As you probably know, late last night the House of Representatives approved the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 by a 257-167 vote.  This legislation represents the bipartisan deal struck between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader McConnell which was approved by an 89-8 vote in the Senate.  It is expected that President Obama will sign the bill into law.

While this legislation primarily focused on taxes, it also postpones implementation of sequestration until March 1, 2013 which will in essence give Congress more “time”  to end the sequester permanently.  If Congress is not able to replace, revise, or further delay sequester, sequestration will by law occur on March 1, 2013. 

It is important to note that in order to pay for the delay of the sequester, Congress used some revenue from a provision related to Roth IRAs and adjusted the caps or overall amount of funding available for discretionary spending for fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2014.  Specifically, the caps for non defense discretionary spending, funding that includes the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies is reduced by $2 billion for fiscal year 2013 and $4 billion for fiscal year 2014.  It is unclear how or if this adjustment in caps will impact funding for fiscal year 2013, but AMCHP will continue to monitor this closely in the coming weeks and its potential impact on state maternal and child health, including funding for the Title V MCH Services Block Grant and related programs.

Whar will happen by March 1st>

$79 Billion new tax breaks added too for Rum from PR to Racetracks courtesy of lobbyists that we pay for how?

Warren Buffett, in an interview with CNBC,offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling ...
"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC.
"You just pass a law that says that any time 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 one (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 2012
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 12/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.
Congress 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 ?

Is this the way to fix Congress?