Elected representatives should be subject to periodical rotation. For nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents as the certainty of returning to the general masses of the people from whence he was taken and where he must participate in their burdens.
George Mason 1787
The United States Congress has fallen
from grace. The past forty years of growing government, increasing debt and
continuous scandal have pushed the public opinion of our legislative branch
to an all time low. A fundamental change is required to restore the congress
to the proud and solid institution it once was. I believe the needed change is a
constitutional amendment placing limits on the number of terms a member of
congress may serve. I hope browsers of the web will take time to read my proposition paper in favor of term limits, and reply to
it in the spirit of the open debate that makes the Internet such a great
forum.
Proposal for Congressional term limits The addition of Congressional term limits to the United States Constitution will help to improve our government in many ways.
Listen to what President Reagan
had to say about governments connection to the problems of America
The 1994 Republican
candidates for the US House of
Representatives pulled off one of the largest upsets in US political
history. They unified the party with a ten point plan for the first hundred days
of a Republican led House. The “Contract with
America “was the major reason for the Republicans winning their
first majority in the House and Senate in the past forty
years.
Behind the strong and controversial leadership of
Newt Gingrich
, the new speaker of the House, the republicans were able to vote on all
ten points in the contract ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the only point that
failed to pass was the amendment creating term limits for members of
congress. Gingrich
has promised that term limits will be the first point addressed if the
republicans maintain control of the House in the 1996 election.
I felt it was necessary to address some of the
concerns Democrats
have about term limits. Among them are:
I am
presenting this paper and home page as part of Tonya Browning’s
E306 class at the University of Texas at
Austin . To see other student projects check out our E306 page
.
