Donald Trump said he would put forth a constitutional amendment putting term limits on congress. Whether it would pass or not is a question to answer after the election. But it certainly is a great idea, and it's about time someone suggested it seriously.
Remember Jack Abramoff? He did prison time for bribery committed while he worked as a lobbyist. But according to him, he wasn't doing anything any one else was doing. It was only business.
There's a rather long youtube video in which he explains how it works. When a freshman congressman comes along, some old pro pulls him aside and explains how to prolong his tenure into a life time job and introduces him to the best (most generous) lobbyists.
A company wants something from a congressman, so the lobbyist pays him a visit. A few days later the people who hired the lobbyist announce a fund raiser for said congressman. The money rolls in, and the congressman goes to work trying to pass the law they want.
Bernie Reeves explains it like this:
He says what he did is what everyone else did -- and he's right. He just did it better than anyone else.
He went beyond the usual lobbyist protocol of giving lavishly to campaigns and individual senators and representatives by spending over one million dollars a year on tickets and box seats to entertainment and sports events. Golf outings were important venues to transact business -- and to learn the true character of his enemies and associates.
His most effective ploys were to offer congressional staffers high-paying jobs to work for him when they left government service -- and to enlist an army of private company executives to bombard state and federal offices demanding they to cease harming entities they did business with. This was highly effective with casino clients and, late in Abramoff's career, for the TYCO conglomerate that was facing a $4-billion retroactive tax bill.
Abramoff bought a lot of influence. The only practical way to end the practice is term limits so that congressmen won't dedicate all their time to maintaining that job of a lifetime.
Side note: Make what you will of this. Our own Texas District 11 Congressman, Mike Conaway, pulled in over $2 million dollars in donations for his 2016 campaign. His only opponent on the ballot is a Libertarian no one has ever heard of. Do those donors want something from him, or do they simply like his politics?
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