Term Limits

Our founding fathers gave a lot of time and attention to covering as many topics as they thought necessary, when they drafted our constitution. Our President is elected every four years, while Senators and Congressmen are elected either every six years or every two years. The length of the terms were determined before an election ever took place. The number of times the same person was eligible to be elected has only since been determined for the office of President.

Why were the founding fathers so nitpicky about some things, like freedom of speech, and so uninterested in official term limits? Well, 240 years ago, being a politician was not a career choice, but a community service. There was actually a time when the members of Congress were lucky if they got reimbursed for travelling expenses.

My how times have changed. I have heard a lot of people arguing in recent days in favor of term limits for Senators and Congressmen. I haven't heard any politicians supporting the idea though. Of course, they wouldn't. Who in their right mind would support only being able to have their own job for a limited amount of time. I'm fairly certain no President ever suggested limiting his office to two terms in a row.
That suggestion had to come from Congress.

So people, if you're truly in favor of term limits, then individual states are going to have to pass their own laws on the subject. You can't look to the President to support the idea. He has to work with those guys. How likely are they to help him accomplish his agenda if he wants to put an end to their jobs? That would effectively put an end to any hope of bipartisanship during this administration.

I myself am in favor of term limits, but I'm not certain exactly what they should be. Congress has a pretty sweet retirement deal. So how long should they have to work before they're eligible for it? 8 years? 12 years? 20 years like the rest of us?

If we set short term limits, how would we get rid of their retirement benefits? I mean, I always thought retirement was associated with age. Should we only give retirement benefits to those who serve their terms between the ages of 45-65? 52-72?

Until the time we have term limits there's really only two things we can do. We can decide for ourselves what we think the term limits should be and follow that in our voting practices. If you think a Senator should only be in office for twelve years, then go vote against someone who's been a Senator longer than that.

Secondly, we can contact our local legislatures and have them put federal term limits on our state ballots. Most telephone books contain a section of blue pages. Your local representatives should be listed there. Remember to be nice and mind your manners when asking them how to put federal term limits on your state's ballots, so you and your neighbors can vote on them. Term limits might even be an issue that will encourage voter turnout in your area.

We not only have a right to vote, we have the responsibility to vote what we believe.



Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

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