Ending Poverty, 535 Families At A Time

By imposing one-term limits on membership in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S.Senate we could make a serious start to ending poverty in the United States. We would take 435 families permanently out of poverty, every two years, and an additional 100 families every six years. Each state would get its share.

All members of the U.S. House and Senate have a special form of "social security." When they retire or otherwise lose their seats in Congress, they are paid 100% of their most recent salary for life.

Under this new plan, every two years each state would choose--by lottery or by election--one member of its electorate stuck in poverty for each of its seats in the House. Similarly they would replace their senators every six years with poor people.

Government would not be affected in any harmful way. No one could be any worse at legislation than the Congressmen and Congresswomen we now elect. And we would save how many billions of dollars each Congressional election season by not having Congressional elections!

We will start with the poorest of the poor in each state, and work our way up. Every time we make another 535 people rich for life--by seating them in Congress-- they will start paying taxes: so this plan won't actually cost as much as we might think.

We will make the U.S. Congress a respectable, honorable institution.