Are You Happy with Congress?

Congressional Term Limits
For a fresh Congress, with fresh ideas, fresh new faces, and a new attitude of service.

If you believe we have the best Congress we could possibly have, with the best legislators we could possibly have, then don't read any further.

But if you believe that for years Congress has failed to live up to the Framers' vision of the way that body would function —

If you have watched in dismay to see Congressional standards decline year after year, and members' standards decline with them —

If it bothers you to note that time after time members vote on legislation they haven't even read, exposing such legislation to the very real danger of legislation by staff, where staff members smuggle their own agenda into our laws —

If you have observed the electorate become disaffected as voters feel removed ever farther from lawmakers —

If you have sensed how members become afflicted with the disease of Careerism as they gain in seniority —

If you have seen the symptoms of Careerism infect members after they have stayed too long at the trough; these symptoms being unquenchable thirst for pay, perks, pensions, pork and personal power —

If you have watched the national debt explode upward in recent years, creating a burden on our children and those who come after them for the foreseeable future —

If it troubles you to behold the huge elitist bureaucracy growing daily, which continues to increase its intrusion into our personal lives —

If you are dismayed by the legislative product of the U. S. Congress, and have decided that most legislation is designed to perpetuate members' grip on public office instead of furthering the best interests of the country, all at the expense of those same members' sworn duty, which is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States —

Then you will agree that it is time to regain control of our government, and recapture our country for the benefit of those who come after us.

Congressional Behavior for the Millennium?
Our United States Congress has lost its way. Led by senior members who put protecting their power base ahead of serving the people, Congress through the years has indicted itself:

It is Congress — that has spent us into the huge national debt, which will burden our children for the indefinite future.

It is Congress — that has created the bureaucratic monster that continues to grow day by day and year by year.

It is Congress — that passes legislation which buys votes by purporting to eliminate the risks of life, then sends us the bill.

It is Congress — whose social experiments have encouraged habits of sloth and irresponsibility.

It is Congress — which has sat idly and passively by while the judicial and executive branches have stood our Constitution upside-down.

Congress — whose duty it is to protect the Republic from rogue presidents and from free-wheeling, ad libbing, legislating judges — has utterly failed in that responsibility.

Congress — whose duty it is to protect and defend the Constitution — has utterly failed in that responsibility.

Congress — whose duty it is to protect its legislative product from the wiles of spendthrift committee chairmen, or even worse, from self-seeking staffers who smuggle their own agenda into that product, simply because members don't even read what they vote on — has utterly failed in that responsibility.

Congress — whose duty it is to provide for the national defense, has stalled in the construction of an anti-missile shield for its citizens, even as more and more foreign countries develop the capability to attack us, all the while permitting the entire defense establishment to deteriorate — has utterly failed in that responsibility.

Where leadership has been called for, Congress has responded with inaction. Where boldness has been called for, Congress has responded with timidity. Where strength has been called for, Congress has responded with weakness.

Congress desperately needs reformation, but lacks the will to reform itself. It is too cozy. What is needed is a Congress that has the will to reform itself; that has the will to make the necessary changes to bring about those reforms. Because it lacks the will to reform, Congress must be restructured. The only way to accomplish this is through a congressional term limitation constitutional amendment, which will require passage by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, meaning these people will have to vote to limit their own terms.

This is not pie in the sky. Louisiana Citizens for Term Limits, ancestor to Citizens for Term Limits , was able, with help from many sources, to persuade the Louisiana Legislature to do just exactly that — vote to limit their own terms. And with overwhelming majorities—90% in the House, 80% in the Senate.

We have a track record. We know it can be done. We've done it.

Citizens for Term Limits
Elected officials respond to one thing more than campaign money, and that is input from constituents. But the messages from home must be in sufficient quantities to indicate a true groundswell among the constituents. Members of Congress are just as susceptible as other officials — it just takes a little more to get their attention. But they can be moved.

Citizens for Term Limits has a vehicle for contacting members of Congress on a large scale. It's called e-mail. Our e-mail website is www.citizencongress.org. Voters can visit this website and have our programs prepare e-mail letters to their congressmen and senators asking them to support a congressional term limitation constitutional amendment, and asking them to sign an attached copy of America's Contract for a Citizen Congress, wherein the member would agree to support and work for a constitutional amendment, but not be bound by the limits we propose (Senators 12 years, Representatives six years), until the amendment is ratified and limits apply equally to all members. This way, no member need feel that he or she is being asked to walk the plank alone.

These letters are prepared electronically by Citizens for Term Limits for the individual voter and e-mailed on his behalf. That way the member knows he is hearing from a constituent, and not a lobbyist. As signed contracts come in, we will monitor them and notify the appropriate constituents in each case.

We will be advertising this website, www.citizencongress.org, modestly at first, inviting voters to visit and to make their voices heard in Washington. The right to petition one's elected officeholders is fundamental to a citizen living in America, and is what the First Amendment is all about. Generating e-mail letters to members of Congress is the most efficient and easiest way for voters to communicate with these members. It requires no pen and paper, no searching for an envelope, no stamp, and no trip to the post office.

In a recent national survey, 39 percent of voters say the current two-party system does not do a good job of addressing the issues that are important to them. Tapping into that disaffected 39% can yield worthwhile results if they can be reached. If this minority can be motivated — and it can — the results can be swift and breathtaking. Reaching that minority is our challenge.

This is a supremely positive step toward restoring our country for our children and those who come after them.

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After referring us to your friends, then visit our other website by clicking below to go to www.citizencongress.org to send your lawmakers your message.