Forum Post: Congressional Term Limits NOW!
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 5, 2011, 1:47 p.m. EST by slydog1227
(2)
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Its time to instill Congressional term limits for the House and Senate, and to remove Lobbyists and corporations from the government picture. This should be one of OWS's main stances!
We do it with the Presidency, we MUST do it with Congress!
I don't know that term limits will accomplish much when the end of time in office usually only signifies a better paying job lobbying one's previous friends and colleagues. It is pay back for patronage, and patronage reform needs to be a core issue of any reform.
I.e., Bill Clinton leaves office and Hillary gets a seat on Walmart's BoD. (I used a Democrat as an example, but political party has nothing to do with this issue, both are equally egregious.)
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. July 4, 1776.
Hell yes. And no lifetime benefits either. Why should a politician get better benefits than a veteran who put his or her life on the line for 20 years?
Why would you want to prevent a good representative from continuing to represent you?
A "good" representative? ANY representative can "represent" me. If they are truly representing their constituency. If they honestly take their constituents wishes to congress, as they are SUPPOSED to do, any representative can do it! REMOVING a lobbyists ability to influence them, or a corporations ability to influence them LONGTERM does not cause a big problem.
Why don't you just vote them out if you aren't happy with them?
because it only takes time for that good representative to become a bad representative.
Everyone in congress deserves to be fired. Not a one (save maybe Ron Lawl) is actually willing to do anything that would actually help the country.
Do you wish that Ron Lawl had been prohibited from serving in Congress still? He has served more than 20 years.
yep, just like the bad, the good will have short time in office. Less time means less time to get to know wall st and the k streeters.
Yeah...and wood is what keep termites in a house. We still kill the termites because we have to have the wood. To imply that because we have regulations is the reason we have lobbyists and corporations in government, as if there is no way to remove them from it is ludicrous!
It's time to get the lobbyists and corporations out of the government, and it's time to institituet congressional term limits!
You're not very bright if you believe that corporations bribe politicians simply because they serve multiple terms. The simple fact is, politicians and regulators are bribed, not because corporations enjoy throwing money away, it's because they know that the market will be regulated in their favor. It's an investment. It doesn't matter how many terms the politician serves. Also your little theory doesn't address the fact that many of the regulators being bribed are non-elected bureaucrats.
I didn't say that was the reason doofus! If you require somebody color you a little picture you should get your news from the funny papers! Term limits is only a start! You obviously realize that bribery and corporate buying of politicians is a problem. Getting corporations out of our government is the first step to returning it back to the people! Do you propose we just ignore it?
"Regulations" are what keeps lobbyists and corporations in the government picture.