Get Rid Of Long Term Politicians And Their COLA's And Set Term Limits.

THE DOCTOR IS IN
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LAS VEGAS- Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Recently we had Democratic Senator Dodd jump to the defense of Blumenthal, the man that lied about his military record and the guy who claimed he served in Vietnam when he "did not."

Blumenthal is running in Connecticut for the office of Senator. Now, I see his character, credibility and veracity seriously in question.

Senator Dodd is retiring after holding the Senatorial seat since 1975. Folks, that's a long, long time to hold on to a position. Some of these politicians have been in Congress for 35 and 45 years. I think that is too long for any one person to hold a political seat. Another man comes to mind. The recently defeated Arlen Specter, from Pennsylvania tried everything to hold on to his seat. Hey, the guys 80 years old and has been serving Pennsylvania for 30 years. If he had held his seat this time he would be 86 years old when his new term would expire.

I don't know about you but I think that we Americans deserve more that this kind of good ol' boy politics. As it stands today the incumbent, with their large contribution war chests beat down any newcomer that wants to serve the nation.

These well connected political incumbents have their political connections, their large contributions and self serving groups use slash and burn politics to devastate their opponent.

I believe that there are many good people out there across this country that want to serve and hate the current system of partisanship,gridlock and "got ya" politics. This situation has been festering in both parties for decades but is becomes worse every year.

Standing on the sidelines looking in I can see that there is no give and no collaboration by either of the two warring parties. Neither the Republican or the Democratic party can say they work together. I say that it is time for a change, a big change.

First, I would suggest that the people in this nation stand united and vote out all of the incumbents. They have been there too long. I suspect that these incumbents that have been holding down their political seat for 35, 40, and 45 years is more of the problem that the solution. Those old incumbents tend to blackmail, intimidate and pressure the new members to go along or lose their seat at the next election. I would suggest that actions like that are not politics but instead borders on the criminal.

I submit that we, the people ,deserve much better governing that we are receiving from these fat cats, who feel they are privileged to do anything they wish and ignore the wishes of the majority of the people in the country. As it stands now, most of these Democrats and Republicans only interest is that of building up their contributions and getting what is best for themselves and their families. These lack-luster politicians "chase the money". They go to the trough of big oil, big banks, big corporations and other deep pocket avenues while always promising access and favors in return for the large contributions. The race and chase for the money by our political leaders never end.

Many of these lawmakers in Washington have committed a myriad of crimes over the years and many have been convicted and sent to prison. Others have their hands slapped and are protected by their party bosses for the sake of holding on to a seat.

Besides getting rid of all incumbents the people of this nation should insist on term limits. There is a good argument for it but as it stands now these entrenched politicians refuse to even consider such a move. They use their large money machines to fight off all efforts but I say the time is right and it can be done if we citizens stand together.

I would submit that if all of the Congress people had a term limit of only two terms there would be no time for them to be sucked into the abyss of easy money and power and the sleazy ways of being corrupted as is happening now.

With new intelligent, motivated people, who want to serve and make a difference hoping to improve this nation and actually knowing they cannot hold on to that seat for 35,or 45 years but for only two terms would give that man or woman incentive to work for the good of the people and country and display to the people the accomplishments they made during their two terms of service.

With only a two term representative there would be no chances of the sleaze and corruption that is now politics as usual rubbing off in that short amount of time and there would be no fat, lazy, incompetent six or seven term politician using threats and intimidation to get their way.

Granted, there will be some lawmakers sent to Washington for the two years and they may bend the rules or try to get all they can get for themselves and their families but the public can have some comfort knowing that the "wanna be" bad guy or gal will be out of Washington after serving their two term stretch.


Side note: These lawmakers should not receive a "lifetime" pension for only serving two terms. It could be adjusted accordingly. This idea of Congress people giving themselves all of these fat, obscene benefits like an automatic pay raise each and every year "unless they themselves vote it down " is unwarranted. Currently their pay is $174,000.00 a year. That's a lot. To their credit they did vote down their automatic pay raise for 2010. If they did not, they would have received an increase of and additional $1600.00 a year.

These old long term politicians slyly slid that annual benefit perk into law under the cloak of darkness back in 1989 when it decided to provide itself with annual raises called: "cost-of-living adjustments." This slick, sneaky maneuver guaranteed the politicians a salary increase every year, whether they actually deserved it or not. Nice perk, huh?

I would say that allowing any employee to vote on their own pay raise would really cause any employer to scream out in agony but as it stands now these lawmakers are doing just that, as does the public employee unions across this country.

However, if this obscene law cannot be repealed and removed from the books it should be drastically revised. It would be the lesser of the many evils that these lawmakers have perpetrated on us taxpayers to enrich themselves. It could be revised so as to require that each lawmaker publicly vote on their own pay raise and that in turn would at least hold them accountable to us taxpayers and voters.

Nobody outside the Washington beltway, except the greedy public employees and their powerful union members get an automatic raise each and every year. Middle class Mr. and Mrs. America working on Main street doesn't have such a benefit, so why should our millionaire and billionaire lawmakers deserve this perk. My answer, they "shouldn't."

So, to summarize: We do not need lawmakers in Washington serving 35, 40, or 45 years and playing politics for the sole purpose of getting what they can for themselves and their family. We really need term limits in Washington. -And, that's my opinion.People,draw your own conclusions. You decide.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com