Term Limits= A Band Aid

At a time when our country is very divided on issues, there is one thing most Americans agree on and that is term limits. However, term limits without campaign finance reform is just a band aid.

 The Desire for Term Limits

In a 2013 Gallup poll, (Here) 68% of respondents supported term limits. While there was an ideological divide by the three major classifications of voters, Republicans 82%, Independent 79% and Democrats 65%. The 65% by people claiming to be Democrats is still a very sizable margin.

What was equally surprising was the age break down. Finally, it seems as if millennials and senior citizens both agree on something. 74 % of those between the ages of 18-29 and 65 and older agree that there needs to be term limits.

In a 2018 poll by McLaughlin & Associates (Here) reported 82 % of those surveyed would like to see term limits for members of Congress. In this poll, the percentage of likely voters who identified as Democrats went from 65% in the Gallup poll to 69% in this poll. You would think if there was a way to bring the country together Congress would consider something the governed wanted.

Who do you think does not want? If you said the people belonging to that exclusive congressional club you would be right.

If you understood what the benefits of that club were, you would not want it either. Since 1977 Congress has worked approximately 140 days a year while the average American has worked 250 days a year. You have not seen their pay either. But, just with what you have seen so far, I think you would agree, what a great gig.

On May 29, 2020, Forbes Senior Contributor Adam Andrzejewski reported on five major benefits members of congress receive. (Here)

Salary: Nancy “I need my roots done” Pelosi makes $235,000.00 a year. Chuckels “Trump is a racist” Schumer makes $193,000.00 which is the same Mitch “We have term limits every 6 years” McConnell. Regular members make $ 174,000.00. Not included in this is the annual cost of living raise. Neither does it include the loophole in the ethics laws which adds additional income. I always wondered how they could go in as “middle class” and retire rich.

Pension: Members of Congress can qualify for a Federally funded pension in addition to Social Security. Because this is classified as “private information”, legally we the taxpayers who are paying this have no right to see what it is.

Workers Compensation: For job related injuries. Leaves you wondering except for a paper cut, how people in this club could get injured. Well, leave it to Jesse Jackson Jr. who was approved to receive $138,400.00 in workers compensation and social security disability. His stated reason was Congress made him mentally ill.  At the time this happened Jr. was being investigated for misappropriations of funds. Isn’t that beautiful.

Travel: In 2019 Congress spent 4.3 million on travel. Included in this total is $75000.00 charged by New Jersey Democrat Representative Frank Pallone. North Carolina Republican Representative Richard Hudson spent $14,357.00 in transportation costs on a 7-day trip. The cost of lodging is not listed. Committee staffers get this perk also.

Miscellaneous: They get72% of their health insurance subsidized along with a $25.00 a month gym membership. I wonder if it is open during the COVID-19 shutdown? In this grouping, there are two more items that really caught my eye. 1) They exempted themselves from certain federal laws including the Freedom of Information act. 2) A dedicated settlement fund which is used to get members out of hot water. Since 1997 the fund has paid out $17.6 million in claims.

Do you really think they care about you the voter? Remember, men are not angels neither are the people we have sent to govern us.

In 1992 there were 23 states that had passed term limit bills only to be turned over by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. This was a 5-4 decision with 3 judges appointed by Republican presidents in the majority. To get term limits, we are going to need a Constitutional Amendment.

Like I said in the tittle, term limits are nothing more than a band aid. The real issue that must be addressed is campaign finance.

This issue of campaign finance first caught my attention in 2010 during John McCain’s reelection campaign. The money being spent was unbelievable. In the primary alone, Senator McCain spent $21 million. What type of person spends that type of money for a job that only a six-year return of $104400.00 before taxes? Understanding most of it came from contributions, but from the contributors they point of view they must get a return other than a tax write off.

Before we get into the dollars, the out of state contributions where not broken out from the total amount raised for all the candidates. However, in each race I am listing one of the candidates that had the out of state contributions broken out. I took this number from the five candidates a got an average. I believe the average is on the low side. Of all 10 candidates, I believe there is only one who would be able to self-fund their campaign.  

 Alabama; Tuberville vs Jones. The total raised was $39,182,969.00. Jones raised $30,640,635.00. Out of state contributions totaled $25,891,337.00 while in state contributions were $6,913,451.00. Outer state contributions Jones contributed 84.5% of the funds he raised. Tuberville raised a total of $8,537,218.00. Based on the paragraph above, we used 77.47% and calculated Tuberville’s out of state contributions to be $6,613,782.00 leaving him with $1,923,436.00 of in- state contributions.

Arizona; McSally vs Kelly. The total raised by both candidates was $17,1232,111.00. McSally raised $71,385,147.00. Out of that total 75.4% was from out of state contributions for a total of $54,671,313.00. The in-state contributions McSally received was $17,773,900.00. Kelly raised a total of

$99,846,963.00. Using the same average, we used for Tuberville was used for Kelly giving him $77,351,442.00 in out of state contributions while leaving $22,495,521.00 of in-state contributions.

Georgia; Purdue vs Ossoff. Total raised by both candidates was $255,119,711.00. The total amount raised by Purdue was $102,235,913.00. Out of state contributions accounted for $75,759.924.00 of the total. Leaving $26,475,989.00 from in-state doners. Ossoff campaign raised a whopping $153,630,112.00 with $119,017,247.00 calculated as out of state contributions using 77.4 %. In-state contributions for Ossoff totaled $34,612,865.00.

Georgia Special; Loeffler vs Warnock. Total raised by both candidates was $225,119,711.00. Like the other Georgia Senatorial race, the challenger raised more money. Warnock raised a total of $124,278,473.00. Using the described average, Warnock out of state contributions totaled $96,278,533.00. In state he raised $27,999,940.00. Looeffler raised a total of $92,135,745.00. Out of state contributions totaled 85.93% for a total of $38,839,062.00. In state contributions $6,357,650.00. It should be noted Loeffler self-financed her campaign by contributing $23,678,492.00 to her own campaign. This leads me to wonder and question if she was trying to buy a seat in the senate. With “only“ slightly more than $6 million in in-state contributions when her fellow Republican received over $26 million in in-state contributions how strong of a candidate was she.

When the final numbers of these two races are in, I would expect to see addition contributions added to the total in both races.

Michigan; Peters vs James. Total raised was $100,180,755.00 between the two. Peters raised $51,564,058.00 in total contributions. Of that amount, 64.46% was received from out of state which totaled $34,547,919.00 and $17,016,139.00 from in-state contributions. James the challenger raised $48,616,697.00 in total. Using our average, we believe James received $37,663,355.00 from out of state contributions and $10,983,342.00 from instate sources.

We have 10 candidates who have raised more than ¾ of a billion dollars. Written like that it does not seem like that much. However, when you write like this $791,636,775.00 you get a better idea. To break it down further, the median income of a U.S. family in 2019 reported by the U.S. Census was $68703.00 in annual income. Remember this is only 10 candidates in five races.

I understand numbers make reading a little harder. Numbers were used so you could grasp the absurdity of how much money was spent this election cycle. While reading words like millions, billions etc… the picture is not as clear. Just take the deficit for example. In 1992 the deficit was $4,065,000,000.00 (4.065 Billion). In 29 years, it has grown to $264770000000000000000.00. That is more than 26 TRILLION!

 In reality these are huge pay to play games at your, the voters expense. It is a jobs program for the political industry. The money spent on advertising and consults who produce nothing, but propaganda is absurd.

In the book The Politics Industry by Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter do a great job of explaining the ability to raise money is the main component to gaining power. Their recommended new ballot system has merit. However, without new campaign finance laws will do little. 

What I do agree with whole heartily is the statement “The business of politics is not a public institution. It is a bonna fide multi billion-dollar institution within a public institution.” The little regulation these people pass for their own is nothing more than the fox guarding the hen house. With the 1995 Supreme Court ruling and the subsequent Citizens United ruling, the only way to regulate this unregulated out of control industry, one in which the rules are made by the players at our expense is a Constitutional Amendment.

In George Will’s book, Restoration, Mr. Will says “By the beginning of the 1990’s it was beginning to seem as if Congress was not just going through another of its bad patches. Rather, Congress Seemed to have settled in a deep trough, and it lacked the strength to lift itself out.”

This book was published in1992. I believe no, they are in even deeper. It would be nice for once if we could all come together, the voters and do our part to help them out of the trough they dug for themselves. The only way we can do this is by coming together and get those amendments.

We can always go back to fighting but at least we will have leveled the playing field. Always remember United we stand and divided we fall.