Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Case for Federal Term Limits

After President Franklin Roosevelt defied the two term precedent originally established by George Washington and was elected to four terms in office, the political establishment of both parties moved swiftly to amend the US Constitution to provide for a maximum of two terms for the US Presidency. The politicians probably did this because of their own political ambitions; but also because they probably saw the abuse of power that came when one person was in office for too long.

Now it is time to go the rest of the way. The US Constitution should be amended to allow someone to serve no more than two terms for the US Senate, 12 years in total, or 6 terms for the House of Representatives, again 12 years in total. This is necessary because of current trends. Between 1789 and 2002, just 13.9% of House Members and 21.9% of Senators served for 12 years or more. However, in today's Congress 42.9% of House Members and 45% of Senators have been in office for 12 years or more. Many of them have been in same office for 20 years or more. We see the end result. We have many Members of Congress of both parties who are completely out of touch with the American people. That is the reason the Socialists voted for HealthScare when 55% of Americans oppose this legislation and there are Tea Party Protests in the streets.

Our Founders never intended to create a political aristocracy or elite in the United States, which is what we have today. We need "citizen politicians" who have recently worked in the real world and who know what it takes to create jobs and make payroll every month. Going to Washington should be done is the spirit of duty to our country; but with the full intention of serving for a limited time period and then going back to the real world. In many cases, we have career politicians in Washington, often with family wealth as their means of support, who have never worked in the real world. The Kennedy's are a prime example of this scenario. And, often candidates run on a platform of limited time in government and then once there, just never leave. There have been members of Congress that are so feeble they literally have to be wheeled into the Chamber. That is ridiculous.

Clearly, most of the Socialists in Congress are career politicians who see serving in Congress as their life vocation because government is what they do for a living. As a result, politicians like Obama, Reid and Pelosi and many other Socialists, many of whom are wealthy, are the most detached from the real world; yet they somehow profess to represent the "little people". To be fair, there are Republicans similarly positioned. John McCain married an heiress, which has allowed him to stay in Congress for 30 years.

Career politicians, in office for years, have proven to be a recipe for corruption and bribes of one sort of another. HealthScare was a prime example of crooked deals and bribes. We need federal term limits to end the corruption and bring fresh, real world ideas to our government. And, we need politicians in office who will have to live under their handiwork. Isn't it interesting that federal elected officials always seem to exempt themselves from the laws they pass to govern the rest of us. Federal employees are not on bankrupt Social Security. Instead they get lucrative federal pensions that offer 3 or 4 times the pay-out as the highest Social Security benefits. And, the Members of Congress just excluded themselves from Obama's Socialist HealthScare Plan. Why is that?

We need term limits for the Members of Congress. 12 years is long enough to serve in any one office. Career politicians can run for other offices. By ending the corrupting power of incumbency, it will give others a chance to serve. This will be the year that many Socialist incumbents will be removed from office because Americans are mad as hell and determined to stop Obama's Socialist Schemes; but normally incumbents nearly always win because money flows to them from those vested in them. In fact, in 2008, 94% of incumbents were re-elected to the House and 83% to the Senate because of this money game.

We must stop this corruption once and for all. Term limits should be a litmus test when voting this year. Politicians that support Term Limits should get our votes in November. Those politicians that do not support Term Limits should be relegated to the ash heap of history.

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