The only way Congressional retirements are so lucrative is because all of us taxpayers are paying for it. There's no way you could work within the existing Social Security system and get benefits that good for everyone. Simply making the 535 members of Congress pay into SS won't generate nearly that much money.

However, there is an alternative that's available for _some_ government employees that we should consider expanding. When my wife worked for a city owned hospital, she didn't pay Social Security taxes. Instead, the same amount of money was deducted from her paycheck and invested in a program called PERA - Public Employees Retirement Association. PERA works just like a 401K except the employee doesn't have to pay any more than the equivalent of SS taxes. The money went into private accounts and were invested in selected options like mutual funds or bonds. Why can't everyone have the same options as _some_ (not all) government employees? Why can't we all have PERA? Are goverment employees somehow "special" to deserve a much better deal than everyone else?

http://www.copera.org