Return to Rafting

Saturday, 26 November, my team and I returned to Sukabumi for another round of white water rafting.  Though much was the same, much was different.

After a 5:30 AM departure from the office and a three-plus hour bus ride to Sukabumi, our team building began with ice breakers.  I've never liked ice breakers.  I think this is probably because I don't need any ice broken.  I prefer to just get down to business.  Same problem I have with small talk.  Ice breakers are always some form of ridiculousness that seem designed to make people feel uncomfortable so they'll be more comfortable doing difficult tasks later in the session.  For us, this involved standing in a circle and various activities involving counting - counting while shaking our fists, counting while stamping our feet, counting in different languages.  Whatever.

After the foolishness, we got down to the good stuff.  The games.  Competition - my favorite.  As the top of the food chain at these events, I try to step back and let others lead.  I lead every day at work, this is an opportunity for others to show their capabilities.  The fact that everything was explained in Bahasa, with no English translation, made this all the easier for me.  I couldn't participate because I would be a detriment to my team.  I helped where I could.

The first game reinforced the wisdom of my decision.  Team size didn't matter, so I participated.  We stood in a single file line, hands on shoulders of the person in front of us.  The announcer would yell "Kiri", and everyone in the line would jump left.  He'd cycle through all the directions - right, left, forward, backward.  That was just to get us accustomed to jumping in unison.  Then it got tricky.  He said the first two we would do as he said them, the third we would do the opposite.  So if he yells out Right, Left, Forward, we were to jump Right, Left, Backward.  Of course, I received a summarized version of this explanation and thought the first and second rounds, not first and second commands.  As team captain, I'm in front.  Announcer yells right, we jump right.  Announcer yells left, we jump left.  Announcer yells backward, my team jumps backward, I jump forward, everyone laughs.  My team is out.  I'm feeling stupid.  Next round, exact same commands, the team next to us fails.  Now I don't feel so bad.  Next round, exact same commands, two more teams drop and the game is over! 

The next three games involved passing objects down the line and back.  This required teams of equal size and my team had six while most others had five.  This meant we had to sit someone out.  I participated in the first two, then sat out never to return to action.  First we joined hands and had to pass a loop over our entire body from person to person without breaking hand contact.  Not difficult, but not easy to do quickly.  We came in second.  The next involved passing a baton back and forth by holding it with our knees.  Once again, we came in second.  The third event was passing the same baton back and forth holding it between neck and shoulders.  For the third time, we came in second.  First place was a different team each time.

The next event was more mental, more strategic, and this allowed me to participate in the strategy.  The object was to communicate a number from one end to the other using only touch; no visual or audio clues allowed.  Everyone sat front to back with one arm reaching for the person in front of them, and the other the person behind them.  We had a few minutes to determine our methodology.  Knowing this was tactile, I decided the motions had to be noticeably distinct.  While other teams did things like "squeeze soft for 10, hard for 1", my approach was a swipe across the hand means 10, a two finger tap is 5, and a single finger tap is 1.  Add them up, and you have the number.  We were the third ones to provide a number, but the only team to get the number correct!  First place!  I realized after the fact that we could have been faster if we transmitted the signal simultaneously.  The only two people that really needed to know the number were the first and the last.  Everyone in between just needed to convey the message, which they could have done as it was conveyed to them, had I thought of it.

After the communication game we were given a tube about the size of a canister of tennis balls.  To this was attached two ropes.  Four people would hold each end of the two ropes, fill the canister with water, then transport the canister to a five liter jug with a ping-pong ball.  The first to fill the jug with enough water to force the ball out would win.  We all had a chance to practice transporting, then the game began.  I realized very quickly every team was trying to be very precise pouring their water and it was taking a lot of time.  I told my team:  "Aim and dump, then run back for more."  My strategy was twofold.  First, we were going to get most of the water in because were weren't just dumping haphazardly, and we would be saving a lot of time.  In fact, we would make two trips to most teams one.  Second, the available water was limited.  I figured if we wasted some of it, but made twice as many trips, other teams wouldn't have any water to fill their jug.  Either way, we would win.  And we did.  By a wide margin.  At the end, the lagging teams were spending a lot of time filling their containers because they could no longer just dunk them - they had to pour the water from the starting basin.

The next event had the teams back in a line, arms length apart.  The front person was number one, the back person number five.  The announcer was pretending to call a soccer game "One passes to two, two passes to five".  At some point, he would yell "GOAL" and that number had to run to the back of the line, crawl through everyone in front of them, pick up a bag, fill it with air, and pop it.  I gave one piece of advice:  "As soon as the number is called, everyone collapse into each other so the crawling distance is as small as possible.  Every single time we are the first one through.  If we hadn't struggled with blowing up the bag and/or popping it, this would have been over in two tries.  As it was, we took second the first two times, first the third, second a fourth time, and finally won overall by taking first the fifth time.  The times we had finished second all had a different winner.

The last team event involved using two ropes, and four blindfolded participants, to carry a long line of tent poles across the field and then placing it into a tube so that it stood upright.  It was brutal.  We had no trouble making it across the field without dropping the poles, but getting it in the tube and having it stand upright was very hard.  I don't know how some of the other teams did it so quickly.  We took third.

After the team events, we split into individual events, one of which helped our team.  The first event was a flying fox.  For those of you unfamiliar, this involves harnessing yourself to a long wire, jumping, and letting gravity take you from point A to point B.  Having made this jump in Singapore, this Flying Fox was nothing. 

The other event, the one that counted towards team points, was not so easy - though it should have been.  What it truly did was highlight different upbringings of the members of my staff.  The event involved walking across a bamboo pole 10 meters in the air.  We're harnessed to a wire and a guide rope, so there was no chance of falling to injury, but the psychological impact of looking down is tough to break....unless you did it every day as a kid.  Indonesia is a culturally diverse place.  Some members of my staff grew up in circumstances very familiar to those of us born and raised in a Western country. Others grew up in villages of subsistence farmers having no income and eating only what they grew our caught.  Some of these often crossed a river dividing two villages by traversing a pole, without guide wires or harnesses, smaller than the one we walked.  Those who grew up in circumstances similar to mine either did not attempt to cross, failed trying, or took a long time to do so.  Those who grew up in the small villages walked across like they were going to the bathroom after a night of binge drinking.  As for myself, I made three steps and fell.  My legs were shaking so badly the pole began bouncing up and down.  Once my body realized I wouldn't actually hit the ground, it stopped shaking and I speedily finished the crossing - but it didn't count.  Thankfully, two other members of my team made the crossing.  I think we finished second in that event.

We broke for lunch, gave away a 32 inch flat-screen LED TV as a door prize, and then went rafting.  The water was high.  Very high.  So high, what was normally a Class 2 rapids was not a Class 3.  And it started to pour as we were loading into our boats.  The rafting was that much more exciting and fun.  There was one section the guides would not let us try, however.  It was only about 20 meters of river, but they had determined it too dangerous because the high water had created a dangerous whirlpool that was difficult to exit once entered.  We walked the shore for that 20 meters instead.

After rafting it was now dark.  We had dinner, gave away more door prizes (another TV, an iPad, an iPhone, etc) then returned to Jakarta.  I think I was the only one who remained awake for the drive home - it was not without its own interesting events.

The first event caused our buses to pull over.  We travelled in two buses - I was on the A bus with half of my team, the other half on the B bus.  The driver of Bus B radioed Bus A complaining one of his rear tires had no traction.  Not good when you're driving on narrow, winding mountain roads in a portable home.  We stopped to switch places, so Bus B could be in front.  I'm not sure why that mattered, but the driver of Bus B was happier, so I guess that's fine.  We later stopped at a gas station where they added more air to the tire.  We did make it home safely.

The second incident caused us delays.  Saturday happened to be New Year's Eve on the Muslim calendar.  When we reached a certain city around 9:30, all traffic came to a standstill and one side of the street was crowded with people carrying torches.  I don't know what people in other countries think when they see a large crowd of people carrying torches, but I think every American's initial thought would have been the same as mine:  "Oh S--t!"  They eventually marched off to wherever they were heading and we were able to move on.  It wasn't until later, when I'm driving back home from the office drop off point, when my driver explained to me that was a traditional celebration for the holiday.  Whew!

Once again, we all had a great time.  Unfortunately, two days later I found myself in the hospital with an IV suffering from amoebic dysentery....but that's a topic for another post.

How I Would Change America

For some reason, I've though a lot about government this month, and my blog is reflecting that.  I have one last set of thoughts to impart before returning to my normal posts of updates and pictures.  December will be a busy month with travel, visitors, and end-of-school-semester recitals, so I'll have much to post.  Today, my parting thoughts on government.

It helps to understand my perspective on the role of government.  Most people spend their time arguing the finer points - how do we handle immigration law, what is a fair tax rate, should we allow gay marriage - without first agreeing on the broader concept of government's job.  I prefer a government that operates in the black and white, leaving the gray issues to the private sector and non-profits.  My view on the government's role, therefore, is quite simple:  Defense of nation, inter-state commerce, representation internationally, and ensuring equal opportunity, all guided by the principle of majority rule with minority rights.  With that as a framework, much of what we argue about - and fund - with government becomes moot.

Using that framework as a guideline, if I were King of the United States, I would do the following:

1) Nationalize health care....though not in a way anyone in the U.S. has yet proposed it.  I like the Singapore model.  Everybody pays out of pocket until they reach their income-determined deductible.  For example, if you are earning $25,000/yr, you pay the first $2,500 of all your medical expenses and the government picks up the rest.  If you earn $100,000/yr, you pay the first $10,000 of your medical expenses.  I like this for several reasons.  First, it forces people to be medical consumers.  You'll shop for medical service the same way you shop for everything else (highest quality for lowest price), instead of by the oligopoly rules in place now whereby you randomly select someone on your insurer's provider list.  By definition, this will create competition in the medical profession and drive down price.  I've seen it first hand in Singapore.  Second, because everyone is insured, the medical industry does not need to charge those who are insured quadruple market value to cover the cost of treating patients who will never pay.  Further, not only are we lowering cost, we're freeing the medical care burden from corporations, making them more competitive in a global market.  We're also not assuming control of the medical providers, so they remain free-market players and, operating in a more competitive environment, will need to innovate to attract patients.  This is a win-win for everyone except insurance companies.

2)  Invest in Infrastructure.  If the role of government is to regulate and facilitate inter-state trade, we need our brightest minds defining and our first dollars funding an elite infrastructure to make inter-state trade as efficient as possible:  High-speed railways, the world's safest air traffic control system, well built and maintained roads and bridges, an energy grid that can support and nurture technological advances in energy creation and the world's best communications infrastructure.  We also need the raw materials (ie, natural resources) to provide the inputs for all of these efforts.  Between spending money on infrastructure, and removing restrictions unrelated to human health (ie, water quality, air quality) on the extractive industries (oil, gas, mining), we will be creating jobs that cannot be transferred overseas.  It is impractical to build a bridge in India and install it in Kentucky.  It is impossible to mine in Mexico if the ore is in northern Minnesota.  Australia today, where extractive industries are paying high school graduates $200,000/yr salaries, is a shining example of this plan in action.  It works, and it keeps unemployment low.

3)  Implement the Pickens Plan.  I wouldn't normally endorse government supporting one industry over another.  However, when national security interest are at stake, we all need to bend our rules for the greater good.  Nothing is more dangerous to American lives than buying oil from Arab nations who hate us.  Oil is our collective addiction.  We cannot survive without it.  As a result, our consumption of oil is giving terrorists the funding they need to coordinate attacks against us.  Purchasing oil is funding our enemies.  We have enough natural gas underneath US soil that if we converted all cars to run on CNG or LNG, we would no longer need to import oil, we would save money filling our tanks, and we would reduce emissions.  A trifecta of quality-of-life improvements that makes resistance to this plan shameful.  Write your Representatives today.

4)  Replace entire tax structure with a national sales tax.  I have long viewed a sales tax (aka - Transaction Tax) as the only fair and ethically justifiable tax.  First, those who spend more (the wealthy) will pay more in tax.  Second, imports are taxed, but exports are not.  Third, if the role of government is to create environments conducive to the fair exchange of goods and services, its revenue should reflect the success of that environment.  Fourth, we virtually eliminate the IRS.  We'll be auditing businesses, not individuals - because individuals will not need to file tax returns!  Finally, no loop holes.  If you want to avoid paying tax, live off the grid and plant a garden for food.  There is no other way to do it.  The one argument against a sales tax is that it is regressive (poor people, who spend every dollar they earn, pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than do the wealthy, who spend a smaller percentage of their income).  This is easily averted by not charging tax on certain food items or second-hand clothing.

5)  Stop subsidizing college.  What?  Yes, stop subsidizing college.  We're sending people to college who have no business attending.  It's wasteful.  We're encouraging people to spend $100,000 to obtain a degree required by professions that pay $30,000/yr.  Further, college doesn't actually prepare anyone for a job.  Many college degrees are just a key to the door of the rat race.  What would be better - follow the lead of the legal and medical professions.  Combine education with apprenticeships.  Want to be an accountant?  Take two years of foundational education classes, then apprentice for two years.  Interested in Chemistry?  Take three years of classes to learn scientific fundamentals and apprentice for three years.  I do believe there is a place for higher education.  I place a very high value on formal education....and a higher value on practical education.  Let's stop kidding ourselves that every student in primary and secondary school today is potential college material.  The reality is only 55% will attend, and a mere 30% will complete a degree.  That means 25% of our population is wasting money - most of it government guaranteed loans.  Two options:  1) Let the private sector and non-profit organizations play this role; they'll do a much better job getting a return on their educational dollar.  2)  Pay for trade schools in addition to degree programs.  That 25% is more likely to gain value from a trade school. 

6)  Term limits for all elected positions.  Twelve years in an elected position is enough time for anyone.  Elected office is not supposed to be a career.  It's time to impose term limits on every elected office of no more than 4 terms, or twelve years, whichever comes first.

Other ideas I support:

1)  Reduce the products available on Wall Street to stocks and bonds.  You can either own a part of a company, or lend money to it.  The days of betting on whether a stock will go up or down (options) or whether the option will go up or down (derivatives) should end.  Brokers have become bookies.

2)  Instead of building power plants exclusively, make every building add to the grid.  Solar panels, wind turbines and spring coiled floors that generate electricity as people walk on and in every building will reduce emissions to generate energy.

3)  Limiting annual budget to 103% of prior-year's revenue.  The up cycles and down cycles should wash each other out in the long run.

Interesting Day in Jakarta

Odd day in Jakarta.

1)  Traffic was unusually light until we hit the home stretch in Kemang.  Kemang Raya, the main road through this south Jakarta suburb, was backed up.  A uniformed officer, as opposed to the typical weird guy with a whistle, was directing traffic.  Something big was going on.  Then I notice these huge, six foot by three foot flowered congratulations announcements - a typical Indonesian courtesy.  Huge tents with catered food, crowds of well dressed people, bouncers, red carpet, a television camera crew.  What the heck is going on?  A new gas station.  Seriously.

2)  We've always had lizards in our house.  They have replaced cockroaches as the creepy things that scatter when the lights come on.  They have these big, suction cup feet so they can grip the walls and cling to anything.  They are ubiquitous and harmless.  At night, we'll often hear them chirping.  Our yogi informed us the noise we hear is actually a big, ugly, scary lizard.  We laughed....then, tonight, one showed up on the wall of our patio.  They are huge.  They are scary.  Had to use my Super Zoom lens to get the close up.

 

3)  This isn't new, but I thought of it again today.  I'm not sure what this falls under.  My wife's driver has started using her discarded Starbucks cups - the clear plastic ones they serve coffee in - to make his drinks.  I'm not sure if he should now fall under Creepy Stalker or Captain Recycle.  Whatever he is, I find it odd.

Why Do We Hate the Rich?

Initially, I actually supported Occupy Wall Street.  I united, in spirit, with them in their stand against government bailouts of poorly managed businesses.  Then they started the "99%" campaign, and my support stopped.  I have nothing against the 1%.  In fact, I aspire to be one.
Class warfare has always existed in America, on some level.  The Great Recession appears to have transformed despising the wealthy from an activity of the scorned and bitter to the de rigeur social movement of the decade.  Quite frankly, I just don't understand it.  Everyone wants to be rich, yet we hate those that are?  Is this just jealousy run amok, or is there a deeper, more insidious issue at hand?
I think I've figured it out:

1)  We misunderstand the rich.  I blame reality television for this.  If comments on news articles are representative of the American public, when most people think of the wealthy, they think of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, or even Steve Forbes.  Inherited wealth.  But most millionaires didn't inherit their wealth, they earned it.  The reality is a full 80% of millionaires are first generation.  They worked hard, took risks, and made the most of opportunities - they didn't have their money handed to them.  Most of the 1% are doctors or small business owners.  Why would we hate these people instead of admire them?

2)  We don't understand Economics.  A common argument from those frustrated with the growing wealth gap is CEO pay.  I'm not sure why we focus on CEOs in this discussion when they comprise a mere 10% of the hated 1%, but we do.  This indicates people don't understand the Economic Law of Supply and Demand.  There are 7 billion people on this planet.  There are probably 700,000 who are qualified (education, experience, capabilities) to be a CEO.  Given my experience with CEO's, I wouldn't credit more than 7,000 people as capable of being good CEOs.  What does that mean?  The supply of good CEOs is in severe deficit to the demand of good CEOs.  When a product is scarce, its value rises.  The other market force in play here is risk.  Being a CEO is not an easy job which is why so many CEOs are very quickly former CEOs.  The average tenure of a CEO is not much more than a Kardashian marriage (two Kardashian references in one post...I'm culturally relevant!).  To entice someone into risk usually requires money.  So CEO pay is driven both by scarcity, and by risk.  Of course it is disproportionate.

3)  We forget who are the "investors".  This is the element that, ashamedly, amuses me the most.  We bemoan "Wall Street Investors" for taking risks and causing catastrophe and forget they take risks because the investors they represent want larger and larger returns.  And who are the investors? The 99%.  The everyday working man.  But, wait, you don't have a stock broker or an investment portfolio?  You do if you have a 401k or a pension plan.  The largest single owner of wealth in the United States is not Bill Gates or Warren Buffet - it's CALPERS, the State of California's employee retirement plan.  At $202 billion, CALPERS is equivalent to four Bill Gates.  The top 300 pension funds own $20 Trillion of wealth.  It are these pension funds that drive decisions on Wall Street.  So the great, macabre joke of the financial collapse, the sad truth behind the greed that led to this disaster, is that it is shared not by the 1% who, according to the research published in the book "The Richest Man in Town", invest in their own business, not other people's.  The greed belongs to the 99% who demand higher returns in their 401k plans!

Ultimately, we will never eliminate class warfare unless we implement Pure Communism and everyone receives an equal share of the GDP.  We will never eliminate a wage gap in a society that rewards higher skills with higher pay.  And you won't get rich by occupying Wall Street.  You won't improve your financial situation by sitting in a park cooking s'mores with your friends lamenting how unfair the world is.  You get rich by taking risks, by thinking unconventionally, and by generating revenue by all legal means.

You want to change the system?  Occupy a seat in government.  You want to get rich?  Occupy a job that people value.

Occupying Wall Street is just another way of saying:  "I live in my parent's basement".

Why Occupy Wall Street is Misguided

If you read my prior two posts, you can probably guess where I stand on this issue.  The problem isn't Wall Street.  It isn't the banks.  It isn't even the wealthiest 1% (I'll have another post on this specific topic later this week).

The problem is Washington - and, oddly, I don't mean Obama. 

Washington has completely lost touch with America...though I don't think this is new, it's just worse.  Remember the late 1980's when Barbara Bush, then FLOTUS, visited a grocery store and was amazed at the scanning technology used at the checkout line?  Yeah, politicians have been out of touch for a while.

But today, it's worse.  Today we have Democrats still operating under the assumption that Americans not only want but need government protection from themselves.  That if the government wasn't planning our retirement for us, telling us what we should eat, or paying for our health care that we would all be aimlessly roaming the streets.  We have Republicans still operating under the assumption that Protestant Christianity represents the majority of America, that regulation is unnecessary (unless the toxic waste dump is next to their property), and we need the government's help to protect our children from outside influence.  They're both wrong.

The reason they are so out of touch is Congress doesn't live in the real world.  They live in Washington.  And we never force them to live in the real world because we keep electing the same people back to office!  We're all guilty of it:  "It's not MY politician that's the problem, it's everyone else!"

When you lose touch with the average American, you can no longer represent them.  When your salary is guaranteed for life, even if you stop working, how can you pass labor laws for the average worker?  If your retirement plan is fully funded by the government and doesn't require you to pay into it, how can you reform social security?  If your health care plan covers everything, with no copay, and never questions if you needed that surgery to enhance your wife's breasts, how can you contribute to a discussion seeking a solution to control rising costs of health care?

After electing FDR to his fourth presidency, the American public realized long-term government servitude is not right for our country.  How is it, more than 80 years later, we have not come to the same realization with Congress?

It is time we did.  In the absence of a Constitutional Amendment limiting all Congressman to 12 years of service in either house, it is up to us as voters to do the job.  Vote out the incumbents, even if you are crossing party lines to do so.

Vote for someone else.  If you have two choices on the ballot, and one is an incumbent, and the other is a convicted axe-murderer, vote for the felon - at least he's had the chance to reflect on his crimes.

We shouldn't be occupying Wall Street.  We should be occupying Pennsylvania Avenue.

Heidi's Bar: Understanding the Financial Crisis

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit.

She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.  Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans).  Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at Heidi's local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral! At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINK BONDS.

The bank bundles these "securities" and trades them on international securities markets. The bank pays rating agencies to give these bonds a AAA rating by promising them fees for rating several more bonds they will create in the coming months.  Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AAA Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.  Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.

Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations to the bank she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi's eleven employees lose their jobs. 

Overnight, DRINK BOND prices drop by 90%.

The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.  The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities.  They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. In addition, the laid-off workers' pension funds and IRAs all suffer substantial loss in value.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government.  The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, nondrinkers who have never been in or heard of Heidi's bar.

Now do you understand why Occupy Wall Street is upset?

Congressional Reform Act 2011

Please print this and mail it to your representative with your demand Congress put this to a vote as a new Constitutional Amendment:


1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are 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. If the National Debt should ever exceed 3% of GDP, all of Congress becomes ineligible for reelection.

We want this to become effective 1/1/2012.