be passed around. *Congressional Reform Act of 2013 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're 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/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women 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. Don't you think it's time? THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS! If you agree with the above, pass it on.

The only one I don't have a real problem with is #3. My dad was a government employee for 40 years. He earned his pension. He paid into it. Every check had an amount deducted, just like the rest of us have deducted for Social Security. He received no Social Security benefits, and he didn't pay into Social Security. I believe it's the same pension that Congress has access to. Basically it's an annuity, payable for the life of my father and his wife (albeit at a lower rate after my father died). I don't see anything wrong with allowing them access to such a retirement plan, assuming that they meet the requirements for receiving it. If those requirements include a certain number of years of service to be fully vested, that's fair.

What do you think?

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edit - This was posted on Facebook as I posted it here. But then I checked with Snopes and it turns out that Warren Buffett never suggested that people pass this around the country via email. Nor did he apparently come up with these reforms. What Buffett said was that he could end the deficit problem in about 3 minutes by passing a law that anytime the deficit is more than 3% greater than the GDP (or something like that), no sitting congresspersons would be able to run for reelection. He said that would solve all the problems.

That quote was appended to the original chain email at the beginning, and it then went on to say that he had asked everyone to email it to 20 people, knowing that people in the middle (like me) respect Buffett for both his wealth and business acumen AND his compassion and common sense when it comes to "common" people. Buffett's name gives it credibility. Of course, it is still not a bad set of ideas...

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