Fixing America – Ideas 10 – 13
Blog No. 110
December 10, 2019
Fixing America – Ideas 10-13
Reading Time: 7 Minutes
By Mack W. Borgen, Recipient of Eight National Book Awards. For a “cleaner” / non-email presentation of this and my other blogs, essays, and articles, please go to my website at https://www.mackwborgen.com/ and hit the “Blog” tab on the header bar.
Introduction
This is the fourth article in my series of Ideas Blogs. In this series, I present ideas which might help in “fixing America.”
Some of the ideas are my own. Some of them I have come across in the course of my research over these last now 12 years for my last two series of books – The Relevance of Reason (Vols I and II) (2013-2014) and Dead Serious and Lighthearted (Vols I, II, and III) (2018-2019). A few of them are older, even well-known ideas which I believe reconsideration.
These ideas cover a wide range of subjects. The ideas are presented without lengthy comment or recommendation, but I believe that you, like me, may conclude – like the title of my initial blog in this series – that many of the ideas already percolating out there in our America “are good … and some are brilliant.” Enjoy.
(Related) Ideas Nos. 10-11-12
Cap or Tie Congressional Pay Increases,
Scrutinize and Eliminate Congressional Health Care Plans,
Eliminate the Congressional Retirement System
Background: At first blush, these may seem to be radical ideas or even retributive ideas due to what many Americans view as, at best, a broken or disappointing U.S. Congress. However, these recommendations are not meant to be either harsh or punitive. Instead, they are suggested merely because each idea is, in a sense, almost overlapping and rooted in logic, fairness, and history.
(1) Cap or Tie Congressional Pay Increases. Logically and fairly, the U.S. Congressional pay increase should not be a matter of debated legislation. Instead, it should track an independent standard or scale such as the average real wage increase or decrease of Americans workers, the consumer price index, or the average percentage raises of active duty military personnel or full-time public school teachers.
(2) Scrutinize Congressional Health Care Plans. It is not inherently obvious why Members of Congress (and certain designated staff) have their own health care plans. The Congressional Health Care Plans are offered through Blue Cross and Blue Shield. If the benefits materially track those offered to citizens elsewhere in the U.S., then this separate Congressional Health Care system may be curious, albeit arguably acceptable. However, it is here suggested that Members of Congress should probably be required to enroll in (and suffer under) the private industry plans available to the other U.S. citizens.
(3) Eliminate the Congressional Retirement and Pension System. This recommendation is based upon this author’s belief (as discussed previously in Blog No. 106 (October 16, 2019) the context of Term Limits) that the holding of Congressional office should viewed as public service and that such fixed-term offices should be held by citizen politicians as opposed to lifetime and “career” politicians. As such, there is and would be no appropriate necessity for a congressional retirement or pension system. The elimination of the Congressional Retirement and Pension System would be far less impactful if such Members were subject to term limits, but even without term limits such elimination would advisable. While there would be a number of implementation complexities, upon the elimination of such Congressional Retirement and Pension System, the funds in such programs could be transferred to the Social Security Administration. Even more importantly, Members of Congress thereafter would, like nearly all other Americans, share the benefits and endure the challenges of the Social Security System.
Idea 10. Cap or tie Congressional pay increases to an independent standard.
Idea 11. Scrutinize and possibly eliminate the Congressional Health Care System.
Idea 12. Eliminate the Congressional Retirement and Pension System.
Implementation Comments. Each of these ideas will face unique implementation problems because each Members of Congress is, definitionally a beneficiary of the current Congressional pay system, health care system, and retirement system. For this reason and because this author – even in the context of public officials – finds it loathsome to change any person’s retirement plans without long advance warning, it is recommended (a) that these changes be implemented over a number of years and (b) that no planned balance of any Member’s current retirement accounts or rights be decreased. This cautious and time-deferred implementation may also diminish the self-interest of the voting Members of Congress and enhance their voting objectivity. Very bluntly, it may be advisable for these changes to become effective immediately, but the likelihood of implementation will be greatly increased if the effective date is moved out four to six to even eight years (i.e. two to three to four Congresses) from now.
Source: Some – Mack W. Borgen; Some – Long-standing Ideas Deserving of Reconsideration.
