TERM LIMITS

I am writing this week's column on December 28, 2012 two hours before the White House meeting between the President and Congressional leaders. The issue they will be considering: How to avoid the fiscal cliff.

I expect nothing good to come out of the meeting. A proper resolution is no longer in the cards. A partial one is as good as none at all.

Our leaders continue to fail us. I say a plague on both their houses. These Washingtonians are out of touch with the American public. Or maybe they are not out of touch. They just do not care.

They speak for themselves or each other. Not for you and me.

Some of the elected beauties have political careers set in concrete. They have Congressional careers running thirty to fifty plus years. For the populace, life long jobs with an employer are a thing of the past.

Salaries are interesting also. Presently, most Senators and Congressmen receive $174,000 per year. With guaranteed increases that they voted for themselves some twenty years ago. And no union. How many earn that much and have the guarantee of salary increments? Few in our society.

The simple solution bandied about is term limits. A legislator is elected for a specific number of years or terms. Maybe two terms at best. Then good bye. They go home to farm or run their businesses as the Constitutional framers intended.

In the latter 1900s, some States were becoming concerned with the number of years Senators and Congressman were remaining in Washington. These states established term limits for their federally elected representatives.

You don't screw with Congress! The Senators and Congressmen went to Court. Their case ended up in the United States Supreme Court.

In 1995, a conservative Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that term limits were not available for implementation without a Constitutional amendment. The bad guys won! In present times, a Constitutional amendment takes years.

The people screwed again. This time by the highest Court of the land.

The framers of the Constitution and those living back then envisioned a citizen legislature. Men would travel to Washington a few weeks a year, do the people's work, and then return home to their farms and businesses. It was that way once. No more. Now they go to Washington and do whatever is necessary to stay as long as they can. What about the farm back home? What about the business back home? They do not exist.

The framers of the Constitution initially intended that term limits be a part of the Constitution  However, there was a space problem. The framers wanted the Constitution to be as short as possible. Since the framers were farmers and business persons themselves, they could not envision how any one could or would want to serve twenty or more years.

Another consideration was the life span as it existed at the time. Life expectancy was 35 years.

Term limits were left out of the Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson is considered to be the Father of the Constitution. He drafted the document. Jefferson saw the problem with professional legislators. He said at the time: "The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the.....version of the first."

James Fenimore Cooper of Leatherstocking Tales fame saw the evil of long term government representatives also: "Contact with affairs of state is one of the corrupting influences to which men are exposed."

We have a problem! One with no simple solution. We better find a solution before these career Washington politicians screw up our lives even more.