Posted on 08/18/2010 7:42:32 AM PDT by Nachum
Of all the slips of the tongue and unintentional admissions by this administration, Robert Gibbs’ “professional left” comment may well be the one they wish they could squeeze back into their collective windpipe the most:
I hear these people saying (Obama) is like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested. … I mean, it’s crazy. … The professional left … will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. … They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Term limits!!!!!
The Founders could not have anticipated the Industrial age or the age of computerized vote fraud or that the US population would eventually reach 300 million souls.
To guarantee the Constitution - the professional politician must be removed and replaced with Citizen representation. To ensure this the only certain method is TERM LIMITS!!
Term limits is the second stupidest idea to be put forward to get control of government.
Think for a second.
What power will the entrenched beauracracy pick up if term limits are put into place?
What about the unelected and unaccountable staffers that run Congress?
A freshman Congressman is like a lost little puppy for months in the maze that is Congress and Congressional rules.
We already have a very effective system for controlling our Congressmen: elections.
No Congressman can serve more than 2 years without convincing voters to send him back for another terms. If the American voter is too stupid or lazy to use this system to remove a corrupt politician, term limits are not going to help.
Term limits may be a good idea; however at this point they would be only a ‘band-aid’ on the symptoms — big government.
This can be illustrated by the recent bills which our legislators (read Congress) have neither written nor read; these bills were produced by “Congressional Aides.” Term Limits would not, necessarily, remove these Aides.
Very good article by Oleg Atbashian. The “Common Dreams” cited is the tip of one of many icebergs in the collectivist’s sea of socialism. Thanks for posting.
How about any congressman who loses the election, all their aides have to go as well, and cannot re apply for a position in DC.
Amen - it is the ONLY hope - term limits. I have believed that for years.
Too bad it will never happen...
bump
Too many ways to ‘get around it’ {think them hiring on w/ the new batch as “consultants”} and too difficult to effectively implement.
Those in power will do EVERYTHING they can to stay in power, history shows us this again and again.
The problem is the left doesn’t have real jobs, they freeload and live as anarchists, the rest of us are carrying this nation on our backs and have real jobs.
***What about the unelected and unaccountable staffers that run Congress?***
I happen to agree whole-heartedly with your concern.
Here’s another stupid rule: No staffer should be paid more than minimum wage and be required to leave their position at the end of the sponsor/legislator’s term. No staffer may be hired unless they can pass a Constitutional competency exam.
And where in the Constitution is it the authority of the Government to control how much money a person can make or what qualification that have to be employeed?
You do realize that a lot of “staffers” work gratis because they are paid by outside agencies, don’t you? They aren’t on any Congressman’s payroll, they just step in to troubleshoot and to guide legislation through.
And if a Congressman is term limited, he will line his pockets after he leaves office by becoming one of those freelancers guiding new and inexperienced Congressmen through the system.
The best way to clean up Congress is re-elect those Congressmen who are doing a good job and remove from office those that are not.
Holding Congress accountable by election brings power back to the voter. Anything else just shifts power to the unelected, unaccountable parasites that already infest the system.
You are just being difficult!
These elected officials and their staff WORK FOR THE PEOPLE!!!
They call it public service - let them put their money where their mouths are.
Aides are *interns learning on the job*. If they are truly dedicated to public service - they will have enough experience to run for office on their own merits...or get a real job.
I am not just being difficult, I’m explaining what the unintended consequences of term limits would be. It would be a massive power shift toward unelected and unaccountable people who have decades of experience gaming the system.
We have a perfectly good way to remove bad Congressmen from Congress. The fact that the electorate doesn’t do so is more a reflection of the American people than anything else. We are getting the Congress we deserve as a people.
Term limits will just make it worse.
Please continue your debate with yourself. Both of you are obviously conflicted.
On the one hand you question agendas of influential staffers who have more power than the elected officials. Then you argue that newly elected and inexperienced elected officials need these staffers’ expertise.
You have no problem with paying staffers unlimited salaries for lifetime careers on the taxpayers’ dime; whose political views are unknown and whose credentials are unimportant.
You insult the voting public, forced to choose from an entrenched power elite - who, as you state; *have been gaming the system for decades*.
The only way to get right is to get rid of the staffers and the politicians by TERM LIMITS.
How is term limits going to get rid of staffers?
Staffers should be hired on a contractual basis. Begin on the date the elected official begins his term of office and ends when he is replaced.
They will be subject to the same rules as lobbyists. We ask more of our military and pay them less.
And how are these hiring laws Constitutional?
And what if I wasn’t hired by a Congressman but was hired by “Bob Adams Consulting” and brought in “for free” to work on a piece of legislation?
That’s what many do already. Many “staffers” that I speak of don’t “work” for any Congressman. They are outside the official system, yet wield large amounts of power.
Term limits will just give them more power.
Well waddayah know?
You have just described several practices that also need terminatin’
All elected officials should be responsible to hire their own LIMITED staff - to ensure common purpose and cut out the layers of legislative double-speak and outrageous costs.
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