Philip Blumel: Fraud, money laundering, strangulation. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits Movement for the week of October 24th, 2022.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Just in case you thought our podcast was a little too wonky and not sensational enough, we offer today the story of former Kentucky State rep Robert Goforth, a mad strangler and term limit scofflaw. [laughter] Here we go.
Speaker 3: This is a public service announcement.
Philip Blumel: How old is too old? The National Desk, a daily nationwide television headline news program asked this question earlier this month and US Term Limits Aaron Dukette helped answer it as well as offering a solution.
Jen: How old is too old to hold office? New polling suggests Americans believe US lawmakers in Washington are just too old. National Desk’s Angela Brown joins us right now. And Angela, more Americans right now are supporting age caps and term limits.
Angela Brown: Yeah. Jen, a whole bunch of polls came out, including a new report says over a quarter of Congress is over the age of 50. It’s the highest percentage ever. At the same time, you know, the Census Bureau says the average age right here in America is 38. Some fear that age gap is impacting policy.
Speaker 6: President Biden 79. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82. Former President Donald Trump teasing a Presidential run, 76. Not to mention nearly one in four members of Congress are in their 70s or 80s. Older politicians setting policies for the next generation like James Williams.
James Williams: It makes it harder for policy to change, to reflect current values or current needs.
Speaker 6: A new Insider/Morning Consult poll finds that Americans think the government is too old with 75% of respondents in favor of age caps for Congress. Eli Yokeley, Senior Political Reporter, Morning Consult.
Eli Yokeley: Across the Congress, across the presidency, across the Supreme Court there’s pretty wide public support for age limits, and yeah, there’s not really much difference between older folks and younger folks. There’s not much difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Speaker 6: Respondents also supporting physical and mental examinations for top federal leaders, 84% favor an assessment for the president, 81% for Congress. Since the ’90s, the organization US Term Limits has been pushing for just that, term limits.
Aaron Dukette: Well, If you only know that you only have so many terms or so many years to be there, you are far more motivated to say, “You know what? I’m gonna make a bold stand here and actually do something that I might personally get blow back from.”
Speaker 6: A recent poll by CBS YouGov also found nearly three quarters of American adults favor age limits for elected officials, and when asked what age that should be, 70 came in number one. James agrees.
James Williams: It’d be nice to see a lot of younger people or a lot of people I can identify with which government’s starting to move that way, but it’s a slow process.
Jen: Well, Congress is getting older really in the last few decades. In 1990, the average age in Congress was roughly around 53 years old. Right now it’s around 61 years old.
Speaker 10: Corruption.
Philip Blumel: Domestic violence, fraud, money laundering, and reneging on a term limits pledge, state representative Robert Goforth of Kentucky aspired the higher office and ended up in the hoosegow. Robert Goforth started off okay, or at least it looks that way on paper. Born in 1976 in East Bernstadt, Kentucky, Goforth graduated with a doctor of pharmacy from the University of Kentucky and spent two years in the US Army, but then he turned to politics. Goforth was elected to the Kentucky State House in 2018, and the young legislator immediately challenged incumbent governor Matt Bevin in the 2019 Republican gubernatorial primary election. He did surprisingly well, taking 40% of the vote. But in early 2020 things started falling apart. In April that year, Goforth was arrested and indicted in September on charges of first degree strangulation and one account of assault in fourth degree for physically assaulting his wife. His wife said Goforth, grabbed an ethernet cable from a kitchen drawer wrapped around her neck while she was face down on the floor and strangled her to the point where she was having trouble breathing according to the citation. Goforth’s wife said she didn’t want to pursue prosecution against him. Goforth pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault, but the strangulation charge was dismissed.
Philip Blumel: Being an incumbent, he still won re-election in 2020. A year later, he was convicted of fraud. Goforth, pleaded guilty, admitted that a pharmacy he owned in Clay County billed Medicare and Medicaid and other insurance programs for prescriptions that customers didn’t pick up. Then the medication was put back on the shelf and sold again and again and again according to the plea agreement. Interestingly, Representative Goforth signed the US Term Limits Pledge to co-sponsor vote for and defend the resolution for Kentucky to call for the term limits convention. This is the official application of Kentucky to call for an amendment writing convention under Article V of the US Constitution that would be limited to the subject of congressional term limits. He used this pledge in his election campaign and the popular stance surely was chosen to maintain this ambitious politician’s profile at the state level. Goforth went so far as to promise to be the lead sponsor and introduced the Term Limits Convention bill. Surely he’d seen the recent polling that 96% of independents, 85% of Democrats, and 82% of Republicans in Kentucky supported this reform.
Philip Blumel: However, after promising to take on the role of the chief sponsor, he at the behest of house leadership refused to proceed with the term limits resolution at the last minute, making it impossible to find a new sponsor for the 2020 session. His challenge to Governor Bevin over, the election over, he didn’t need this issue and he reneged on his pledge to voters. The Term Limits Convention was dead in Kentucky for another year. His term limits betrayal was his first scam as a Kentucky legislator, but it was not his last. It was only a few months later that he attacked his wife and throughout this period was, according to his own admission, been defrauding patients and insurance companies. For his pharmacy scheme, Goforth earlier this month was sentenced to two years and one month in federal prison for healthcare fraud and money laundering. Additionally, Goforth will have to pay $2.7 million in restitution for the fraud and 10,000 in fines. After two terms in office, term limits scofflaw Representative Robert Goforth will spend his next term in prison.
Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The Term Limits convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the term limits movement. To check on the status of the term limits convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a Take Action button by your state. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators, urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you are watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the term limits convention resolution, or the bill has not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It’s our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next Week.
Stacey Selleck: Find us on most social media at US Term Limits. Like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and now TikTok.
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