by Michael Sanibel

Created on: June 02, 2008

The framers of the United States Constitution split the legislature into two distinct branches. Members of the House of Representatives were elected to two-year terms for several reasons. First, this would provide a continual turnover of membership in order to bring in fresh ideas from newly-elected members. The Senate members, on the other hand, were elected to six-year terms to provide a more stable, senior upper body. Second, the House would provide a forum for people from every walk of life to go to Washington and serve their country for a couple of years. The House was intended to consist of common people who already had careers and professions in their home states. They would leave those professions for two years to serve, with the intention of returning to their home states when their terms had expired.

What a difference a couple of hundred years makes. The House is now chock full of professional politicians who rarely leave office once they are elected. The reelection rate for incumbents consistently exceeds 90% which means that having fresh blood every two years is a now a distant fantasy. What we have instead is a group of career politicians who spend every other year raising money and campaigning for reelection, instead of attending to the peoples' business in Washington. They are all blessed with extremely generous medical and retirement plans which provide no motivation whatsoever for them to leave office when their terms expire and return to their former careers.

While there certainly are some exceptions, many elected officials go to Washington for reasons other than to do what's best for this country. They exhibit a never-ending quest for more power and clout in a system that caters and rewards that ambition. It's not about the country it's all about "them." This was never the intent of the founding fathers.

Some have suggested term limits as a way to correct this situation. Another way would be to completely eliminate the retirement packages which represent a huge incentive to stay in office. They could be given credit for their time served should they decide to join the federal government in a civil service position or other position which provides a government pension. I'm not concerned that we would see a lack of qualified people running for election; in fact we would see just the opposite. Instead of career politicians whose primary concern and goal is reelection every two years, we would have ordinary citizens in Washington whose only objective

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