Category: term limits

Politicians Not Voters

Michigan, term limits, Voters not Politicians,

“Breakthrough coalition working on expanding term limits,” hollers the Lansing City Post headline.

“Michigan’s legislative leaders,” the capital-based paper informs, “are working on a term limits expansion deal for state lawmakers . . . . The conceptual plan, which won’t be finalized until December, would be that lawmakers could serve a combined 20 years in both the House and Senate before they would be broomed from office.”

Yes, you heard that correctly: the legislative bosses want a new term limits law allowing politicians to serve 20 years in a single seat.

Twenty years is no term-limit. It’s a cushy retirement plan.

In unsurprising bipartisanship, Michigan’s NPR affiliate reports that, “Senate Democratic Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint) says lawmakers from his party could get on board.” The Democrat added, “[W]e’re not big supporters of term limits in the first place.”

The other big news is that the scheming is no longer confined to politicians and their cronies over at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce — the business lobby that for three decades has curried favor with lawmakers by conspiring to undo the state’s voter-enacted term limits. Now, also plotting behind closed doors with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield is the progressive, union-funded Voters Not Politicians group.

“He and the speaker have found a willing partner in VNP,” a spokesperson for Shirkey acknowledged.

Unlike the unpopular Chamber and politicians, Voters Not Politicians sports a shred of grassroots credibility, having led a successful 2018 ballot initiative on redistricting.

But that shred will last only until Michiganders find out that Voters Not Politicians has sadly morphed into Politicians Not Voters.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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They’re Called Term Limits

Post author By Redactor
Post date July 22, 2019
2 Comments on They’re Called Term Limits

Looking for an exemplar of condescending witlessness? Take Steve Benen, producer of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. Please!

Last week, I praised Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer for endorsing term limits, while Benen panned him at The Maddow Blog, calling term limits a “gimmick.”

So, when Aristotle argued for mandatory rotation in office, that was just a stunt?

“I imagine most term-limit proponents mean well,” concedes the snooty Benen, about congressional term limits’ whopping 82 percent public support. But, he goes on, “whether they appreciate the details or not, forcing experienced policymakers out of office, even if their constituents want to re-elect them, has an unintended consequence: inexperienced officials inevitably find themselves more dependent on outside groups and lobbyists . . .”

Are we supposed to believe that lobbyists and special interests are being kept at bay by Congress’s current careerists?

Supposedly appealing to an “underlying principle,” Benen then maintains that “there’s simply no reason for the federal government to impose arbitrary constraints on voters’ ability to choose their own members of Congress.”

Oh, that’s really rich — as if “the federal government” is dictatorially cramming term limitation down the throats of poor politician-adoring voters.

Benen notes that Steyer is “not the only Democratic candidate endorsing term limits,” acknowledging that Beto O’Rourke has also proposed the reform. Actually, there are eight more Democratic presidential candidates who have voiced support.*

Mr. Benen’s sophistication boils down to the tired slogan: “We already have term limits; they’re called elections.”

That may fly for the insiders at MSNBC and in Congress, but the vote the American people most want to see is on a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Those candidates are: New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Maryland Congressman John Delaney, New York City Mayor Bill DiBlasio, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

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initiative, referendum, and recall political challengers term limits

A Different Conversation

billionaire, Tom Steyer, candidate, president, election, campaign,

“Here’s the difference between me and the other candidates,” says billionaire investor-turned-presidential aspirant Tom Steyer. “I don’t think we can fix our democracy from the inside. I don’t believe Washington politicians and big corporations will let that happen.”

Of course, if this Democrat becomes president of these United States, that’s hardly the outside.

“For me,” Steyer continues, “this comes down to whether you trust the politicians or the people.”

Well, I certainly trust the people a whole lot more than I trust the politicians.*

“If you say you trust the people, are you willing to stand up to the insiders and the big corporations and give the people the tools they need to fix our democracy?” Steyer asks.

Which tools? “A national referendum, term limits, eliminating corporate money in politics, making it easy to vote.”

The toolkit’s a mixed bag.

Eliminating corporate money means repealing part of the First Amendment, and silencing non-profit corporations such as U.S. Term Limits, MoveOn.org, the NRA, Planned Parenthood, National Right to Life, etc., etc.

Mr. Steyer also worries that, without reform, “We won’t be able to . . . pass any of the great plans proposed by the Democratic candidates running for president.”

We should be so lucky.

Still, here is another Democratic presidential candidate endorsing congressional term limits. And we do need a direct democratic check on Washington, the ability for citizens to initiate reforms such as term limits and take unpopular legislation to a referendum.

I’m not sanguine that Steyer will get the policy details right, but as fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Kamala Harris is fond of saying, “Let’s have that conversation.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Constitutional protections for our basic rights, as in The Bill of Rights, mean we do not have to trust government, directly democratic or representative.

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Popular tax policy term limits

Terms for Taxes

Years ago, I dubbed Tim Eyman “America’s #1 freedom fighter,” and how does he repay me? Washington State’s anti-tax crusading initiative guru has gone and stolen my bread-and-butter issue, term limits . . . and married it up with another one of his tax initiatives.

He’s calling Initiative 1648: Term Limits on Taxes.

“This measure would require state tax increases to expire after one year unless approved by a majority vote of the people,” informs the official ballot title, “and immediately terminate any tax increases imposed in 2019 without such approval.”

Did someone say “tax increases”?

“They went absolutely bonkers this legislative session,” Eyman told radio host Lars Larson recently. “There were 11 tax increases; they totaled over $27 billion over the next ten years. And there’s just no checks and balances.”

Speaking with Dori Monson of KIRO Radio, he noted that “all of them were passed without a vote of the people. This initiative says whenever they raise taxes without a vote of the people, we’re going to put it on a strict time limit.”

But with a July 5th deadline, supporters have less than two weeks left to gather the 320,000 voter signatures required on the petition.

It is terrible that Evergreen State voters can’t term-limit their state legislators directly. But in 1998, the state supreme court struck down a term limits initiative passed by voters, ruling that a constitutional amendment was required — something only legislators can propose.

Now, thanks to Mr. Eyman, at least voters can slap term limits on their legislators’ tax increases.

Still, he stole the idea from me.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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national politics & policies Popular term limits

Dousing the Dumpster Fire

“Congress is less popular than traffic jams, root canals, and hemorrhoids,” U.S. Term Limits Executive Director Nick Tomboulides explained yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing.

“You’re beating head lice,” he added, “but the lice have asked for a recount.”

Mr. Tomboulides and U.S. Term Limits support Senate Joint Resolution 1, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), which calls for a three-term, six-year House limit and a two-term, 12-year Senate limit.

“Governing is incredibly hard,” argued R Street Institute Senior Fellow and term limits opponent Casey Burgat earlier on C-Span’s Washington Journal. “There is no school for this.”

The real world, perchance?

“Right now, we have the most experienced, professionalized, careerist Congress in American history,” Tomboulides countered, “and the results are a dumpster fire.”

“When I came to Congress, I supported term limits in theory,” former U.S. Representative and Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) testified. “Now I support it after seeing what really happens here.”

“Over 80 percent of Americans want term limits to happen,” Tomboulides offered. “Donald Trump and Barack Obama want it.”

“The only impediment,” as Sen. Cruz pointed out, “is the United States Congress.”

That’s why U.S. Term Limits is working to convince 34 state legislatures to bypass Congress by passing bills for a convention under Article V of the Constitution, which can consider and propose an amendment for congressional term limits.

It’s the people’s path to putting out the dumpster fire.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption term limits

House-Cleaning & Law-Following

Post author By Redactor
Post date June 10, 2019
No Comments on House-Cleaning & Law-Following

Larry Hogan, Maryland’s popular Republican governor, has vowed to “clean house” in the wake of the scandals rocking the “private” non-profit University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), set up by the State of Maryland.

It isn’t just former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who resigned from the UMMS board after it was disclosed the board had purchased $500,000 worth of her self-published children’s book, “Healthy Holly.” Yep, it’s always for the children. (Pugh also resigned as mayor after the FBI raided her home and office.)

In fact, nine of the 23 UMMS board members had money-making contracts with the system they “manage.” Not to mention that a recent Post exposé detailed how former state legislator and long-time board member, Francis Kelly, whose legislation established the system, had multi-million-dollar insurance contracts with UMMS.

Yet, as The Washington Post reports, “state law long has called for housecleaning . . . specifying that board members can’t serve more than two consecutive five-year terms.”

Gov. Hogan and his predecessors — both Republican and Democrat — simply ignored the law, reappointing board members beyond the limits.

“If members were allowed to essentially stay on the board in perpetuity,” former state senator, now U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued, “it’s a direct threat to the independence and accountability of the board.”

Abandoning term limits, State Senator Jill Carter (D-Baltimore City) told the Post, was “part of the problem,” resulting in self-dealing.

Hmmm, think they’ll ever apply this knowledge to establishing term limits on their own powerful legislative bodies?

So much corruption, too few limits.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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