Time for Term Limits in Congress?

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2 term is a great idea some of these guys have been in office 50 years, they get perks galore we have some extremly smart graduats with masters and doctorates in political science. concress terms should be based on performance like we poor slobs. reps. should have their term adjusted in 2 year increments, they promise us the moon then we ignorant americans believe that hype and re- elect them. if every 2 years they are evualated on their performance and kept their word on their election , if not give these people a chance these grads are being

joseph of FL 6:46PM January 21, 2013

Lets go taxpayer we can do it their is more of us then them.they keep taking from us and we have no say so.lets start a petition make term limits,no work no pay just like a normal person.earn and pay for your benefits like we do.lets see who is on welfare congress or the people.we pay them they shouldnt get free healthcare.we all have to pay for are own with are paychecks.start now with a petition so they understand we the people have had enough already.i dont mind paying taxes for the people that count like teachers,firemen,veterans.they do great deeds for are country

liz wetzstein of ND 1:11PM September 28, 2012

Size limit: In the 19th Century, the Congress grew along with the nation. In 1911, however, Progressive reformers finally capped the house at 435 seeking to "improve" the quality of representation by diluting the growing immigrant vote. Except for tiny fluctuations reflecting the admission of new states, the number has stayed the same. That's a 100-year freeze, imposed by statute not by the Constitution. ** the result is incredibly lessened representation of ordinary people, and concentration and leverage for professional lobbyers. Doubling the number of house representatives would help *a lot* in cleaning up the congress, by making it twice as hard for the lobbyist to "buy them all". Doubling the number of congressional representatives would take away the silly and desperate discussions about term limits & campain funding limits -- these are no longer needed, once the simple threshold of one congressman to 500,000 constituents is achieved. This would change the congress nature of "for millioneers by millioneers" selective process, towards more democratic "cast your vote for change".

anon 5:11AM September 23, 2012

leboncoin

leboncoin of AL 3:50AM February 24, 2011

We need to overhaul congress now before its too late. They still don't understand. They work for us. We don't work for them. We put them in office, we can remove them. They get fat paychecks, with a raise every year, and they cut everything for the american people. We are not allowed to vote against them or speak up to the news media. How come? Come on America! Wake up and smell the coffie before they distroy everyone. Lets clean house starting with Queen Nancy Polosi, and her sidekick Harry read.I'm unimployed, and I just found out that congress will not renew everyones unimployment checks, when when they run out. Because people like Harry do not care about american people. What do we do now? Impeach polosi, read, and obama!

Leonard Wayne Dobbert of NC 11:12PM June 21, 2010

I think we all can agree Washington D. C. has completely lost touch with the American people. The demand to throw out the all of the bums out has been heard around America for many years. The only time we have ever come close in my life, was in 1994 – 96, when Newt and the congress passed the contract with America, cut billions from the cost of welfare and we still ended up with Washington and the National debt still out of control.
What happens when individuals are elected to Congress or the Senate? One of the first things a Congressman has to do is raise money, because they are up for re-election in two years. The Senators have six years before re-election but they still have to start raising money. The second thing is the influence power has on them. You can watch them on television news programs and with in the first year you can see the change in their demeanor and how important they think they are. The need for campaign contribution for reelection brings the outside influence from lobbyist that turns away the needs of the people. Once the cycle has started, most politicians are overcome by power and greed and with the seniority system that rewards longevity and the need to get reelected increases. What we the people end up with are politicians from both parties that cannot stop spending our hard earned dollars.
How can we stop this insane cycle? Remove the politician’s need for campaign contributions. We can do this with term limits. Not multi year term limits but one six year term. Do this with the President, Senators, and Congressmen. This is what the Founding Fathers had in mind for our elected officials. They would need campaign contributions one time and then they could concentrate on the needs of the people. Lobbyist and their money would no longer have any effect. Longevity and Committee Chairmanships would no longer be in the equation. They would be there for six years and gone. I think this would put the needs of the people ahead of everything else.
I understand this would take a change to the Constitution for this to work and the way we can do this is with a contract that all State and Federal candidates would sign. The contract would require their support for an amendment for one six year term for all State and Federal officials. We would need to set this up so that one third of Congress and the Senate would up for election at any one time. This would take time because 26 States would have to ratify the amendment but in the end we would have America back and in control of the people.

Michael Mims of TX 9:58AM April 09, 2010

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singles online of 8:15AM March 29, 2010

Each state can't impose its own term limits on its congressmen, it was ruled unconstitutional in US Term Limits v. Thornton. It will require an amendment to the constitution.

Paige of IN 11:09AM March 11, 2010

I would be highly in favor of term limits as Senator DeMint suggests. However, common sense tells me that the old-boy congressmen who have been there 30 to 40 years would never vote themselves out of a job. Some way it would have to be done at the Stste level, so each individual state would impose term limits on their congressmen. Therefore, someone would have to lead the effort.

Lee Conrad of CO 4:26PM March 09, 2010