by Stacey Selleck, US Term Limits
Congress is out of control!
And I’m not talking about passing too many or too few laws. Heck, I just want them to focus on the job we are paying them to do instead of on their own personal wealth. Is that too much to ask?
Unless you live under a rock, you may have noticed that our representatives are openly flouting their congressional responsibilities. Twice, in as many months, high-ranking whistle-blowers have publicly exposed their own greed and deceit and that of their colleagues.
First, in April, Republican Congressman David Jolly of Florida admitted, in a scandalous report on the television program “60 Minutes,” that the number one priority of Congress is their own re-election. How do they accomplish that? They are expected to dial for dollars for 6-8 hours each day to fund their own re-election campaigns. (read more about that in our article “Fundraising a Top Priority Mandate to D.C. Politicians”.)
Now, a new exposé has hit bookstores entitled “The Confessions of Congressman X: A disturbing and shockingly frank tell-all of vanity, greed and deceit.” In it, a Democratic Congressman, known only as “Congressman X,” exposes the sordid underbelly of a runaway Congress.
Congressman X admits to lying in order to take advantage of the electorate while ignoring their concerns in favor of big money special interest donors. Corruption abounds as congressmen vie for a cut of the $3 billion each year doled out by lobbyists.
He admits to the hypocrisy of Congress creating public policy to which they themselves have no intention of participating — like healthcare and education. He opines, “Hell, most of us send our children to private schools and wouldn’t be caught dead sending them to public schools in places like DC. How hypocritical’s that?”
“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them.”
Anonymously, he confesses that our representatives are motivated by self-perpetuation and Congress is its own special interest. He claims that most politicians regard the voters as so stupid they can be easily manipulated referring to them as a ‘nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep.’
If we are the sheep, then our representatives must be the wolves.
“Voters claim they want substance and detailed position papers, but what they really crave are cutesy cat videos, celebrity gossip, top 10 lists, reality TV shows, tabloid tripe, and the next f***ing Twitter message.” ~ Congressman X
The most important question we need to ask is why is this falling on deaf ears? Are we, the American public, so jaded that, when presented with shocking details of governmental abuse, we simply shrug our shoulders and rhetorically ask, “How is this news?”
Why is it that we have lost our seat at the table and fail to recognize that the ultimate authority and power of our democratic republic is derived from its citizens? Why is it that we, the people, have failed to hold our representatives accountable and, in doing so, permit the dysfunction of a runaway Congress?
It’s time to regain control of a system that has run amuck. We elect our representatives to improve our country… not destroy it for their own personal gain at the expense of the taxpayer.
Voting them out of office this November just isn’t the answer. We have had the ability to vote them out forever, yet, many representatives still serve 30, 40, even 50 years.
No longer can we accept the argument that term limits transfer the power to the bureaucrats and the lobbyists. That is what the lack of term limits is doing right now.
No longer can we state that institutional knowledge will be lost as a result of term limits. If greed, corruption and self-perpetuation are the result of the current hierarchy, then we are obligated to reset the system through regular rotation of office afforded to us by imposing term limits. Requiring entrenched career politicians to leave office is a lobbyist’s worst nightmare and allows us to set the stage for a government with more accountability to the people.
We at U.S. Term Limits have a plan… and we want you to be a part of it.
If you worry about the future of America, I urge you to jettison your cynicism of government and support our mission. We need to be mad as heck but we need to channel that energy to a tried and true solution. Term limits have proved to be effective in the setting boundaries on corruption in the state and local governments that have already imposed them.
Support term limits on Congress. The next step to putting this country back on the path to prosperity is to sign the U.S. Term Limits petition. We have little time to waste.