The Congress shall pass no universal laws that do not apply equally to them as well as the population they serve.  Congress may not exempt itself from any law, pension plan or similar measure that restricts individual freedom or imposes any burden on the population as a whole.  The only exception to this shall be laws that deal with access to national security information or similar classified data.   

Any member of Congress who can be proven to have sold his/her vote for any personal consideration or to benefit his/her district in a manner not consistent with every other district or every state shall be subjected to a trial in federal court and upon conviction shall be expelled by that body and replaced by his opponent in the prior general election or a person acceptable to his election opponent and the head of his opponent's state political party.  Actions brought against an individual that can be proven to be the act of political retribution shall result in the person who has made any unfounded charge to be removed with the same penalty that he/she shall be replaced by his/her opponent in the prior general election or an individual acceptable to that person or the state party head of that opponent’s political party.  Once expelled, no votes may be conducted until the new member has been duly seated unless there is a majority of 60% supporting the legislation.  If more than three expulsions occur in any one Congress within any one political caucus, the leader(s) of that caucus shall be required to resign their leadership positions.  If three expulsions occur in the House of Representatives within the party of the Speaker, both the Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House shall be forced to resign their leadership roles.  The act of offering a benefit for a vote shall be considered a felony and this would apply to any person within the Congress who is in a leadership role and able to reward an individual Congressman or Senator through the power of their position.   This shall be considered an impeachable offense.    

No elected public servant nor member of his/her immediate family may work as a lobbyist, for any recipient of government contracts, grants or other remunerations, for any labor union or in any other unelected public service position until the completion of a waiting period for eligibility.  That waiting period shall consist of the following:

1 year for every 2 years service in the Congress or Executive Branch. 

No former member of Congress shall accept a position in any industry or within any labor union that directly benefitted from legislation or regulation that came before the Congress while that individual served.  No former member of Congress shall accept an income, a loan or any other financial assistance from persons or organizations that directly benefitted from legislation or regulation that came before the Congress while that person served. 

Any current or former elected member of the Congress or the Executive Branch who can be shown to have demonstrated preferential treatment to an industry, a company, a labor union, a political group or an individual during their tenure as a quid pro quo for any consideration to his/her family or campaign shall be subject to impeachment and/or permanent loss of all employment benefits including health and pension. 

Argument

When General Dwight David Eisenhower was commander of all forces in the European Theater during World War II, he was approached through his wife Mamie about a movie that Hollywood wanted to produce on his life.  Mamie contacted Ike in England and his reply was something similar to this, ‘Absolutely not.  Tell Hollywood I do not think much of the measure of a man who would benefit financially from a position of public trust.’ 

We were lucky to have men like Eisenhower in the middle of the last century but where are men or women like him today?  How often to we see men or women of modest means enter the Congress and then emerge years later as multi-millionaires?  They earn good salaries but how is it possible for a Congressman or a Senator to obtain the status of millionaire on a salary of $170K per year while simultaneously maintaining a residence in their home district and in Washington? 

We must put some teeth in some laws that will protect the public from self serving public servants as well as those who would play the role of charlatan and attempt to remove someone from office on false charges as a means to neutralize or remove a political opponent. 

This country is going through an era that is punctuated by deep seated and overt corruption.  We have far too many elected representatives who are concerned by two things:  their re-election and/or their sweetheart job they have negotiated to protect them in the event of an election loss.  This is not in the same tradition of General Eisenhower.  This is shameless.  It is unethical.  It is corrupt.

The current healthcare bill being considered in the House contains a Senate provision that is written in a way that benefits a qualifying state that experienced a natural disaster within a range of specific dates that could only be Katrina.  The language is so narrow that only Louisiana can benefit from this provision despite the fact that Mississippi also experienced the brunt of that storm.  The language might just have well read that we are going to bribe Mary Landrieu by an inclusion of $100 million of low income federal aid for her state of Louisiana if she will vote yes on the Senate Healthcare Bill.

It is for this reason that we must enforce a code of ethics for our elected public servants that protects the public against unscrupulous persons who would trade their votes and their influence for personal enrichment.