In retrospect, the most significant change we got was the first ever-female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Her promises of change: Openness in governance, bi-partisanship, ending the Iraq war in short order including the start of immediate troop withdrawal and so on were exactly that: Promises and we have to say, she has not kept any of those promises! This Congress has achieved so far (and it is almost over) nothing of significance and it is reflected in the low approval ratings of Congress, ranging from 9 to 17 percent and that is half of the low approval ratings President Bush ‘enjoys’.

            Congress has so far passed the lowest number of laws when compared to most other previous Congresses. As a point of interest, more than a quarter of the laws dealt with the naming of Post offices around the country. Since Ms. Pelosi is representing a very liberal district in San Francisco and does not have to fear not being re-elected time and again by her constituents, she has shown almost dictatorial traits when she makes decisions single-handedly as to what gets voted on and what does not.

            The most recent example of showing her power was her decision to adjourn Congress in early August for a five-week vacation in spite of strong opposition by the American public who had clearly stated in numerous polls that they wanted some Congressional action on removing the moratorium on offshore drilling to increase domestic oil production. The Republicans wanted to have that chance to vote but Ms. Nancy did not allow such a vote and proceeded with the five week long summer recess. When some Republicans stayed on in Congress for several weeks to protest the Speaker’s decision, it received very little notice in the media to no ones surprise knowing the liberal bias by America’s media.

            Congress will now reconvene on September 8 or 9 and will have its work cut out for itself in that the 2008/2009 budget packages will have to be voted on aside running for re-election in early November, we are talking about all 435 member of the House of Representatives and about 25 Senators. We doubt very much that any meaningful legislation will be dealt with, let alone voted on, when it comes to an energy packages that will among other things allow limited offshore oil drilling. We here at Common Sense Politics firmly believe that this Congress will live up to its well-deserved reputation of being a do-little two-year Congress and we are being generous when we call it do-little.

            Now then, what are our proposals for this situation; there is among the many things, we, the American voters could do that would change things effectively only one truly viable option: When voters in any given district are honest and evaluate its Congressperson’s record and find it not satisfactorily based on true achievement, simply vote them out of office! In reality, the major reasons for re-election of Congress members is the ‘pork’ they bring home each year and not what they do for America as a country and of course also partisanship. As we know, there are many people who will only vote for one party all their lives whatever their reason and that is a reality we will never overcome.

            Another possibility is to give Congress longer vacations. Why should we have Congress in session for over forty weeks every year when they do so little in all that time? Why not cut that number in half? It makes no sense to have them in D.C. for forty weeks, besides, looking at it from the other side of the spectrum: The less time they spent in Washington D.C., the less damage they do to our country and our constitutionally guaranteed liberties and freedoms!

Congressional Vacationers is a post from: Common Sense University

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Enter the Democrat leadership in the House of Representatives. They did not like this provision and simply stalled acting on the Senate version of the bill. As a result, this act has now expired and its future hangs in the balance. While they explained it differently, needing more time to study the Senate bill and so on, the real reason behind the Democrats action is strictly political. The Republicans have accused the Democrats that their motives are very obvious: They want to strip the immunity provision out of the bill so that one of their major donor bases, namely Trial Lawyers, can go after these companies, file lawsuits and make lots of money in the process!

This is an absolute outrage! To play with national security in the interest of campaign fund donors and contributors is such an egregious action, it borders on treason! It is one thing, to let lawyers go after companies who might inflict damage on the public’s health; i.e., the tobacco companies and insurance firms, just to name a few, but to open companies up for such action who support our government in obtaining information on our countries enemy’s communications is truly beyond the pale and simply inexcusable. It should come as no surprise if these same companies will now be somewhat reluctant to continue this cooperation with the government, who can blame them. On the one hand, they are asked to provide information to our countries intelligence services in the Executive branch, yet the other branch, the Legislature says to them: “Do not do this or our buddies (who give us campaign donations), the trial lawyers will come after you and sue you for invasion of privacy and infringement of our civil liberties.”

It is very clear that by their action, the Democrats do not think that we are in a global war on terror. They call it fear mongering on the part of President Bush. Has anybody taken note of the fact that we have not been attacked on America’s soil since September 11, 2001? Does anybody think that they, our enemies would not attack us again if we let our guard down and made it easier for them? Or could it have something to do with the fact that our current President is taking national security very, very serious? We think the latter is the case!

It is shameful for the Democrats to play political games with this issue. While there can be disagreement between the parties over all other topics, national security should be off the table, period! It should definitely not be weakened in favor of the financial interest of political donors. It now remains to be seen what will happen once Congress comes back from their ten-day vacation. And once again, the liberal mainstream media in this country is playing along with the Democrats in that they cover this item in the back pages of their magazines and newspapers and hardly broadcast it on television or radio. It is for them also not an important enough issue to place it on page one. The consequence of this is an uninformed or should we say, under informed public and that is by design. If this issue would get the attention in the media it deserves, those Congressional Representatives would get an earful from their own constituencies back home and do what is right for America instead of playing games with our security.

We here at this site once again can only write about this as we see it from our common sense perspective. We believe that the fastest way for our country to go down in a hurry, economically and in all other areas is to relax our national security while just hoping for the best. We really have to wonder what makes Democrats in power (Congress) tick. They have all the time it seems to investigate steroid use in Baseball by bringing players before Committees and accusing them of lying etc. They have plenty of time to pursue political investigations into actions of former and present members of the current Administration but when it comes to what matters to every American, there is simply not enough time for that!

Words like shameful, disgraceful, outrageous and even Un-American are not strong enough to describe the Democrats in Congress, at least those individuals in charge! We have to wonder if it takes another major terrorist attack in America the likes of what happened on September 11, 2001, for these people to get real or should we say, serious. Or would they, the Democrats just do what they do best: Blame President Bush? Time for Congressional Term Limits, don’t you think?

This article and others on Common Sense Authors are designed to provoke further thought and investigation.   It is not the intent for the articles to be politically biased. Sources are referenced in each article to encourage readers to delve into the supporting material.  We welcome all readers to participate with their point of view either in support or contrary with additional information sources.

Dangerous Politics is a post from: Common Sense University

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Ten days ago, we posted on this site an article written by Mr. Nelson Walker, a guest contributor wherein he made very strong arguments in favor of Congressional Term Limits. In fact, we fully agree with all the points he made and would encourage you to read his article again before proceeding with this one. He is absolutely correct when he states that most members of Congress have become first and foremost…career politicians who are guided by only two words: Election and having achieved that goal, then it’s all about Re-election! They do not do their job based on the principles and promises they espoused before being elected because their number one priority is to hold on to their job. This, of course, totally controls their efforts since they will evaluate every vote they have to cast through the spectrum of re-electibility. In other words, if a ‘Yes’ vote can cause loss of a certain voter block at election time, they will vote ‘No’, and vice versa. ‘Just gotta hang on to this cushy job’.

The question now becomes: How can Term Limits be imposed on members of Congress? The easiest way would be to persuade them to enact such changes. Yeah, right, that would be like asking lions to become vegetarians, to ask foxes to ignore hen houses, to hope that all labor unions would dissolve and expecting all teachers in America to love and strongly support the ‘No Child Left Behind’ education reform law. It is just not going to happen voluntarily! While some in Congress might support such term limits even on themselves, the vast majority will hang on to their jobs for as long as they can. These sane members of Congress would probably hide behind the U.S. Constitution and state that without an amendment to the Constitution, it could not be done. They would possibly even become self-righteous and dare to say that imposing Congressional Term Limits violates the Constitution! No, they would take the position that voters have the choice to ‘term limit’ any member of Congress by not re-electing them.

Many States around the country have enacted term limits for State and local office holders and the process is somewhat easier in that these States have processes to enact such laws by means of so called ‘Propositions’ (as is the case in California). They occur essentially every two years and appear on the ballots for voters to approve or disapprove. This is a working instrument for the electorate in that they can dictate to the State lawmakers what they, the people, want to have done and therefore becomes law when the lawmakers cannot do so. To get such a Proposition on the Ballot, it requires having certain numbers of signatures in favor and the numbers vary for this process. The battles for and against the approval of such propositions are in many cases as fierce as they are in the election campaigns for elected offices, be they Governor, State Attorney General etc down to State Senator and State Assembly men or women.

But let’s get back to Congressional Term Limits. The hurdles here are much higher and therefore much harder to achieve. The biggest single problem in achieving term limits for members of Congress are the voters. When one considers that most elections, even those for choosing a President, seldom reach participation by more then 55 percent of eligible voters, one can understand and recognize the main source of overcoming such hurdles for change. Voter apathy is so huge in this country, without a substantial shift there will be little chance to ever achieving such lofty goals as term limiting the men and women elected to represent us in Congress. That nearly one out of two eligible voters does not care enough to find the time to vote is a sad commentary for America. This is especially true when one considers voter turnout in other countries where voting is giving people choices that effect their lives, even if they have to face the dangers of intimidation, remember the ‘purple finger’ votes in recent years in Iraq?

As far as solutions for congressional term limits are concerned, we think that for now the only available weapon to voters is their collective ability NOT TO RE-ELECT Congressmen/women and U.S.Senators when they come and ask for their votes every two or six years respectively. This would require a strong effort on the part of concerned citizens on both sides of the political spectrum. To communicate more frequently and effectively with voters about the votes their representatives cast in Congress could be a good beginning. But for lack of money, how would this work? The print media could provide such a non-partisan service. Some newspapers do this, for instance, the San Diego Union Tribune shows congressional votes cast by local representatives on a weekly basis, but it is lost in the back pages instead of front-page news. Many other newspapers for all we know do not even bother with this and so, the average voter busy with their own lives cannot follow what Congress is doing unless he/she follows up via the Internet or other means available.

We here at ‘Back to Common Sense’ believe that an informed electorate is probably a Senator’s or Congressmen’s worst nightmare and it is not in their best interest to have them reported on frequently. Let’s be honest, how often do you hear from your elected officials other than just a month or two before the next election? If like-minded people could unite in their efforts to shed more light on the voting activities of their respected representatives, we think that re-election for those in office would not occur as regularly as it does now. We would positively like to participate in such endeavors and would do everything in our power by using this site as a vehicle for such action. It falls in line with our theme of endorsing ‘Common Sense and Thinking for Yourselves’.

We will also attempt to challenge voters next year to do just that: Thinking before they cast their votes! It is a precious right we all have and we should not use it haphazardly.

It is Time for Congressional Term Limits! is a post from: Common Sense University

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An incumbent who seeks re-election cannot freely vote his conscience, or his principles, for fear that he is going to offend some slice of the electorate, reducing his chances of re-election. 

Obviously, one way to correct this problem is to reduce or eliminate eligibility for re-election. In other words, establish either a one or two term limit on all offices in government. 

In all the the noise among the pundits, editorialists, and bloggers about the significance of any election, nowhere does anyone address the the most obvious characteristic – that the bulk of the failings of our American electoral system is due to careerism and long tenure in the body politic, particularly in Congress. 

No one has stood up and yelled “It’s about re-elections, stupid! Not issues!” 

No one seems to recognize that, in the desperate struggle to hold on to their extremely ‘cushy’ jobs, career politicians will vote, not on principle or merit, but on their ‘re-election odds’ only. 

Those that do it successfully, go on to lifelong tenure (e.g. Byrd, Kennedy, Stevens, Domenici, et al). Those who try to hold to principle invariably serve very short terms. 

In other words, if your first concern is re-election, rather than what is best for the country, you reap the rewards of a long tenure. Is this any way to run a country? 

The fundamental reason we need Congressional Term Limits is simply that Congress is no longer doing its job. Instead, it is working very hard at keeping its job. 

Of the many hot issues actually ‘debated’ by Congress and passed, most have been so chewed up, amended, and emasculated, that they are often not worth the paper they are written on. Congress will do anything it can to avoid making clear-cut decisions to get good legislation, in order not to offend or lose the voters they need for re-election. 

Some people would say that’s the way a democracy works, and to some degree that’s true, but that’s an oversimplification. Rather, what we are seeing is a Congressional class which is overwhelmingly committed to re-election first, all other considerations, especially good governance, last. This is true on both sides of the aisle. 

The best evidence of this is the fact that in two recent (‘02, ‘04) elections; Congressional incumbents won re-election at a 99% rate. Before 50 years ago, that rate was about 50-60%. Do you really believe that 99% of incumbents deserved re-election? In two successive elections? 

The ‘06 election was merely a bump in the road. Things have not changed. A great majority of the really long termers survived. They always will, thanks to gerrymandered districts, name recognition, and other incumbent advantages. We still have a virtually permanent Congress. 

How this has come about can be understood by examining Congressional voting patterns on the major issues in our current political environment, all of which are now routine, and all of which have arisen during the last part of the 20th century, as Congress has learned how to ‘game the system’. 

For example, and the following applies to both sides of the aisle: 

• They don’t reform Soc Sec to get personal retirement accounts. They might lose voters for re-election 
• They don’t reform health care to get personal medical accounts. They might lose voters for re-election 
• They don’t stop earmarks, because they want to spend federal money for local votes for re-election 
• They don’t vote school choice, because they want teacher’s union money for re-election 
• They don’t vote for tort reform, because they want lawyer money for re-election 
• They don’t vote for right-to-work, because they want union money for re-election 
• They don’t want computer neutral redistricting, because they want safe seats for re-election 
• They don’t deregulate campaign financing with instant disclosure, because they lose contributors for re-election 
• They won’t lower taxes, because they won’t be able to vote irresponsible ‘goodies’ for re-election 
• They won’t reduce the size of government, because that would reduce their control of voters for re-election 
• Last, but not least, Congressional office has become a career livelihood, which is in itself, a conflict of interest, because incumbents become more interested in holding on to the job than passing good legislation. Unlimited reelections should not be allowed.

A great many state and local legislative offices are already term limited. Why not Congress??? 

This article was written by Nelson Walker, a guest contributor whose site shows his term limit knowledge. 

This article and others on Back to Common Sense are designed to provoke further thought and investigation.   It is not the intent for the articles to be politically biased. Sources are referenced in each article to encourage readers to delve into the supporting material.  We welcome all readers to participate with their point of view either in support or contrary with additional information sources.

Invoke Congressional Term Limits is a post from: Common Sense University

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