CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS

_{Return to What the Constitution Really Means}

Many are angry at Congress for failing to do its job and it shows with Congress’ approval rating at just a dismal 15%. In fact, Congress’ approval rating has been below 30% since October of 2009.

Due to the anger of the people and the majority of Congressional members refusing to listen to their constituents, the call to give Congress term limits is getting louder and louder. I understand the desire for term limits, but too many are looking for the easy fix and not thinking about the unintended consequences.

Codifying congressional term limits is a recipe for disaster.

Just before the 2012 presidential election, Obama was caught on a hot-mic telling outgoing Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to let incoming Russian President Putin know that he (Obama) would have more flexibility after the election.

What does that mean: ‘more flexibility after the election’?

It means Obama could do whatever he wanted without worrying what voters thought because he could not run for a 3rd term. And Obama took advantage of that.

Obama and his cohorts actively engaged in encouraging hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to illegally cross the border into the U.S. Obama then forced Border Agents to set those illegal aliens free onto U.S. soil.

Obama blocked investigations into the terrorist group Hezbollah running drugs across the southern border into the U.S. because that is what Iran demanded as part of the Iranian nuclear deal.

Obama smuggled billions and billions of dollars into Iran in the middle of night in a variety of currencies, because he knew going through normal channels would reveal his activities.

In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea and Obama failed to keep Bill Clinton’s promise to Ukraine to protect them if they were ever attacked after they agreed to give up their nuclear weapons. According to former Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, we recently learned John Kerry approved of Russia’s plan to annex Crimea, even though it was part of Ukraine at the time.

Obama and his administration escalated spying on Americans and storing all of their data in violation of the 4th Amendment. Edward Snowden revealed this in 2013.

This is just a tiny fraction of the obscene actions taken by Obama when he no longer feared angering voters… when he had ‘more flexibility’.

This is exactly what will happen if term limits are imposed on Congress.

First, politicians know if term limits are imposed, the voters will have even less motivation to pay attention to what they are doing, because they will believe they have solved the corruption and power grabs.

Second, when voters pay less attention, Congress knows they will have to act quickly to build their power and wealth before their term limit runs out, and they will do just that. They will also ensure their replacements will continue to carry on their agenda, which is not a pro-America agenda. What the voters want won’t matter at all.

Senator Mitch McConnell has been in the Senate since 1985, and as of 2024, has been the leader of the Republican party for the last 17 years as either Senate Majority Leader or Senate Minority Leader. McConnell would always tell Americans want they wanted to hear, but the moment he returned to D.C., he would undermine America-first policies, and support Democrat policies. As a Kentuckian, I paid close attention to what McConnell was doing. He only got one vote from me during his career. When I realized what he was doing, I never voted for him again.

McConnell announced he would step down from his leadership position officially in Jan. 2025, and rushed the vote to select his replacement for Nov. 13, 2024… just eight days after Trump won the 2024 election with 312 electoral votes and the popular vote by more than 5 million votes.

McConnell’s choice to replace him is Senator John Thune, who has been McConnell’s #2 for the last few years. Like McConnell, Thune is a RINO, a member of the establishment uniparty, which puts power and greed as their priorities. Thune has been quite clear about his opinion of Trump from the very start and has made no effort to hide them.

RINOs “compromise” so much with Democrats that Democrats get everything they want and the Constitution has been all but forgotten.

RINOs, such as McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and John Boehner would take money donated to the Republican party to actively campaign against Republican candidates they could not control, candidates who are America-first. They preferred having a Democrat win an election rather than a Republican who would not take their orders and would actually put the voters of their States first.

Term limits will do nothing to stop politicians from structuring elections to manipulate who is allowed to run, who is allowed to be in leadership positions. The only way to stop such politicians is to pay full attention to what they are actually doing, not just listening to their pretty words. Keep your neighbors informed of what the politicians are actually doing. If their actions don’t match their words, bombard them with emails, phone calls and social media comments. Then vote them out.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

When the Constitution was written, each colony considered itself its own country, its own ‘nation-state’. None of the colonies were willing to lose that individual sovereignty, but at the same time they knew if one of the world’s nation powers at the time, such as Spain, England, Denmark, etc decided to invade, they would not be strong enough alone to repel the invaders. Only a defense provided by all of the colony nation-states together had a chance to fight back. So they created a ‘federal’ government to primarily provide national defense and a united voice when dealing with rulers of other countries. The rest of the power was to remain with the colony nation-states and the people within those states.

In 1913, the 17th Amendment was ratified. Prior to this, and per the Constitution, Senators were selected by the legislators of each State. When the Constitution was written, the Founders wanted the States to be a block on the federal government if the federal government overstepped its boundaries.

The Representatives in the House were to be the voice of the people and the Senators were to be the voice of the States. If a senator failed to do as the State wanted, he would be hauled back before the State legislators and held to account. It was much easier for the smaller group of State legislators to pay attention to what Senators were doing in D.C. than for the entire population of voters in the State… and the people have no way to haul a senator back to be raked over the coals.

Using scare tactics and a great deal of misinformation, the Democrat Congress convinced voters across the nation to push for the 17th Amendment, which allowed the voters in each state to elect the Senators through popular vote instead of them being selected by the legislators of the State.

After the Senators got their watchdogs off their backs, they were free to build the environment that would grow their power and their wealth. Senators very rarely keep the promises they make to the voters because they know the majority of voters will not pay attention to what they are really doing. Six years between elections is a long time. Voters believe the lies and fancy commercials and can’t be bothered to do research. The Senators give themselves regular pay raises. They know what areas will have new roads, so they buy land in those paths, then rake in huge government dollars. They extort money from businesses by promising not to create laws that will hurt those businesses. They use their positions to benefit themselves. THESE are the unintended consequences when the voters relinquished the power of their State legislators to control the Senators.

The Civil War did a great deal of damage to the ability of the States to act as a block to an out-of-control central government. The 17th Amendment put the nails in the coffin of State sovereignty and gave the Federal government free reign to begin its destruction of the Constitution and domination over the American people.

MORE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Per the Constitution, Congress makes the laws and the President enforces the laws. However, just like the voters and State legislators gave up their power by controlling the Senators they sent to D.C., Congress gave up much of its authority to make laws to the Executive branch (the President)… basically creating the environment that will eventually lead to a dictator… much like China, Russia, North Korea.

Per the Constitution, Congress has no authority over the educational system of the U.S., yet they voted to give that power to the President in 1978. Constitutionally, education is a State by State issue.

Per the Constitution, Congress has no authority over the environment, yet Congress voted to give that power to the President via the EPA. The environment is a State by State issue.

Per the Constitution, Congress has no authority over the definition of marriage, yet Congress passed and George W. Bush signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Years later, the Supreme Court decided it was unConstitutional. In that aspect, the Supreme Court was correct as no part of the federal government has the right to make any determination on marriage per the Constitution. That belongs to the States, yet the act of the Supreme Court denied States that right.

Nowhere in the Constitution can one find any authority for the federal government to control medical care for the entire nation. The Founders believed each State would be a laboratory to try different approaches, allowing the best ideas to rise to the top. Vermont implemented single-payer in 2011, but the costs forced them to end it in 2014.

Colorado put it up for state vote in 2016, but when the people realized how expensive it would be, it was voted down. California, too, attempted single-payer in 2017, but the overwhelming costs and taxes shot it down.

Montana on the other hand took a different approach to deal with the State’s out-of-control healthcare costs for state employees and their families. After a vicious fight with hospitals and insurance companies, they developed a better comprehensive plan that turned a $9 million deficit into a $100 million surplus.

States are much better at meeting the needs of their people at the local level. If the state government is unresponsive, the citizens of that state can boot them out. Much easier at the State level than the federal level.

There are many agencies in the President’s administration that violate the Constitution. Some of those duties are the responsibility of Congress and the others belong to the States. These agencies, run by unelected officials, impose laws on the American people and there is not a thing the American people can do to remove them.

THE REAL DANGER TO THE U.S. AND THE CONSTITUTION

Per the Constitution, Article I, Section 1 states: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” This means Congress, and only Congress, has the authority to write the laws… not agencies in the executive branch, and not the executive branch via executive orders.

Article 1, Section 8 limits Congress’ authority to a few specific duties. However, Congress has greatly overreached its authority to interject itself into every aspect of people’s lives. The 10th Amendment states:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

This means that much of what is now controlled by agencies in the federal government, illegally put in the executive branch, actually belongs to the authority of the States and the People. These agencies were created by Congress to supposedly help the president enforce the laws passed by Congress. However, as we all know, these agencies are now quick to write “regulations” that are forced on the American people as though they were laws written by Congress. It takes years to fight these regulations… either through the courts (which most Americans cannot afford), or through Congressional fights to write a new law to remove the regulation. As a result, too many of these regulations hang over the heads of Americans forever.

How did this happen? Greed for power and money was the motivation. Congress wanted to grow its power, but they knew if they voted on laws Americans would hate, they would be voted out of office. So they filled the executive branch with agencies full of millions of unelected bureaucrats to write the “regulations” and “rules” they couldn’t get passed in Congress.

The best way to fix the U.S. government is to return to the Constitution. First, shut down any agency not listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. That authority belongs to the States and the People, such as the Education Department, Agriculture Department and Health and Human Services.

Regulations greatly outnumber laws. In 2016, 214 laws were passed by Congress. During that same year, the agencies in the executive branch wrote 3,853 rules and regulations. The Founding Fathers never intended it to be easy for Congress to pass laws. Laws are tyrannical and should only be issued for the most severe need. That is why there are two chambers – the House and the Senate for a total of 535 current senators and representatives. Trying to write laws that are going to please the American public requires a fight between all 535 members of Congress to ensure the problem is solved with the least amount of restriction to the American people… and none of those laws should ever violate the 10 Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

However, when agencies can pass more than 10 rules every single day of the year, with no oversight and no real recourse for the average American, who cannot afford to take the federal government to court, tyranny easily moves in, and the bureaucrats can never be voted out by the people.

Passing term limits won’t really affect the political landscape, because the agencies will continue to be the politicians’ cover as they issue more and more and more rules and regulations. We all know there are lobbyists and others behind the scenes, as well as politicians with a great deal of influence. Those are the ones who will be controlling the agencies, no matter how many politicians come and go.

Every federal law in existence outside of the bounds of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution must immediately be made null and void, and those concerns must be returned to the States and the People to deal with as they see fit for their needs. Every agency outside of the bounds of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution must be immediately shut down.

For those agencies that do fit the parameters of the Constitution, any authority to write rules and regulations must immediately be removed. In reality, those rules and regulations have no authority, because they were not passed by Congress. If Congress feels those rules and regulations are necessary, then they must pass them as laws, then deal with the wrath of the American people if they have gone too far… which will likely get them voted out of office and replaced by people who will repeal those laws.

The Founding Fathers were quite clear… the power belongs to the People, but as long as unelected bureaucrats can do whatever they want with no consequences, they will steal all of that power for themselves.

Term limits is simply another political manipulation to make the American people think they have solved the problem of a corrupt government. It will not. Only through removing illegal agencies and returning those authorities to the States and People, and removing any ability for legal agencies to write rules and regulations, will we be able to greatly curtail political corruption.

TERM LIMITS

Every single member of the House and Senate has term limits and it is imposed on them by the American people.

The People must pay attention to what is happening in D.C. and their very own States and cities. I know it is hard with so much hidden or so much misinformation, but there are a few people in D.C. who expose the lies of the political leaders in both parties. (Some I have found are Thomas Massie, Jeff Duncan, Jim Jordan, Rand Paul, John Kennedy, Marjorie Taylor Greene.)

• Instead of pushing for term limits, how about a campaign to teach the American people what the Constitution says and what it means.

• Instead of pushing for term limits, how about a campaign to get the American people to push for individual bills with only one topic, of no more than 4 -5 pages and with language the average American can understand. The Founding Fathers believed bills should not be excessively long or complex because it would inhibit the ability of the people to know what laws the federal government is imposing on them.
  
  This in turn can lead to a place where the American people can see proposed bills and another place for bills that have passed and show how each politician voted on those bills.

• Instead of pushing for term limits, how about a campaign that teaches voters how to research politicians.

• Visit the website of your State’s Secretary of State and determine who has applied to run for the House or the Senate. Research ALL those candidates. Google, Facebook, X (Twitter), etc. Attempt to engage with them on a variety of issues, either in person or through social media.
  
  • Do they interact with you personally or do they hand you off to someone else?
  • Do they ignore you completely?
  • Do they post informative information on their beliefs or is it just a bunch of fluff?

• If you disagree with any of their beliefs and voice them, do they discuss it with you politely or do they shut you down? Do they ban you from their page? (The former mayor of Lexington, KY, Jim Gray, banned me from asking questions on his Facebook page years ago because he didn’t want to answer my questions. The previous Representative Democrat candidate for District 6 of Kentucky also banned me from asking questions on her Facebook page, because she didn’t like my questions, such as why does she oppose the tax cuts and why does she support government controlled healthcare.)

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST: Vote in the primaries. The primaries are more important than the actual election because that is where you pick the best choice for November. If you don’t help make the choice in the primary, you may be left with the worst of the worst come November.

Term Limits are a horrible idea. Voters will believe they have solved the problem and they will stop paying attention. Politicians will turn it to their own advantage, further hurting the U.S.

AMERICANS VOTING = TERM LIMITS

_{Return to What the Constitution Really Means}