It is important to realize that any legislation or amendment to the Constitution that this or any other organization comes up with will have to go through Congress to be enacted into law or voted on by the States to amend the Constitution.  All suggestions will have to deal with something that is so important to the members of Congress that they can't brush it off.  Congress' remuneration is solely in their hands, they raise their salaries, set up their retirement plan (which by the way doesn't have anything to do with Social Secruity) and they pass the legislation that brings the earmarks into their districts so that they can do the "Little Jack Horner" thing and tell their constituents "what a good boy am I".

In order to hold them accouontable for their budgetary misconduct, we first have to educate the populace as to what these politicians are doing to stay in office.  The people have to know that the consequence of supporting spendthrift politicians is national bankruptcy.  The mindset of the people has to change so that they think more about what they can do for their country than what their country can do for them (paraphrased from JFK's speech).  Once they realize the danger we are in, then they will uphold statesmen who will be willing to set things right rather than work for their own benefit.

Once statemen are running the country, legislation or even amendments can be put into place which would change the way Congress gets paid to reflect the savings for the country.  Here are some ideas.  First, change the way Congress gets paid from the national coffers to the States.  This would allow the people to tell members of Congress just how much the people they represent think they are worth.  This would also eliminate some of the gold diggers from running for office because they would know that they won't be getting rich by working for the people.  Second, if a Representative can substantiate that the bill he proposes will save the country money, then he/she should receive a small percentage of the savings as a bonus.

These suggestions would put some teeth into the accountability issue.  It would make those we send to Washington accountable to those who sent them there, as well as giving them incentive to keep government spending to a minimum.

All of this is contingent on the education and understanding of the people.  If that can't be accomplished now, it will be accomplished in the future when things get so bad that the cure will almost be worse than the disease.