WHAT’S NEXT REPUBLICANS? (Part 5)
The intent of this series is to answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?” His point being, at the time he said it, the Republican Party does not stand for anything. A way to do this, that the mainstream media will find it difficult to avoid, is for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to present a series of briefings beginning on 3 January, the opening day of the 118th Congress.
The intent for the Republicans in the House is to move quickly with a legislative agenda that will highlight what the Republican Party is for. This will also begin framing the Republican Platform for the 2024 presidential campaign.
Part 1, of this series, how to fix education and race relations and a plan for immigration reform.
Part 2, election reform.
Part 3, a plan for fixing a dysfunctional Congress.
Part 4, taking on the bloated bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending by the Executive Branch.
Here is Part 5, Terms of Office and Term Limits. By the way, none of this proposed legislation in Parts one through five have a price tag associated with its implementation. No taxpayer money. None.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy speaking:
January 20, 2017 while the nation watched President Trump’s inauguration, I recall one of the talking heads, filling up some air time during the parade, launching into a diatribe about what President Trump needed to do to keep from losing the House and/or Senate majorities during the 2018 midterms. That scenario has been repeated since President Biden’s inauguration 20 January, 2021.
So what? The so what of it all is that every day we see national issues, security issues, economic issues, crisis issues that are all tainted, delayed and debated in light of what it will mean for the midterms. The debate is too often not about what is best, or in some cases, what is absolutely necessary for the nation, but rather how it will impact the next mid-term election results. Sad but true.
None of us should fault the brilliance of the Founding Fathers when they put our system of government together. They were on their own with nothing in the world to use as a guide and our system, in its totality, has become the envy of the world. But, over time, change is necessary for most organizations and our terms of office and term limits could use a re-look to become more efficient and effective.
The unfortunate nature of many politicians is that the next election becomes their top priority and everything else, no matter how important to the nation, is a distant second. Our U.S. Representatives are unlikely to change of their own accord. To protect the nation from our politicians’ prioritization we need to change the environment and hopefully thereby make the Congress more productive.
Electing 435 U.S. Representatives to the House every two years is outdated and unnecessary. Their collective campaigns cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an unfortunate fact of life that a huge amount of a Representatives’ term in office is spent raising money and campaigning for reelection.
Change the term in office for Representatives to four years. The advantages of a four-year term for Representatives are so obvious and make so much sense, that it should become a priority to get it changed. One would think the Representatives themselves would be wholeheartedly in favor of a four-year term.
And while that amendment to the Constitution is working, why not take on the issue of term limits. There is something about the Potomac water; the more of it a politician drinks the longer they want to stay. Four terms, 16 years, for Representatives and three terms, 18 years, for Senators seems about right. It is not as though those in Congress need years to learn the system and become effective, change and new blood for Congress can only be a positive thing. Senators and Representatives remaining in office for thirty or forty years is not commensurate with serving the nation well.
And while we are at it, the Supreme Court could do with a little update. It seems so untoward that millions of Americans and many politicians sit around hoping some eighty-year-old Justice of the Supreme Court will become too infirmed to continue serving or even die in office in order for a sitting President to fill a vacancy.
Because the Supreme Court is often accused of being too politicized, there is extreme pressure for some justices to remain on the bench no matter their age, health, personal desire or capacity to do the job required of them. Appointed-for-life is just not the best answer.
The Supreme Court is too important to become a political football. It is not difficult to fix this and thereby turn the court over periodically by limiting the term of office to fifteen years. it is interesting to note that since the formation of the Court in 1790, the Justices have served an average of sixteen years.
Change the Constitution and set in motion a system wherein the longest serving Justices would retire in two-year intervals until all of the Justices were inside the mandatory term limit; the remaining Justices would then retire when they reached the term limit..
While we are at it, what about the four-year term for the president? Here is the scenario that habitually plays out with a four-year term and an opportunity to add one more term.
Generally, after two years in office, the media begins asking the president about a second term. We are not yet at the 24-month period of the Biden administration and will-he, won’t-he, should-he run in 2024 has become almost a daily dialogue. Aren’t there enough serious issues facing the nation every day that require his complete attention?
The second disadvantage is that if the president decides to run for a second term, the fourth year is devoted almost entirely to campaigning and the affairs of the nation go onto the back burner for months. Not good, not smart.
On the other hand, if a sitting president decides not to seek a second term in office, he immediately becomes a lame-duck president and very little important work gets accomplished in the last 12 to 24 months in office.
So, any way you look at the current four-year, two term limit, there are huge down-sides in terms of productivity and service to the people every day of the term.
An easy way to do away with all of the will-he, won’t-she, should-he/she and for the president to better serve the nation is to a change to one 6-year term for the president.
Given these changes to the terms and term limits, the national election cycle would look like this:
2028: Elect the president to a one six-year term in office.
Elect all of the 435 Representatives. Representatives who will have served sixteen years by January 2029 will be ineligible to run.
Elect one-third of the Senators. Senators who will have served eighteen years by January 2029 will be ineligible to run.
Why do this? The founding fathers were perhaps the greatest gathering of minds at any time in world history. But they did not have a crystal ball and could not get it all right. Thirty-three amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been proposed by the U.S. Congress and sent to the states for ratification since the Constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789. Twenty-seven of these were ratified by the states and are part of the Constitution today.
It is time for change to terms of office and term limits for the betterment of the nation.
Any questions?
OK, see you all tomorrow for some more House legislations in the 118th Congress. We are going to be busy.
Author’s note: The entire, detailed concept or operations for changes to terms and term limits is contained in, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, Chapter 6.
The next proposed Speaker presentation to America outlining the legislative agenda for the 118th Congress will soon appear entitled, WHAT’S NEXT REPUBLICANS? (Part 6).The Republicans cannot afford to go into the lead-up to the 2024 election with business as usual. We have to educate the American people that the numerous and significant nation-wide problems can be fixed. Therefore, again I ask, if any of you who agree with what I have proposed in Part 5, and if you have contact with any movers-and-shakers in Washington, please provide them a copy. Thank you. Marv
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com