Posted on 09/21/2015 3:53:22 AM PDT by nuconvert
A Gallup poll released last Friday found that a full 75 percent of Americans believe that corruption in government is widespread. That’s up by nine percentage points since 2009, when only 66 percent felt that way.
So it’s no surprise that a populist revolt is in full swing. Bernie Sanders, a socialist who rails against government ties with Wall Street, is leading front-runner Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. Three Republicans who have never held office — Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson — are way ahead of veteran GOP governors and senators in the race for the GOP nomination.
A recurring theme in the campaigns of several Republicans this year is support for term limits. Donald Trump characteristically won’t address the issue, telling CBS’s Face the Nation: “The biggest reform is to get competent people in office. I mean that’s to me the biggest reform we could make.” But Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson have made support for term limits part of their platforms. Carson said: “We must encourage innovation and ingenuity to improve the state of our nation. Term limits create more opportunities for fresh ideas.” Carson, along with fellow GOP candidates Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, go beyond calling for term limits on Congress: They propose extending them to Supreme Court justices as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
And I'd like there to be an age limit, too. Mandatory retirement at 72 or 74 at the most.
Gets my vote!
Could backfire.
What about Senator Cruz?
Term limits would deal with the idiocy of having useless old bastards like Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd and Thad Cochrane running the nation's affairs long after they've passed their expiration date. But the problem isn't just those jerks. It's a Federal bureaucracy that has turned into an entire self-perpetuating industry unto itself.
The biggest problem isn't an octogenarian in the U.S. Senate who can't even dress himself in the morning. The biggest problem is actually illustrated with a guy like Rick Santorum, who served two terms in the U.S. Senate, who was voted out of office even without any term limits ... and who probably hasn't worked a job in his life that didn't involve: (1) working at the expense of taxpayers, or (2) working for a lobbying firm or a "think tank" whose sole purpose is to soak taxpayers for one pet issue or another.
Implementing term limits would do nothing more than increase the speed of the revolving door for people like this. They'll spend less time in government, but they'll simply do more favors in that time before they walk out the door and land in a thoroughly unproductive, but personally lucrative, job doing favors for their benefactors.
Term limits wouldn’t be needed if we did away with Washington DC. It should be a meeting place once or twice a year (State of the Union address and one or two emergency sessions). The rest of the time senators and congressmen should work from home. They would then have to face their constituents daily and have to live under the laws they pass. Also would make the lobbyist jobs harder and more costly.
Term limits are in the hands of voters.
We proved that when we Cantorized our weasel, the sitting Majority leader.
The bigger the government the more money and power to corrupt the players. If the voters are serious about corruption, they should demand a smaller government.
“What about Senator Cruz?”
What about him? He can serve 2 terms, then he goes. That gives him 12 yrs to make a difference. That’s long enough.
And if you put a mandatory retirement age of 72, he’d be out.
You raise some very valid points. The issue of lobbyists and access to government is indeed a huge issue, probably larger than that of term limits.
But the lack of term limits is indeed a big part of the problem. What’s nice is that it is easily definable.
Lots of things need to be done, and they all weave together. We have to start unraveling Govco everywhere we can.
Since we actually elect officials every 2, 4 or 6 years, we already have term limits.
The broader question to ask is how those elected into office use their power to ‘gin’ the system and get reelected.
I submit several ways to mitigate this:
1. A Constitutional Amendment that says no law can be passed or regulations enacted that gives exemption to anyone in Government. (Like Obamacare)
2. The elimination of money laundering as practiced between unions and Democrats, or like between pharmaceuticals and GOP. (Pass a law to benefit me and I will donate to your party).
3. Zero funding of any Green Energy Schemes. (Only awards fatcat backers).
4. No Government spending is to occur without a prior-approved budget for that fiscal year. (Continuing resolutions just keep congressmen from hard choices needed)
5. No elected or appointed official is to receive a pension that is above the average of the private sector for similar work and number of years of service.(No more career politicians, need an incentive to return to private work like the Founders intended)
There are others, but note the preponderance of money in these. Always, always follow the money.
Term limits can be passed by Congress IF they exclude the legislation from judicial review. It will be subject to change by a future Congress, but a serious Congress could impose it immediately upon themselves.
Just a suggestion: there are some levels of the bureaucracy that should be term limited, especially the senior executive service (SES). They are equivalent to flag rank in the military, and serve just below cabinet level. But...they can stay forever.
“Since we actually elect officials every 2, 4 or 6 years, we already have term limits.”
No, we don’t. We need a limit on how many terms someone is allowed to run and a mandatory end to their position.
I’m all for term limits also including the SC. But look who makes the laws. They aren’t going to term limit themselves out of a lifetime cushy job. I’m also for taking away their pensions, and letting them fund their own, but that ain’t happenin’ either....
“No, we don’t. We need a limit on how many terms someone is allowed to run and a mandatory end to their position.”
I do not know what you are referring to by the “No, we don’t” comment. No we don’t what?
At the end of an elected term, that person is terminated, and has to begin a NEW term by a fresh reelection process, as per the Constitution.
Attack the abuse of the ability to reelected and you resolve the issue.
The single biggest hypocrisy against term limits would be the actions to stop it by the very same people it would be throwing out and the same people sworn to uphold the constitution that don’t do it in office.
WTP will never see these ‘esteemed’ critters ever vote themselves out of their cushy chairs. As Oh, the dark won would say: ‘The future must not belong to John Boehner”. This congress critter has no future in the Republican Party as soon there will no longer BE a Republican Party.
WTP say: The future AMERICA is the only future and the Republican traitors need to be gone...now. (period)
Term limits don’t work, at least here in MI at the state level.
For example, state legislators get together and put something onerous in a bill then pass it knowing that they will gone in a year.
Same with an excess budget, then only to be term-limited out after 6 years and they have no accountability for their actions.
Then someone else takes their place who in not responsible for the cronyism/lobbyist payouts etc. that just took place and this leads to bad things happening.
Term limits work in theory but don’t work in practice.
Vote them out instead - and if they broke any law while holding office, prosecute them instead of a political party running their mouths.
That’s a great idea, and how it was supposed to be in the first place. We were supposed to have public servants, not career politicians. And it could only be positive to make government not only smaller, but more local.
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