101 REASONS WHY WE NEED TERM LIMITS

Below is a list of the 101 longest serving members of the House of Representatives (don’t ask why I picked the number 101 – it just had a nice ring to it).  Anyway, I thought maybe a few statistics would be interesting, so here goes.

Of the 101 members of this elite group, the average time served in Congress is 23 years, 8 months, or the equivalent of almost 12 terms in office.

The longest serving member, Don Young (R), Alaska has been in office since March 1973 and has served a total of 47 years 3, months.

The shortest serving members of this elite group, of which there are 15, have served an average of 15 years, 5 months.

The top ten longest serving members have served a combined total of 378 years, or an average of 37 years 8 months each.

The total time served by all 101 members of this elite group is 2,388 years.  Two-Thousand Three- Hundred Eighty-Eight years.

There are 66 Democrat members and 35 Republican members of this group.

Five of the top ten members are Republicans and five are Democrats.  The top four are all Republicans.

Nancy Pelosi comes in at Number 11, having served for 33 years.

Over two-thirds of these members were in office before today’s youngest voters were born.

Many of these members have never held a “real” job.

I could probably throw in a few more interesting numbers but I think you get the message.

If there were ever a reason for Term Limits, it is these 101 individuals and others like them.  Career politicians have no place in a government that is supposed to represent the will of We the People.  The longer they serve, the less they represent the people and the more they represent the special interest groups.

As Lord Acton so succinctly put it: “Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.”

And I have no doubt that our federal government is corrupt to the core.  The only organization that might be more corrupt is the Mafia, and I’m not sure about that.  But at least we KNOW who’s interest they’re  looking after.

I do not believe our Founding Fathers intended for our elected representatives to set up house in the Capitol and stay for their entire adult life.  Representatives are elected for two-year terms and, in my humble opinion, should be limited to a maximum of four terms (8 years).  This is the same length of service that the 22nd Amendment limits the President to.

Unfortunately, Congress will NEVER voluntarily impose term limits on themselves so our only alternative is for We the People to impose term limits on them via a Convention of States, which our Founding Fathers so wisely provided for in the Constitution.

If you aren’t familiar with a Convention of States, I encourage you to visit the Convention of States (COS) website (see link on LINKS page) and familiarize yourself with the Convention of States process and current status.  Given the current state of affairs in this country, it may just be our last, best hope.