Term Limits -- Proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution

It's well past time to pass the term limit amendment that gets submitted to Congress every term. Congress is an abomination full of self-serving interests and people making laws to benefit themselves and their heirs at the cost of the rest of us. We need citizens who go to Congress to serve, then return to being a normal citizen, living under the laws they create!

I think the current bill says six years for Representatives and twelve years for Senators. My idea is a little different.

The problem isn't just people in Congress serving too long. Congressional staffers become just as entrenched and corrupt. For example, they were the first to exempt themselves from the Health Care (and Education) bill of 2010. My idea applies to them too. One reason the long-term, power-hungry congressmen give for not implementing term limits is the "parliamentarians" would be able to take advantage of the high turnover rate of new Representatives and Senators.

"No person shall serve as a Representative or Senator longer than twelve years in a lifetime. A person may serve twelve years in one house and then twelve years in the other. All persons employed by the legislative branch shall be limited to twelve years. This amendment shall apply to the term immediately following the ratification of this amendment."

I made that text up myself, so I'm sure some lawyer would have to work on it.

Citizen Lawmakers -- Proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution

Proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ." -- Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution

This came in an email I received: "For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as healthcare, sexual harassment, social security) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered...in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come."

On the contrary; I don't think it's an idea whose time has come. It's an idea James Madison missed. This should have been in the large batch of amendments he proposed. Then again, nobody in Congress should have ever thought to exclude themselves from any law... just another example of power corrupting people -- happens every time.