Hey. Well, today, I’m so glad that Senator Richard Briggs from Tennessee has joined us. And he’s one of our sponsors in Tennessee, and I wanted to see what’s happening in Tennessee and get his take on it. So first up, thank you for joining us today.
Glad to be here.
All right. So why did you file this, our resolution for term limits on Congress in Tennessee?
Well, this is something I’ve been concerned about for a number of years. I think if everything was working well in Congress, we were balancing budgets, the government seemed to be running smoothly, it appeared to be fair to the population, people were working together, we wouldn’t need to do this. But unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening. Not only can’t we balance a budget, we can’t even pass a budget. So, a lot of problems in Congress that we have. People have been there a long time. The longer that they’re there, the more entrenched they become, the more difficult it is for someone who’s new that wants to serve. The system is stacked against them, and I could just go through a whole host of reasons, but because of limiting times, it’s something that we need. Congress isn’t functioning the way we’re doing it now. We need to do something different.
All right. What do you think the chances are in Tennessee for passing the resolution?
I think it’s pretty good. We’ve obviously pulled the number of people that are on the committee that I chair, which is the state and local government, and that’s the committee this resolution will pass through. I think we have the votes there, we also have the votes, I believe, on the Senate floor. We always have to wait and see there, because there’s more people that you have to survey to see how it’s doing. I’m very encouraged. I think there’s a very good chance we can get this passed.
Great. So why did you first get involved with US term limits?
Well, it’s something that I’ve been interested in for quite a few years, at least 10 or 15, or maybe even longer. And US Term Limits has limited theirs to term limits. There’s some other organizations out there that have a whole host of problems that they wish to address, and some of those are very good things that I agree with. But when you get too large like that, you have too large of an agenda, it’s just much tougher to get that through and get people to agree on things than it is to focus on what issue and then work on that issue and sell that issue.
Well, we appreciate all your help. So what do Tennesseans think of the resolution and congressional term limits?
Well, just at least as your ordinary Tennesseans… And these are the people that we’re supposed to be serving. I’m sure that we would have somewhere between 80 and 90%, probably in the neighborhood of 85%, think we need to have term limits. We like our congressmen, and many people say that. And my congressman, by the way, he would still be within that six-year limit that we’re talking about, and even on top of that, to reinforce it, my congressman is one of those that’s already filed a resolution to limit congressional term limits. And I’ve talked to him about this, he knows that Congress will never vote themselves out of office. We have to put the pressure on them, then probably before we would even go to an Article V convention, Congress would go ahead and do something. They would grandfather themselves in, but they would allow it to be put as a referendum to the individual states, to see if we can get this put in the constitution going forward.
All right. Now, how do people follow what you’re doing and get involved with you in Tennessee to help you get this resolution passed?
Well, we actually have a lot of people are interested in this. And what we really needed is an organization like US Term Limits where they have a place to rally. This would have been maybe difficult or maybe even impossible 30 years ago. There’s a lot of things I don’t like about social media, but one of the good things is it does allow people that have an interest, they do have an agenda, they have things that we need to get done, to come together, and it’s something to rally around. Where we have an organization, we can pass the word through the different social media, and we have an opportunity to get something done that’s just not been able to be done in the past.
All right. Well, thank you, senator, for taking time out of your busy schedule, and thank you for all the work you’re doing on passing this resolution. We’re so glad you could join us today.
Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.
All right, thank you.