Since Congress hasn’t been able to rectify health care or retirement issues for the Teeming Masses which are us, how can one force the issue? What I’m asking is if there’s a mechanism (referendum or initiative) where we could force them to give up their preferred health care and retirement benefits and deal with these issues as we do.
Such a mechanism exists!
It’s commonly called “an election”.
If you don’t like what your Senators or Congressman are doing, vote them out.
Only a minority of states have recall, referendum, or initiative – and recall is not legal with regards to Senators or federal Representatives, anyway. However, electing at least 51 Senators and 218 Representatives pledged to health care reform according to what is called for in this thread, is quite possible, if difficult to pull off in real life.
and insufficient to accomplish the goal. As shown by recent events. 61 and you have what you need.