Repealing the 22nd Amendment, Removing Presidential Term Limits.

[FlamingMoe]

I'd like to see term limits on senators and representatives because I'm tired of unlimited pork flowing to West Virginia just because they have a senator who is older than dirt who has been in office since the Polk administration.

The easy solution to this dilemma is to return the federal government to its constitutional bounds defined in Article I, Section 8.

 

[kallsop]

There is a "only government can fix the mess we created" mentality in DC, and of course, those already elected are best qualified to fix the mess

It's inconsistent to have Presidential term limits while the Congress does not. I'd be happy if they all had term limits, but that's unrealistic while government is so intrusive into every nook and cranny and deciding financial winners and losers (taxpayers).

Economic SwindleUs Package '09 - the Obama Depression gots to start somewhere.

 

[gdnp]

The easy solution to this dilemma is to return the federal government to its constitutional bounds defined in Article I, Section 8.

Leaving aside the merits of your proposal, I think you and I have different definitions of "easy".

Economic SwindleUs Package '09 - the Obama Depression gots to start somewhere.

LOL. Why not put blame where blame is due: In the Bush financial meltdown? Or are the 50% fall in the stock market before he took office, the collapse of the housing bubble and the resultant evaporation of trillions in home equity, and the insolvency of Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, etc., etc all Obama's fault as well?

 

[Beerina]

I'd file this one under, "if it's not broken, don't fix it". A maximum of ten years is enough, why change it?

Ten years minus one day.

For the ferriners who don't get it, a Vice President becomes President when the Pres dies, resigns, is permanently incapacitated (with agreement from leaders of Congress) and the like.

That time "counts" to his time in office if it's more than half the term he's taken over.

For example, Lyndon Johnson became president when Kennedy was killed. However, more than half that term had expired already, so Johnson was eligible for 2 full elections on his own, giving his total time in office > 8 years. Of course, he famously chose not to run for his second term, "Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

 

[rwguinn]

I like my dear old daddy's phrase. He was all for term limits.
"If the idiot can't steal enough in 8 years to set himself up for life, he's too incompetent to be elected in the first place!"

 

[MattusMaximus]

Concerning getting rid of presidential term limits, I have two words: bad idea.

Despite the fact that I like Obama a lot, if he started to get behind something like this I'd get really wary of him. Just as I would with any president who would seek to axe the 22nd amendment.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Why don't we wait and see how it works out in Venezuela?

 

[INRM]

MattusMaximus,

Despite the fact that I like Obama a lot, if he started to get behind something like this I'd get really wary of him. Just as I would with any president who would seek to axe the 22nd amendment.

Agreed

 

[Alt+F4]

Ten years minus one day.

For the ferriners who don't get it, a Vice President becomes President when the Pres dies, resigns, is permanently incapacitated (with agreement from leaders of Congress) and the like.

That time "counts" to his time in office if it's more than half the term he's taken over.

For example, Lyndon Johnson became president when Kennedy was killed. However, more than half that term had expired already, so Johnson was eligible for 2 full elections on his own, giving his total time in office > 8 years. Of course, he famously chose not to run for his second term, "Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

I stand corrected. You're right, under the 22nd Amendment the maximum a President can serve is ten years minus one day.

In regard to LBJ, had he been re-elected in 1968 his total time in office would have been nine years and two months (8 years from his own two terms and the last 14 months of JFK's).

 

[geni]

Why don't we wait and see how it works out in Venezuela?

Should probably keep an eye on colombia as well in that respect.

 

[cwalner]

From the previous posts, I seem to be in the minority in that I do not support term limits at any level. I see no good in depriving the people from a competent, popular leader for as long as he/she wishes to serve and the electorate is willing to re-elect him/her.

That being said, our (The US) electoral process does unfortunately grant a major advantage to incumbents regardless of their performance. I would rather see measures taken to ensure equity between incumbents and challengers rather than using term limits to undo excessive exploitation of those advantages.

 

[EvilSmurf]

Every politician in a Democratic nation has a term limit automatically built into their service, it's called being voted out. My belief is that should be enough and accordingly I oppose term limits in any form.

 

[geni]

Every politician in a Democratic nation has a term limit automatically built into their service, it's called being voted out. My belief is that should be enough and accordingly I oppose term limits in any form.

Experence suggests that that is way too easy to abuse.

 

[Hittman]

I'd be thrilled to limit senators to 2-3 terms and congressmen to maybe 10 terms, 20 years.

I'd make it a lot shorter than that. To for senators, three for the house, tops. Political office shouldn't be a lifetime career.

 

[003998]

Regarding the "if it isn´t broken..." part of the argument: Isn´t the lame duck phenomenon largely a result of term limits?

 

[KoihimeNakamura]

Sigh...

Knee jerk reactions gogogogogo.

There are reasons why career politicans are both bad and good.

 

[Wildy]

So, could you explain to a foreigner like me what makes the term limit thing so bad? Or is the issue not one of just term limits but as part of the bigger picture?

I mean as far as I'm aware in Australia we don't have term limits on the elected representatives and as far as I can tell the appointed members don't have limits as well.

 

[Alt+F4]

So, could you explain to a foreigner like me what makes the term limit thing so bad? Or is the issue not one of just term limits but as part of the bigger picture?

Repealing the 22nd Amendment is not a "hot button issue" in the United States at all. In fact it's a non-issue. IMHO, the Constitutional change Americans should be focusing on is dumping the Electoral College.

 

[INRM]

Alt+F4,

It's not a hot button issue because most people don't realize the implications of such an amendment being repealed.

It would allow a President to stay in power potentially to the day he dies -- while the President isn't supposed to engage in electoral fraud, or spy on political opponents -- historically both of those things *have* happened. Nixon did the first, and George W. Bush did the second.

If there were no limits on the number of terms a President could run, it probably would be more likely that this sort of misconduct would be more frequent and more systemic as there would be far more to gain (you wouldn't just have one more term, you could have a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and so on until death).

The President isn't supposed to manipulate the census, either -- however recent conduct in this administration (which the Whitehouse now is going to take direct control over) opens up a possibility of just that happening.


INRM

 

[Beerina]

It won't be repealed. There're too many senators with their eye on the prize to even dream of repealing it, to say nothing of the states.

Sad but true. Actually, happy and true.