Term limits: a palliative, not a cure

The Coach's Team ^ | 2/4/18 | Publius Huldah

[Oldpuppymax]

What's the real problem with our federal government? That people in Congress serve too many terms? And if we get an Amendment to limit their terms, will our Land be healed?

Of course not! The real problem is that the politicians we elect ignore our Constitution – yet we keep reelecting them.

As a result, the federal government exercises thousands of powers not delegated; but everyone goes along with it. The States get federal funds for going along with unconstitutional federal programs; the People get all sorts of benefits, subsidies, and free stuff; and many live altogether at other peoples' expense. And all this free money is added to the national debt. (1)

Members of Congress also profit from ignoring our Constitution: By exercising the thousands of powers not delegated, they obtain endless opportunities to become rich, powerful, and important.

So, unless we turn over a new leaf, learn our Constitution and obey it, renounce unconstitutional federal programs and benefits, and demand that people in Congress also obey it, limiting their terms by an Amendment merely increases the turnover of politicians in Congress who ignore our Constitution – and to whom we must pay luxurious lifetime pensions.

What would happen if we turned over a new leaf?

For starters, if we required Congress to stay within the enumerated powers, two things would happen:

The job of US Senator or Representative would be so boring, few would want to be reelected. After all, how many times can you revise the bankruptcy code (authorized by Art. I, § 8, cl. 4); fix the Standard of Weights and Measures (authorized by Art. I, §8, cl.5); and organize the Patent and Copyright Office (authorized by Art. I, §8, cl.8)?

There would be no opportunity to get rich...

[rellimpank]

-—agree-there are already “term limits”—two years for reps, six for senators—if if voters are dumb enough to elect someone for , effectively -a lifetime—so it will be—

—and , since most legislation is effectively written by staff members anyway , if that is not fixed , nothing would change because of “term limits”—

[fruser1]

One thing you could do is ensure all member’s budgets are the same.

Right now, the longer a member sits, the larger the budget for their office gets.

I don’t see how that’s constitutional, but that’s how they work it.

If a new member gets in, even though they have an equal vote, they can’t compete financially with existing members because of their relatively small budget.

All congressmen/senators need to have an equal vote AND an equal budget.

You could make an argument that a senator in a larger state requires a larger budget than one in a smaller state, but that budget should then be in proportion to the population, not for how long they’ve been in office.

It’s an elected office, not a career.

Equal vote, equal budget.

[Amendment10]

We need a constitutional convention to repeal the ill-conceived 17th Amendment.

The problem with term limits, evidenced by Obama’s last-term mischief, I’ll mention Gov. Brown’s last term too, is the following.

Term limits give last-term office holders a golden opportunity to get away with stealing and abusing legislative powers, the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress letting lawless Obama get away with stealing state powers and doing all kinds of unconstitutional things with those powers for example.

Repealing the 17th Amendment would also greatly reduce problems with illegal aliens illegally voting.

The 16th Amendment can disappear too.

[aimhigh]

The problem with Congress is the committee system. It creates mini-dictators over committees and over each house, thereby nullifying representative governance.

[Pollster1]

I’d like to drain the swamp for real. Limit the House and the Senate to one staffer in DC per member. Put the executive agencies in flyover country. Put the staffers in flyover country. Let them depend on telephones and teleconferences to stay connected to each other - but put them among us so they stay connected to the American people.

[Hostage]

Here’s the ‘cure’:

************************************************
AMENDMENT XXVIII (’Federal-State Rebalancing’)

To restore the foundational structure of State Legislatures to Congress, the following amendment is proposed:

************************************************

Section 1. Senators in Congress shall be subject to recall by their respective state legislature or by voter referendum in their respective state.

Section 2. Term limits for Senators in Congress shall be set by a vote in their respective state legislatures but in no case shall be set less than two terms nor more than three terms.

Section 3: The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

************************************************

[Nuc 1.1]

You are correct. The 17th amendment repeal is a perfect first step for an Article Five Convention. I think it would have a decent chance to be ratified. I am with you on the 16th. Outlawing the income tax and replace it with a Constitutionally required national sales tax at the rate set by the Constitution. Everyone pays their “fair share”. And I would go further, I would amend the constitution to eliminate the power of congress to write tax law. Except in a national emergency and let’s say all of the state legislatures would have to concur that a national emergency actually exists. Any emergency tax law written by congress goes away after two years. This would start keeping our corrupt congressional criminals in check.

[JimRed]

Those who break their oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution should be subject to punishment and removal.

[JimRed]

I’ve been calling for term limits for about 30 years now. When you can no longer become fabulously wealthy by “serving”, only those who truly wish to SERVE will seek office. Think about it; why would an attorney who could earn a half million a year without breaking a sweat want to spend 20-30 years in a job that only pays $170,000 with some nice perks, in a high cost-of-living environment? And how does he come out a multi-millionaire?