(Amen is all I have to say)
Posted by Bobby Eberle
November 11, 2009 at 9:00 am
When the Founding Fathers came together to craft the Constitution, they brought with them many ideas in which America would be set apart from other nations. First and foremost, the power would reside in the people and not an all powerful king or all powerful government.
The government was divided into three branches so that power could be shared. In addition, the Founding Fathers believed in the notion of a "citizen legislator." The idea of a "career politician" was foreign to them. People were lawyers, or craftsmen, or farmers. They did not make a "living" from politics. As we have seen over the years, regardless of what party is in power... power corrupts. It's time to get rid of the career politician and bring back the citizen legislator. And... there is only one way to do this: a constitutional amendment.
We have seen it time and time again. Someone gets elected with grand plans to help their district, or state, or nation. They go to Washington, DC to do a job, and then they never want to leave. They become part of the system, and the goal then becomes to get reelected for the sake of holding office, not doing the job they were elected to do.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) recognizes this problem and has introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to end what he calls "permanent politicians."
"Americans know real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians," said Senator DeMint. "As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buyoff special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fundraising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork – in short, amassing their own power. I have come to realize that if we want to change the policies coming out of Congress, we must change the process itself. Over the last 20 years, Washington politicians have been reelected about 90% of the time because the system is heavily tilted in favor of incumbents. If we really want to put an end to business as usual, we’ve got to have new leaders coming to Washington instead of rearranging the deck chairs as the ship goes down.”
The amendment is co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).
The amendment would apply term limits to all members of Congress. The president of the United States is already term-limited by constitutional amendment to two full terms or 8 years. The DeMint amendment would limit U.S. representatives to three terms in office and senators to two terms. A term for a representative is two years, while a senator serves for six.
One of the classic arguments against term limits is that a politician needs long experience in order to govern properly. This is completely crazy, and I completely agree with DeMint's comments on that subject:
“Some say only long-serving, seasoned elites have the skills to lead the people, but that’s exactly what we have today and how do you think it’s working out for us?” said Senator DeMint. “It wasn’t the ‘people’ who gave us a $12 trillion debt, an IRS tax code seven times longer than the Bible, over 1,700 departments of the federal government, trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, $100 trillion long-term shortfall in Social Security and Medicare, the Wall Street and auto bailouts, and the pending health care takeover. “This nation can no longer afford these entrenched men and women who enjoy lives of luxury wholly insulated from the consequences of their major policy failures."
I whole-heartedly support this action. The problem is that for the Constitution to be amended, the proposed amendment must pass by two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Thus, Congress has to first pass an amendment that would bring to an end their perks and power.
As noted in the Washington Times, "Senate leaders and longtime Washington watchdogs said Mr. DeMint's bill had a zero chance of becoming law, mostly because of a general lack of interest and the high hurdles to amending the Constitution."
Thus, the only way such a measure could pass is if the public got behind it. We have seen what can happen with the Tea Party movement and the 9/12 Project. Americans are more than frustrated with the federal government. Enough is enough!
It's time to put an end to career politicians in Washington, DC. Go there, do your job, and come back home!
