Term Limits

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Mick Mulvaney, a Republican from South Carolina has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to initiate a Constitutional Amendment to set term limits for Congress. He originally wanted to limit senators to two six year terms and representatives to three two year terms. As a compromise to get more co-sponsors he changed the limits to 24 years maximum in the congress with a limit of two terms in the senate and six terms in the house. Other representatives willing to co-sponsor are all Republicans: Steve Salise from Louisiana, Reid Ribble from Wisconsin and Steve Palazzo from Mississippi.

Some of you may remember Jim DeMint of South Carolina introduced a similar bill in the Senate in 2012. It was defeated 75-24. Who do you suppose the opposition was? You are right, it was all the senators from both parties that would be ousted because of the change. I know Mike Lee of Utah came into the senate a few years ago advocating for term limits, so I know there is some senatorial support, primarily from younger Republicans. Support will only increase when congress people are coerced by their constituents.

With congressional approval rating stuck at 13%, now is the time to advocate this change.

Most people are not aware that twenty four states used to set term limits for congress people from their states. This practice was stopped by the Supreme Court in 1995 in the lawsuit, U. S. Term Limits, Inc. vs. Thornton.

What effect do you suppose term limits would have on the country? Immediately it would get rid of some dead wood that currently make up the political class in Washington that is successful in voting for what is best for themselves and not what is best for the people that elected them. It would mean less elections for each politician, which means they would have more time to do what they were sent to Washington to do, instead of doing whatever they need to do to get donations for re-election. There would be fewer loopholes in the IRS code that congress people use to get voting blocs on their side. It would guarantee less congress people sleeping through legislative session because they are too old and feeble to participate. The congress would be closer to the people and closer to what our founders intended when they wrote “A government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Speak you mind. Tell your representatives what you think. E-mails address and phone numbers for our elected officials are easily found on the internet.