SHOULD ALL GOVERNMENT POSITIONS HAVE TERM

LIMITS?

We often wonder as a society, why our President, who has little power without support
from Congress, has term limits, but the other branches of the government do not? Where is the
true power and influence in this country coming from? I would like to explore this for just a
minute. If the President has term limits to prevent corruption, then other offices within our
government should have the same limits. Why shouldn't they? They have the same capability to
corruption, and they are susceptible to the virus of career politicianitis. When our fore fathers
created this nation and designed a government of the people for the people, they did not envision
a country run by the same old, tired, and corrupt politicians more interested in their preservation
than that of the country as a whole.
We often find that many politicians go to Washington with real intentions on changing the
town. They talk about lofty ideals of smaller government, streamlined services, and budget
cutting. However, with the prospect of a job that is eternal in its own nature, they are quickly
and easily side railed and have to split their attention among other projects, like re-election
campaigns, fund raising, party schmoozer meetings, etc. In a testimony given to the
Subcommittee on the Constitution committee on the Judiciary of the United State Senate on
January 25th 1995, Edward Crane from the CATO Institute laid out a few good reasons for this
action.
First, he declared that the founding fathers surely wanted the house to be the closest arm
of government to the people. This is why it is a citizen legislature. An organization of the

people, by the people.

He said in order to achieve this they should not be far removed from the their private sector ties.
(Cane congressional term limits Cato Institute 1995) Career politicians are often disconnected
from their public, and with no real aspiration to return to the private sector workforce, career
politicians find ways to remain in office, at almost any expense. The fact is that America is best
served by a Congress populated with members who are there out of a sense of civic duty, but
who would rather live their lives in the private sector, holding productive jobs in civil society,
outside the governmental world of political society. (Cane 1995) This statement alone, tells us
why we should limit the servants of the Congress.
Second, he says term limits will not allow these elected leaders to be to far removed from
their private sector experiences. It other words, they won't forget what they are there to do. The
third is tied to the second in that the longer one is in office, the more exposure they have to be

influenced by the culture of ruling. The National Taxpayers Union has shown a correlation
between longevity in congress, and larger spending habits within the government.
One of the best reasons though is that it will enhance the number of and the diversity of
the candidates that run for office. It will allow more people to serve their country in a capacity
that they feel they might be able to contribute. It will bring fresh ideas and perspective to the
governing body.
Because these folks can go back to life after civil service, we could eliminate the pension
program and save taxpayers almost a a quarter of a billion dollars per decade in taxpayer
funding. We shell out almost 26 million a year, according to data pulled from the Congressional
Research Service by Jenifer Tachnin in her Feb 9 2011 article at Roll Call, Former Memebers
Get millions from pensions. There are better places to spend these tax dollars, especially
considering that many of these congressmen are self made well to do people. Several have even
tried to refuse the pension and healthcare benefits, including reps. Schilling and Walsh.
However, in 2003 Congress actually passed a law prohibiting lawmakers from opting out.
(Yachnin 2011)

Funny, they actually took away the ability for others to opt of of government

handout.
The final issue we face is the double dippers. According to CalWatchdog.com, in May
2014, they reported that former San Diego city councilman Carl Demaio proved to congress that
there are currently 19 CA members of congress taking pensions from their former state
employment while being actively paid to serve in congress. (John Hrabe 2014)

California Politicians on the Pension Double-Dip List

Member of Congress
Boxer, Barbara

Party District
Amount
D
California Senate $ 4,445

Pension System
Marin County Employees Retirement

Capps, Lois
Cook, Paul
Costa, Jim
Eshoo, Anna

D
R
D
D

California-24
California-08
California-16
California-18

$
$
$
$

Farr, Sam

California-20

$ 19,280

Feinstein, Dianne
Garamendi, John
Honda, Mike

D
D
D

California Senate $ 54,925

California-03
$ 88,800
California-17
$ 50,014

Lowenthal, Alan

California-47

$ 46,941

McClintock, Tom

California-04

9,579

Napolitano, Grace

California-32

6,356

Negrete-McLeod,
Gloria

California-35

3,348

Roybal-Allard, Lucille D

California-40

$
$

Speier, Jackie

California-14

Vargas, Juan

California-51

Waters, Maxine

California-43

Waxman, Henry A

California-33

Peters, Scott

California-52

$
$
$

68,768
40,695
11,205
11,728

Assoc
Multiple
Multiple
Multiple
County of San Mateo, CA
California Public Empl Retirement
System
City & County of San Francisco, CA
Multiple
Multiple
California Public Empl Retirement
System
Multiple
California Public Empl Retirement
System
CalPERS

2,501 California Legislators Retirement

5,000 System
California Legislators Retirement
6,000
System
San Diego City Employees Retirement
20,304
Syst
California Legislators Retirement
5,720
System
5,000 California Public Empl Retirement
15,000
System
20,298
SDCERS

Courtesy of CalWatchdog.com

This is prevalent even at the Federal Level. Former President Bill Clinton is drawing pension
from the State of Arkansas for serving as Governor, as well as his Presidential pension. Which
does not even account for all the funds used for the secret service that he still uses, or his office
rent to the tune of almost $450,000. (Bill Morris freebacon.com) Hilary also collects pensions
for Service as New York Senator, and Secretary of State, and if she wins the bid for the White
House, she will collect additional pension money for that. In contrast to this, former president
Truman passed away in his Missouri home, in a state of Poverty.

I don't think we should stop there. I feel that the recent decisions that come from our
Supreme Court, have also indicated that maybe life terms in the Judicial arena need to be
evaluated.

Justices are, after-all, still human, and just as susceptible to the pressures of individual bias.
Although they should be recusing themselves from those cases that they have a potential bias in,
they do not do so. For this reason, the adage of power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely, really comes to light. When they want so bad to support a bill that they truly know
they have no authority to rule on, and it has been painfully obvious to several members of the
group, we see ruling decisions that are curtailed with reasons of love, peace, harmony, etc., rather
than law. We will find them rewriting the law to fit their ruling as was done in 2012 when they
changed the word penalty to tax in the Affordable Care Act, so that they could serve as the
last line of defense for the bill, rather than holding congress responsible for their deliberate
idiocy in changing the the word tax to penalty just before it passed, so they could tell the
world, they were not raising taxes. We should be holding our leaders to a higher standard, and
this is more easily done with term limits. It is like someone facing the point in their life when
their own mortality becomes a not so distant thing. They begin to wonder if they did everything

right. They think about those they wronged, and some of them finish their bucket list. If these
members had a specified mortality rate in politics, what would really be on the bucket list?
At the end of the day, we have an even greater concern. This country is full of capable
and intelligent enough folks to serve as congressmen and women. They come from all walks of
life, and all of them are happy to serve. With that being said, we are facing another potential
Bush v Clinton election for the White house. It is time that the people of America find a voice to
govern their own country instead of leaving it to the handful of the political elite. Term limits
will eliminate many issues, and restore some balance to our legislative process.

Works Cited:
Crane, Edward H. Congressional Term Limits Testimony to Subcommittee on the Constitution
Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate January 25 1995

Hrabe, John 19 CA Members of Congress Take Pensions CalWatchdog.com May 2014

McMorris, Bill Bill Clinton Budgeted to Receive Nearly $1 Million in Taxpayer Money in
2014 www.freebacon.com June 23 2014

Yachnin, Jennifer Former Members Get Millions From Pensions Roll Call February 9 2011