While I never forward chain e-mails to my friends and family, I received one recently that reminded me of a fact most people in the United States are not aware of—our elected representatives in Congress are themselves exempt from most of the laws that they pass!  A recent example of this: Obamacare.

If “Obamacare” and the vast number of other laws which curtail our freedoms and raid our pocketbooks were applied equally to our elected officials, would the bills ever pass?  I doubt it.  So how do you stop this new “Roman Senate” from unilaterally imposing their will upon us without personally suffering the consequences?  Vote them out of office?  Trust them to do the right thing?  Of course not!  What about a new amendment to the Constitution?

In that e-mail, the original author included language that he/she believes would do the trick:

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States “.

Without discussing the mechanics of amending the Constitution, this idea has serious merit.  When most people are faced with decisions that have a major impact upon their lives or wallets, they (hopefully) evaluate the ramifications of that decision.  Unfortunately, our elected representatives do not have to evaluate their decisions at a personal level because they are most likely not affected by the bill they are considering.  Again using Obamacare as an example, the rules and regulations contained in the initial 2,700+ page bill apparently do not apply to members of Congress—they have their own “Cadillac” Health care coverage.  Once again, it appears that the only thing most of our elected officials appear to be concerned with is raising money and getting reelected—not whether or not their decisions negatively effect the rest of us.

Why not ask your elected official what they think about this “new” amendment.  Ask them if they would propose or support such a bill—remember, these people were elected to work for you, not to sit around in togas and sandals drinking wine.