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Term Limits for Congress

MichSt66

Posted 9:28 am, 06/28/2020

So stop the money coming through. Stop giving access to people with money and make congressmen and women spend time in their districts, giving the people access.

pikesplan

Posted 7:01 am, 06/28/2020

You do understand congress can pass laws that could limit the amount of money that is involved in "policy making"

The lobbying industry has access through money. We as the average citizen do not
That is not a democracy
If elected officials had morals than the "rich group" you refer to would never be an issue

And money is not how the world works
Money is the demise of the world

Respect, compassion, understanding and yes love
That is how my world works

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 1:11 am, 06/28/2020

I never said they are doing the job that the founders intended. I said if you take away lobbyists, you'll only make it worse. And that empty gestures like public meet and greets are a waste of time and only serve the purpose of making you feel warm and fuzzy. But if you want someone to blow smoke up your *** with a handshake and a free hotdog, then, I over estimated your intelligence.

MichSt66

Posted 11:43 pm, 06/27/2020

Because she represents the people of Wilkes and should be coming and speaking to those people. Listening to what they want. Our representatives are absolutely tone deaf. Do you know how many times I have wrote and called her, only to send an extremely professional response, to not get a response from her? You are dumb if you think these people are doing their job for us in DC. They're afraid to face their constituents. They'll show up for a parade. Shake a hand or 2 and leave. That's all we get.

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 10:48 pm, 06/27/2020

Why should she hold an event in Wilkes? Is shaking your hand and giving you a hotdog going to change what you think?


Pike, I didn't say money should give people access. That's just how the world works. Rich people hang out together outside of work. So they are naturally going to have access to the elected officials that you can't have.

MichSt66

Posted 7:45 pm, 06/27/2020

Maybe we should limit how much time legislatures spend in DC and require them to be on the ground in their districts holding town halls? When was the last time Foxx held an event in Wilkes for the people?

pikesplan

Posted 6:19 pm, 06/27/2020

Why should money give you access to a so called democracy

Why is money involved at all when speaking to OUR representatives

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 5:16 pm, 06/27/2020

But you miss that collective groups of citizens are able to hire their own lobbyists to get their voices heard too. Without those lobbyists, they aren't listening to what you want. They are listening to the pharmaceutical CEO that's a member at their country club.

pikesplan

Posted 5:09 pm, 06/27/2020

There are 2 big pharma lobbyists for every member of congress

The
lobbying group for the pharmaceutical industry spent about $27.5 million on lobbying activities in 2018, federal filings show.

Its already a monopoly isnt it

1048andonehalf

Posted 4:55 pm, 06/27/2020

Lets say I was a multi billionaire, no one would get into office unless I wanted them there.

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 4:50 pm, 06/27/2020

Depends on what your ideals are. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the NRA and support them. Maybe you're in the AARP category. NAR is the largest trade organization in the world and their lobbyists support millions of realtors trying to make a living. You get rid of Lobbyists and PACs and it would greatly restrict or get rid of those like Ralph Nader. Or green peace and PETA would be pretty much useless. Those are just a few off the top of the list. I guarantee you that the wealthy and big corporations that you hate would absolutely love to get rid of lobbyists because then they could have monopolies on the access to elected officials.

antithesis

Posted 3:19 pm, 06/27/2020

You people that want to ban lobbyists have no idea how much that will screw the individual voter


Example?

I believe the discussion turned to heavy regulations on lobbyists instead of banning them, but I'm curious which lobbyists positively impact the individual voter.

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 11:16 am, 06/27/2020

That would be similar to non compete agreements, which have pretty much been deemed illegal or unenforcible by most courts. You can't prevent people from earning an income, and basically can't control how much they make. It might could be done with a time limit, or area. Like you can't be a lobbyist for 5 years after leaving office. Or if you serve in DC, you can't lobby in the federal level.


Even so though, the problem isn't with politicians becoming lobbyists as much as it is their staff members taking lobbying jobs.

henryii

Posted 10:27 am, 06/27/2020

If there were some regulation in place that prevented former congress members from being lobbyists it might mitigate the corruption somewhat. Unfortunately as long as the public sits back complacently there's always going to be corruption in DC, the crooked politicians rely on our complacency.

aFicIoNadoS

Posted 10:08 am, 06/27/2020

You people that want to ban lobbyists have no idea how much that will screw the individual voter. Big corporate and the wealthy won't be affected because they will still have contact with the politicians in their private clubs, and have their personal phone numbers. You'll regret banning lobbyists in 6 months.

henryii

Posted 9:50 am, 06/27/2020

Beeble, the last sentence in your posting mentioned Washington's aversion to tyranny, yet here we are. In 2016 the electoral college set the stage for the tyranny we now find ourselves living under.

Beeblebrox42

Posted 9:27 am, 06/27/2020

About George Washington,

In 1799, a friend urged Washington to come out of retirement to run for a third term. Washington made his thoughts quite clear, especially when it came to new phenomena of political parties.

"The line between Parties," Washington said, had become "so clearly drawn" that politicians "regard neither truth nor decency; attacking every character, without respect to persons - Public or Private, - who happen to differ from themselves in Politics."

Washington's voluntary decision to decline a third term was also seen by many people as a safeguard against the type of tyrannical power yielded by the British crown during the Colonial era.

my source for this:

https://constitutioncenter....-amendment

MichSt66

Posted 9:10 am, 06/27/2020

Valid point. If they can't make millions then there won't be as much incentive to hang around long.

antithesis

Posted 1:46 am, 06/27/2020

...elected officials should be required to sell off any stock holdings before they take office. Ban lobbyist from DC and require them to write their congressperson just like we do. Stop dark political contributions. Banish PACs.


I agree with most of that, including the later statement to strongly regulate lobbyists. It's true that some exist to help the people, but when it requires unethical contributions to accomplish anything there's a problem.

But the real issue with term limits is that most, if not all of our "representatives" simply get a letter from their party every day, telling them how to vote. If they vote along party lines, the party keeps them in place... if they don't, then they're replaced. So putting a limit on Virginia Foxx, for example, just for her to be replaced by another Republican, changes nothing.

But removing their ability to accept unethical / illegal campaign contributions, buying stock and then passing regulation that makes that stock go up, etc... that might have an impact.

cuckooclock

Posted 4:08 pm, 06/25/2020

Sounds good to me!

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