Essay about Term Limits

Submitted By RobertBrown1
Words: 860
Pages: 4

How To Make A Change

Robert Brown

Grantham University

Joshua Ozymy

American Government I

20 June 2012

How To Make A Change

I am 35 years old, a veteran and I hate the direction the United States of America is going in. Just maybe I am naïve, maybe the government has always been puppets to the rich, but it seems in today’s world the politicians don’t even try to hide it. When George Bush Jr. and company stole the state of Florida and the 2000 election right in front of the eyes of America and got away with it everything started to change for the worse or maybe it is just more obvious now. So how do we fix this mess called government, congress? It’s not a simple thing, but doing these three things would help a whole lot in repairing a great nation. 1. Term Limits 2. Age Cap 3. Campaign Reform First let’s discuss Term Limits. In my opinion all government local, state, national, includes the senate, the house and even the Supreme Court should all have a set Term Limit. I believe that term limit should be set at 4 years and each politician is only able to perform 3 or 4 terms which comes out to 12 or 16 years of service. You should not have politicians such as John Dingell of Michigan who has served in the House for 56 years. This is ridiculous to me.

Age Cap. In the Senate you have 19 senators that are 72 years are older with the oldest being Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey being 88 years old. In the House you have also 19 members 72 years old or older with Ralph Hall of Texas being 89 years old. In my opinion the age restriction should be set at 72-75 years old. Setting term limits will in most cases automatically put a cap on age. I respect and believe experience is important, but I do not believe men in their high 70’s and 80’s can perform the duties that are necessary to get this country back to where it needs to be. The term “Life Long Politician’ should not mean exactly that, lifelong. Setting a age cap and term limits will help bring new blood and new life into the stalemate called politics in America.

The Supreme Court in my opinion should also have a age cap and term limit. This position should not be a lifelong position. The Supreme Court is supposed to uphold the constitution, but instead all they do is vote on party lines. When they voted that corporations were “people” right there people should know that something needs to be done. A Supreme Court Justice should not be able to serve more than 12 years or up to age 75 whichever comes first.

Setting Term Limits and making an age cap would help a lot, but the main problem in American politics is greed. According to ABCNEWS as of 2010 about 47% of congress is millionaires. The average median of a United State Senator as of 2010 was $2.56 million. How many millions and millions of dollars are raised by these individuals to either run for office or stay in office? A site called opensecrets.org show’s you just that. Do people really believe that companies, individuals donate big money, fundraise for certain politicians out of the goodness of their hearts? Do these same companies, individuals demand something