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Sure, they have to get elected like everyone else, but they keep coming back like a bad dream. Congressional Term Limits
How long will Americans tolerate the complete mess that congress has been mired in for so many years? The constant bickering and partisan politics are slowly tearing this country into pieces. The American public has been drawn into this shit storm as well as illustrated by the 50/50 divide that this country has been embroiled in, seemingly forever.
What is causing this great divide between the masses? A major part of the problem is that congress is the only governmental body other than the judicial that has no limit on the terms they can spend in office. Of course, Federal judges are appointed for life and if Congress had its way they would as well.
This is illustrated by the massive number of Congressman and Senators that have tried to hold their offices until death. Namely Ted Kennedy (may he finally rest in piece and who is still holding on to his office), Robert Byrd, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and too many others to name have managed to keep their grip on power for way too long. Why is this important? It’s simple. The longer that these pork barrel spending, self involved, partisan assholes keep their jobs, America suffers. Think about it. Presidents, Governors, Mayors, and almost every other public servant have to live with term limits. The reason for this is to bring in new blood in an attempt to bring balance and order to the offices they hold. Why not Congress? Every time the issue comes up it never comes to a public vote. This because they swash it in the House and Senate in order to keep their unending hold on power and to keep the American public under their thumbs.
Sure, they have to get elected like everyone else, but they keep coming back like a bad dream. Even when new Senators and Congressman do get elected, it isn’t long, even for the most righteous minded newcomers to become enthralled in the corruption that unlimited power breeds. They always argue that limiting their term will handcuff their ability to keep the government running smoothly. But, who are they kidding?
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The government has been stymied for many years greatly because of unlimited term limits in Congress. After all, as long as they can bring massive amounts of money into their respective states, they keep getting elected. The American people are complicit in this cycle because of the narrow view most of us have. We are only concerned about what affects us directly. The wider view is held by few people and unfortunately none of them are in congress.
The Congressional renegades wield their power like a broad sword and will cut to pieces anyone who gets in the way of their agendas. They destroy every bill that comes to a vote by inserting “earmarks” into the back pages of the bill that are presented to congress for a vote. The problem is that though the bill it self has to pass a vote in Congress, the earmarks pass with the bill without any consideration or debate. This is a crime in my opinion because many if not all of these backdoor add-ons would not survive a vote through Congress so they sneak them in to get passage of these rouge laws and expenditures.
The president of the United States used to be able to keep these unscrupulous laws from getting through by using the “line item veto”. This gave the President the power to veto the earmarks and back page laws that Congress always tried to slip into the bills, but Congress snatched that power away because it greatly reduced the powers the Congress had to screw the American public with their self centered, regional agendas. This means that the President has to veto entire bills to stop these excessive expenditures which results in the failure of good laws to be passed term after term creating deadlock and total inefficiency of our government’s ability to help the public good.
In fact, the way the government is running now reflects more of a Federalist society than a true democracy as our forefathers had intended. This is because so many Senators and Congressman spend all of their time grabbing money for their states to get re-elected. This obviously does not bode well for laws that benefit the country as a whole because they use their powers as if they were Presidents of their respective states rather than Senators and Congressmen that should represent the entire country. So, what can we do to stop the madness?
It’s really fairly simple, but it will require some effort on your part. If every American who cares for the continued growth and existence as a nation would write their representatives and demand that term limitations for Congress be brought to a public vote, or we will vote every last one of them out until the right thing is done for the American people. We must have new thoughts and actions in our government to tackle the hard issues that we all face, but if we sit around complacently nothing will change and we all suffer as a result. What will you do to better your country? If the answer is nothing, then we deserve what we get.