This article was originally written as a response to many comments on the subject of term limits at Tea Party Patriots. The URL for this is: http://www.contractfromamerica.org/IdeaDetail.aspx?ideaid=776425d7-2493-4f80-9157-006ba256deda . This was posted here on October 13, 2009, at about 10:00 pm (EDT) in case you want to see where it fits in the original discussion. If you would like to comment on this, feel free to comment right here or to go to the above link and comment. Or do both.
Now, as I was going to post at Tea Party Patriots:
Much of what is in the comment you are now reading has been written below in other comments. This is sort of a summary of it all based on my opinions. You will find some variations of what you read earlier.
Because of the limited powers given to the Federal Government by the Constitution, the founding fathers thought there would be little for Congress to do. Therefore, they placed a requirement for it to meet at least once a year (Article I, Section 4) Note: it says “AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR”. The wise men who wrote the Constitution were afraid the congressmen would not bother to come to the capital even that often.
The State Constitution for the New Hampshire states that compensation for the two year term of Representative is $200. That is only $100 per year and it takes an amendment to change it. I like that concept and would like to see in at the federal level. If fact, I would like to see it for ALL elected posts in the country.
If pay and benefits were low enough, our elected officials would not want to be career politicians. If they were required to stay within the bounds of the US Constitution, boredom alone would keep them from running again.
The framers of the Constitution of these united States expected normal farmers and businessmen to run for office and serve a single term. Then, it was expected they would go back living the life they had prior to serving.
Term limits are a good idea. But I would also like to see less incentive for politicians to even want to make serving a career.
My idea would be to limit any person from holding any government position (elected, appointed, or just plain hired), or series of positions, for more than a total of 12 years. I would allow them to rerun after a break from all government service (bureaucrat or elected position or just a clerk in a government office) for a time period equal or greater then the length of their last ‘run’ of government service.
Government servants (at any level) should not receive any pensions or any other incentives other than a basic salary.
Many, here, have spoken of elections being built in term limits. That is the way it should be but it does not work. If you and I vote out our incumbents because we believe in term limits, the people in the next state may not do so. Their incumbents will grab all the power and ours will be powerless. Also, if a senator is instrumental in bringing a factory to his state, his constituency will think he should stay there forever. In the meantime, with his power he may well be passing bills that will hurt the republic. And, remember, if he used his power to bring that factory to your state, he probably did it at the expense of the rest of the nation.
The constitution states we are to have one representative in the house for each 30,000 citizens. This, by the way, is the ONLY reason for the census to be done every ten years. To count heads, not to get demographics. But I digress. To follow the constitution we should have approximately 10,000 representatives in the house. A bigger building would be needed, but Madison Square Garden holds twice that many and we have sports stadiums even larger than MSG. The big advantage to this would be that the Representative would be closer to his constituents. Also, elections would cost less which would give less opportunity for the election to be bought or for contributors to buy the Representative.
Personally, I think the states should pay the salary of their Representatives and Senators. As hinted at above, the salary should not be large and benefits (which should be few and small) should terminate with the term of office. Pensions should not come with any job, people should save and invest a portion of their income for their retirement. Health care should also not be an employment benefit. The fact that it has become one is partially responsible for the health care crisis we now have. Oops! Strayed again.
We should repeal the 17th amendment and go back to the state legislators choosing the senators for that state. They would then be more loyal to the state and less likely to follow the president or house when bills are presented that would hurt their state. Most of the states are too large for the people to know their Senators.
If we force our elected servants to follow the Constitution, we will have a lot less bureaucracies and a lot less bureaucrats and less government jobs. Remember, federal government jobs (with a few exceptions) are non-productive. As a result, we are paying a salary just to let someone tell us what we can or cannot do. The primary exceptions are military and post office. The post office, although allowed for in the Constitution, is not required by the Constitution. I think it should be dissolved and let private enterprise take over. The military should be for DEFENSE ONLY. Then it would be much smaller and need a much smaller budget.
It has been argued that our politicians would get more done if they have longer terms. Frankly, considering what they do I consider it good when they don’t do much at all. That means they are not finding new projects to tax us for, not finding new taxes for us to pay, and not finding new ways to take away our liberties. That kind of non-production is good.
One last point. Someone suggested we should outlaw advertising for elections. This would mean the bulk of the information the public receives would come from the press. The press can be VERY one sided and it won’t always be on your side.