Consider Me a Big Fan of This Proposed Amendment

I meant to blog this right after Christmas, when a friend emailed it to me, but I neglected to do so in all the holiday busy-ness. But I was reminded of it again when it was linked by Instapundit yesterday. It's a proposed amendment to the Constitution, and it reads as follows:

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 .

I think this is absolutely correct; the trick, however, would be to find two-thirds of the current members of Congress to vote for it. (Yes, two-thirds of the state legislatures could technically call a Constitutional Convention, but--seeing as how that's never happened in the 333 years of our nation, there are plenty of questions as to exactly how that would be run.)

But it's definitely an idea whose time has come. The most obvious current applications of this amendment would be that members of Congress would be on Social Security rather than the gold-plated retirement plans they have now, and that any health care legislation would apply to them as well, instead of the gold-plated package they have now (hmm, I'm sensing a theme here). Far too many people in Congress have forgotten that they serve us rather than rule us.

The interesting thing about this proposed amendment is that the original email that I received about this was sent by someone who is often on the polar opposite end of the political spectrum from me. If it's getting support on both sides of the aisle, perhaps it really is time to get this done.

So what do you think? I'd love to hear some comments on this one.