Two More Strong Arguments for Term Limits

Updated last 4/1/2014 re the term limits vote below and also WSJ article re Caterpillar )

 So many of our poster children have similar backgrounds in that they get law degrees and then go right into politics without any real world experience to base their lawmaking decisions on. How can they relate to citizens who have to live under their laws? Many laws are made from the pressure of lobbyists and groups that give them support for reelection and who often actually write the laws for them. The high pay and FedGov pensions that most of us could only dream about further keep them isolated from the impact of their spending and tax policies. They should be made to come back home after a period to live under those laws and taxes and regulations, too.

Patrick Leahy from Vermont and Carl Levin from Michigan are two who fit the description. Leahy graduated law school in 1964 and at age 34 was elected to the Senate where he has been ever since. Levin got his degree in 1959 and held several government jobs between 1964 until elected to the Senate in 1978.
Both regularly vote with the liberal-left of their party (Democrat) 95% to 100% in most sessions and that means both vote for virtually every spending, regulating and taxing bill that comes up.

So, it is no surprise that both Poster Boys voted on 2/2/12 AGAINST the proposed amendment to limit the terms of Congress even though they know full well that their constitutents are overwhlemingly in favor of the reform. See how your Senator voted: http://senateconservatives.com/site/votes/112/2/11?c=5R4F2B4F9B3A137 hint: All Democrats but Joe Manchin of WV voted AGAINST.

Caterpillar's Senate Show Trial

By JAMES FREEMAN

Caterpillar Inc. will be dragged before the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee today because committee Chairman Carl Levin wishes the company had a higher tax bill. The Michigan senator, who has helped make the corporate tax code the complicated mess that it is, enjoys bashing corporations for lawfully trying to navigate this mess.
Caterpillar will therefore join a distinguished list of firms, including Apple, that have taken turns appearing before the panel to be condemned for seeking to maximize returns to shareholders.
Today's alleged outrage is that Caterpillar pays an effective income tax rate of roughly 29%, which is more than most companies pay but not enough for Mr. Levin. The senator is ticked off that some of Cat's overseas profits are taxed at around 5% by Switzerland. Would he prefer that U.S. shareholders pay more taxes to foreign governments?
Perhaps Mr. Levin would like every business to pay the combined U.S. state and federal headline rate of 39.1%, which is the highest in the developed world, and a major reason the U.S. economy isn't growing faster. But it's not clear even that would satisfy his thirst for more federal revenues.
If last year's show trial with Apple is any guide, today Mr. Levin will slam Cat's tax strategies as "alchemy" and "gimmickry," but offer no evidence that the company is doing anything illegal or even unethical.
He will probably refer to the results of his staff's "investigation," but there's not much to investigate. Large corporations like Caterpillar are constantly audited by the IRS, and the firm has been doing its taxes the same way for more than a decade.
The real outrage, as unemployment remains high and GDP growth remains slow, is for Mr. Levin to suggest that the solution is to extract more cash from U.S. employers.WSJ 4/1/2014


The non-partisan National Taxpayers Union rates congress from A –taxpayer friendly- to F –Big Spender. Both of our poster boys are consistently rated F. Citizens Against Government Waste (CSAGW), another non-partisan taxpayer group, has bestowed on both boys their “Porker of the Month” award over their years in office. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers. When you look at the huge deficits being racked up each year, these two are right up there among the most responsible for the high taxes, numerous counter-productive regulations and a debt that steals from future generations that will stifle their aspirations for the American Dream.

Last September when CAGW named Leahy as their “Porker of the Month” they also noted that he was one of “Seven Nutty Senators Supporting ACORN…” (Poster Boy Sen. Durbin of Illinois was also one of the seven.) “Cutting off funds to ACORN should have been the easiest vote of the year, yet these senators could not bring themselves to do it,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Taxpayers should not be accomplices in the rampant malfeasance of ACORN.” ACORN has received at least $53.6 million in taxpayer-funded grants since 1994, not including millions more from states and localities, as well as foundations. Fannie Mae, for example, which was taken over by the federal government a year ago, bestowed millions in grants on ACORN over the years. For more updated detail on ACORN see the blog alongside A Bite at a Time.Sen. Leahy worked closely with the late Senator Edward Kennedy, another of our Poster Boys, to advance the Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. Said Leahy, “This historic hate crimes provision will improve existing law by making it easier for Federal authorities to investigate and prosecute crimes of racial, ethnic, or religious violence.” Sen. Levin as Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, defended his reasoning for including the provision within the Defense bill: “This is domestic terrorism… When you attack someone because of membership in a group, you are attacking this country itself. This belongs in the Defense Reauthorization Bill!.” Not to mention that virtually all of the crimes covered are already unlawful under present law. This is in response to lobbies who want special recognition and treatment for their particular groups. Do you think it fits in the Defense Bill? When defense outlays are calculated they include much that is not really for the defense of our nation. Poster Children often get their way by inserting unrelated subjects in critical bills that have to pass and thus avoid losing if their special interest legislation couldn’t pass on its own.

Both Senators also responded to recent actions by Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include a public option in the Senate’s health care bill. The Senators argued that a public option was very important in that it would represent progress in the legislation, but noted that any such provision must include an op-out for states, which they said would promote competition. They didn’t explain how there would even be any competiton after the FedGov takeover. Sure, compete with FedGov.
Our poster children have no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their method is to search out groups or the groups search them out to get something from FedGov and by promising to give it to them our Poster Children get campaign contributions and support for reelection. How they accomplish the payoff is to loot taxpayers. As HL Mencken put it, “In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

Earmarks are a measure of profligate spending for self-promotion among the recipients. It is also called bribery if done in the private sector but business-as-usual in congress. Check out details at this most informative site: http://www.legistorm.com/earmarks/details/member/62/Sen_Patrick_Leahy/page/1/sort/amount/type/desc/year/all.html Legistorm is dedicated to providing a variety of important information about the US Congress. The information is provided in a strictly factual, non-partisan fashion. They have no political affiliations and no political purpose except to make the workings of Congress as transparent as possible. This is how you get to a $16+ trillion debt.

Leahy’s loot:
Fiscal Year(s) 2008-2010 Number Cost
Solo Earmarks 185 $228,063,385
With Other Members 115 $260,805,250
All Sponsored Earmarks 300 $488,868,635


Levin’s loot:

Year(s) 2008-2010 Number Cost
Solo Earmarks 33 $124,900,000
With Other Members 678 $804,423,593
All Sponsored Earmarks 711 $929,323,593


The more I study these career politicians the more I fear for the future of freedom in our United States of America and consequently for the freedom of the world. Sen. Jim DeMint originally and now Sen Vitter is making an effort to turn back to a citizen-legislature by offering a proposed constitutional amendment to term limit congress. You can help by going to www.termlimits.org and sign the petition. And then, ask your friends to sign it, too. We'll have another vote in the next session.

Hello? Anybody home?

[Updated 12/15/2012]
All of our poster children so far have been in office for decades but we had to make an exception for this guy. For Hank Johnson (4th-GA) four terms are plenty. You have to see this to believe it:  http://tinyurl.com/bmpfanp

You can't make this up Even after this video went viral he was reelected without opposition in 2010 and again in 2012. (See comments for a funnier version of this YouTube video.)

The latest from this strange duck was commented on by The Daily Callers' Caroline May:
"Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson — notable for saying he feared that Guam might capsize if it became too populated during a 2010 House Armed Services Committee hearing — apologized Thursday in a rambling floor speech for using the 'm-word.' According to Johnson, the 'm-word,' which he will never say again (though accidentally slipped in the middle of his apology), is 'midget.' 'Last night I used an analogy that some find offensive, and I certainly was not meaning to be offensive or use a derogatory term,' he said." You've got to see this one, too.  http://tinyurl.com/d2u32wb

He’s a lawyer, a former assistant judge and a practicing Buddhist.

He votes the party line without deviation  Heritage Action gives him 12% on the conservative scale which is 88% on th liberal scale --Big Spender by any scale.

In 2009, Johnson demanded censure of Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" remark, arguing that the comment had an “unseen racial undertone” and that, if Wilson was not formally rebuked, "We will have people with white hoods running through the countryside again." (Wikipedia)

This will be our shortest tenured and shortest poster child write-up. What else could we say for term limits than pointing out that he will likely be in congress as long as he lives given the gerrymandered district and advantages of incumbency? Unless we can get Sen. DeMint’s proposed constitutional amendment to term limit congress passed. Please help by going to www.termlimits.org and add your name to the petition for term limits on congress. Thank you.

Thanks for Your Service. Good-Bye.

I’ve been criticized for having mostly Democrats as Poster Children. Yes, there are more of them, they’ve been in office longer and they are generally more corrupt. We’ve highlighted two Republicans, Sens. Specter and Grassley. Specter then changed parties. Looking for a Repub to put on a poster we read that the non-partisan Club for Growth PAC will oppose three term U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) in his reelection bid this year, it made me look at his record. Yep, he qualifies.

“Bennett’s record, whether on spending, earmarks, or his disastrous plan for a federal health care takeover, is part of the problem in Washington,” Chris Chocola, president of the Club, said. “Utah deserves a pro-growth, free-market reformer in the Senate who will instead become a part of the solution…”

Among Bennett’s recent Senate lowlights that the Club sees:
• He voted for TARP, the $750 billion Wall Street bailout;
• He voted to save the disgraceful “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark;
• He refused to block funding for any further bailouts of auto manufacturers;
• He voted against redirecting wasteful Defense earmarks toward improved health care for disabled veterans;
• Voted against a resolution stating the Senate had a “moral obligation” to cut spending;
• After voting against President Obama’s 2010 budget, Bennett voted for most of the bloated spending bills comprising it;
• Bennett’s health care proposal would impose an unconstitutional individual mandate, increase federal taxes and spending by hundreds of billions of and force Americans to pay their insurance premiums through the IRS.

Studies show that spending is correlated with tenure, and Bennett is an example of this phenomenon. He may have entered Congress for public service, and his early voting expressed that commitment, but then the “lowlights” kicked in. Sen. Bennett’s voting has, over time, drifted to bigger, extra-constitutional federal government by which we judge Congress. During the 106th Congress (1999), Bennett served Majority Leader Bill Frist as the Republican Party Whip. Now, he’s on the party leadership team and advises the Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on legislative strategy and policy priorities. Surely, in a seniority system without term limits, those who are most out of touch are those most firmly in control.

Bennett has a B.S. in Political Science. Unlike our other poster boys, he did have private business experience that informed his early periods in elected office even though some of it was politics-connected. He was president of a Washington D.C. public-relations company that occasionally provided cover for CIA operations. During Bennett’s tenure, the PR firm did work for President Nixon’s reelection campaign. He was a Mormon Chaplain in the Utah National Guard from 1957 to 1969, when he entered public service as congressional liaison of the U. S. Department of Transportation. In 1974, Bennett became the public relations director for Summa Corporation, until 1978 when he became the president of Osmond Communications. In 1979, he went into the computer business, first as the chairman of the American Computers Corporation, and then as the president of the Microsonics Corporation from 1981 to 1984. In 1984, Bennett was named CEO of Franklin Quest. He ran for the Senate seat vacated by Jake Garn in 1992.

Bennett has often seemed to be on both sides of issues. He has been a strong opponent of abortion; however, he has shown some support for embryonic stem cell research funded by the taxpayers. He opposed the Act which would provide benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees. He had generally rejected affirmative action proposals involving quotas although he has voted in favor of expanding funding to women and minority-owned businesses. His recent positions as noted in the above list of “lowlights,” are in contrast to his past support of the Flat Tax and for repeal of the inheritance tax, the alternative minimum tax and the marriage penalty.

He was a free trade advocate, voting in favor of CAFTA presidential fast-tracking for normalizing trade relations, and removing common goods from national security export controls, He opposed President Bush’s efforts to privatize Social Security. His sponsorship of the Healthy Americans Act, championed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, seemed at odds with his previous stands opposing public health care.

He has, in his long tenure, sponsored or opposed many other issues and bills than we list here –we just mention enough to give an idea of what he has done, good or bad, depending on your view.

Sen. Bennett is being challenged by several other Republicans and two Democrats in his bid for re-election in 2010. He has been there long enough –18 years is too long and another six is way too long. Sen. Jim DeMint has proposed a term limit constitutional amendment that would limit the Senate to 12 years. It deserves support –if you agree, go to www.termlimits.org and sign the petition.

Even the Joker in his Deck is a Race Card

It's been a while since we have heard from Democrat South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn. He's the one who said that blacks are more likely to be hurt by global warming than other Americans. As inane as that comment may be, it is nowhere near as dangerous as his latest. James Clyburn says, "We're not going to save our way out of this recession ... We've got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that." Isn't it wonderful that the same man, who thinks that global warming is going to affect blacks the most, knows what most economists think? What a valuable man to have in the Congress of the United States!

This is the third ranking Democrat in the House, folks. Man is he absolutely dead wrong. Perhaps Clyburn would like to read a report from The Heritage Foundation: Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth: Answering the Critics. http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/bg2354.cfm

The above paragraphs were written by Neal Boortz on February 10, 2010, and gave me the impetus to honor the Congressman as one of our Poster Children. His thinking as expressed there is so childlike, so immature. But he has only been in congress for 20 years and given his gerrymandered district, he will be there until he joins Jack Murtha and Teddy Kennedy, two of our poster boys who have gone on to their rewards.

What can you expect from a man who has spent his entire life, as have all of our Poster Children so far, on the public payroll? This doesn’t make him a bad person, it just deprives the people of the U.S. the kind of experience that might be applied to the difficult decisions that the office demands. Or, should demand, but clearly doesn’t.

Rep. Clyburn taught history and was active in all the various civil rights activities of his time. Being Black and living in the South, that is natural and commendable. He and Emily have three daughters and two grandchildren.

His voting record is down-the-line Dem. The Club for Growth says that last year he voted against all 68 amendments to limit pork spending. He hasn’t seen fit to oppose any spending measure as the non-partisan national Taxpayers Union reports. He is consistently in the “Big Spender” category on NTU’s annual rankings. Most career politicians who have spent their entire lives on the public payroll have no concern where the money comes from or if it has to be borrowed from future generations. They just don’t understand economics and generally care little about how wealth is created –they just want to reallocate it –and get reelected.

Clyburn won the dubious honor of “Porker of the Month” November 2007 for trying to attach an earmark for a golf program to the Defense Appropriations Bill. He got $7.5 million in earmarks for golf programs since 2003 and in 2004 he got “The Taxpayers Get Teed Off” Oinker Award from Citizens Against Government Waste(CAGW) in 2004 for receiving $3 million in two separate appropriations bills that year. One earmark was for $1 million from the Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Education and its Character Education Program, added in conference. These funds are intended solely for state and local education agencies, but so what? They even put up a statue of Clyburn at a golf center in Columbia with taxpayers’ money. CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

In 1961 after losing campaigns for the S.C. legislature, then Gov. John Carl West asked Clyburn to join the administration as an “advisor.” After four years, he was appointed Human Affairs Commissioner, a position he held for 18 years during which time he twice ran losing campaigns for Secretary of State (in 1978 and 1986). When the House districts were redrawn (gerrymandered) following the 1990 census, the state’s 6th district became a majority-black district, and then-incumbent who was white, decided not to run. Clyburn won the five-way primary with 56 percent of the vote. Gerrymandering is where the candidate picks the voters instead of voters picking the candidate.

“You always look at black members of Congress from the civil rights aspect,” Clyburn told the National Journal in September 2006. “You never give us credit for developing legislative experience and congressional know-how and government background. I came here after running government agencies for 25 years. I didn’t come here after marching in the street.” It never occurs to members of congress that some private sector experience like creating jobs, making payrolls and living in the private sector under the laws they promulgate might be a more useful experience.

Once in the House, he was unanimously chosen to chair the Congressional Black Caucus. When the Democrats won control of the House in 2006, Clyburn was unanimously elected Majority Whip. As Majority Whip, he was tasked with rounding up Democrats to support the Oct. 2008 $700 billion Wall Street bailout package. “Bailout is an inaccurate way to describe this package,” Clyburn said after House passage. “I think we have come up with an incredible piece of legislation that addresses not just Wall Street, but also Broad Street in my home town and Walker Street, where I grew up.” When is a bailout not a bailout? There you have the answer.

Rep. Clyburn is part of the majority in Congress (which includes both political parties) that is completely ignoring the US Constitution they have given their oath to “support and defend.” These professional politicians are in there to pursue their own careers by insuring that they get reelected and that means buying votes with money, earmarks, exclusions from regulations, tax advantages and whatever it takes. We need to return to the citizen-legislators from our Founding through the early 20th Century. These were accomplished citizens who willingly would give a few years to “serve,” as in “public service” applying their training, experience and commitment to carrying out their Constitutional duties. Then going home to live under their laws.

Conscience? What's a Conscience?

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee raised over $11 million, about half from special interests corporations and PACs, in the 2005 to September 30 2009 reporting period. We want to reiterate our suggestion that these professional politicians wear a patch on their suits for their sponsors as do the NASCAR racers and golfers. I don’t know what the patch for Jack Abramoff would look like but this Poster Boy would be entitled to one. Of course, investment and insurance companies, lawyers and big pharmaceuticals are the largest payers for his services. No surprise –all of our poster boys and girls do the bidding of their main contributors and it is the reason that we no longer have many serious challengers to entrenched incumbents. The huge advantage of incumbency is overwhelming.

Max Sieben Baucus, 68, a Democrat, has been in politics since college. He earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a law degree from Stanford University. He began law practice in Missoula, Montana, in 1971, and then coordinated Montana's 1972 Constitutional Convention. He served as a state representative from Missoula until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. He was re-elected in 1976. Baucus was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 where he has remained until present. Sound familiar? As with our other poster children there is no real life, no private sector, experience. Yet, they make the laws that affect virtually all of our daily lives. But they do not have to live under their laws and regulations. This is our basic argument against career politicians and in favor of citizen-legislators who take their business and/or professional experience and understanding to making laws that regulate businesses and professions –then they go home and live under those laws. Sen. Jim DeMint has introduced a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would limit terms of Congress to two for the Senate and three for the House. Such statutory limitations as we have for most governors and many state legislators, county commissioners, city councilmen and other elected positions, would go a long way in reforming Congress.

On 2/2/2012 on the vote to limit the terms of congress it is telling that the senators who voted against term limits have been in the Senate for an average of 13.6 years compared to just 6.4 years for those who support them. The longer people are in Congress, the more power they get, and the more they lose touch with the voters who elected them.

See how your Senator voted: http://senateconservatives.com/site/votes/112/2/11?c=5R4F2B4F9B3A137 hint: All Democrats but Joe Manchin of WV voted AGAINST.


Baucus is often referred to as a “moderate” Dem but one finds little to justify the moderate moniker except that he did vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement. He voted for the Brady gun control measure and after getting a lot of heat from Montanans he has since voted against some gun control measures. Nothing moderate about his spending votes, though: the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union has rated him a “Big Spender for the past three years and mostly D’s previously. His version of the health Care Bill contains no conscience protections on abortions for employees who don’t want to be involved in them or refer for them. Naral –ProChoice America rates him 100% for his pro-abortion votes. Baucus has long opposed opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling --for which the Saudis, Chavez and Putin thank him. All liberal positions.

Sen. Baucus has vowed to raise the estate tax back to 35% to 55% this year, and to make it retroactive to Jan. 1. That it would be of questionable constitutionality does not bother career pols. Can Congress impose a new estate tax, say in April, on someone who is already dead and buried in February?” asks Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal. Then he says, “I hope not.”

“The most compelling environmental issue of our lifetime: global warming” Baucus said on the floor of the Senate in favor of a cap and trade bill for greenhouse gases, like CO2. In that speech in June 2008 he rhapsodized over the trillion dollar cash flow to the FedGov from a cap & tax program. No moderate, he is as liberal as the other poster children who have spent their entire adult lives in the government, almost totally oblivious of the consequences to the nation of such a restriction on energy use. Of course, it is even more senseless today as the global warming hoax is being exposed and the earth is experiencing one of the coldest winters on record. (It was 30 degrees F yesterday here in S. Florida.)

Just this week Judicial Watch has released its list of the 10 most corrupt politicians in Washington and wouldn’t you know it, five of the six congress-critters named are featured Poster Children on this blog – Dodd, Barney Frank, Pelosi, Murtha and Rangel. Does the slogan “Tenure Corrupts” come to mind? Baucus is not far behind as he has been caught giving one of his staffers, Melodee Hanes, a nearly $14,000 pay raise shortly after they began dating. He also took her on taxpayer-funded trips to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, though foreign policy was not her specialty. Then he nominated her for attorney general of Montana. They each left their spouses in March and April of 2008 and later moved in together.

Sen. Baucus, who is leading bipartisan negotiations on health care legislation, said he would include in his bill a proposal by the Obama administration to bar illegal immigrants from buying health coverage through a new insurance marketplace, or exchange, even if the illegal immigrants were willing and able to pay the full cost. Hospitals would still be required to provide emergency treatment to illegal immigrants and that the federal government would continue to reimburse hospitals for unpaid bills, a cost that now runs $250 million a year. Does that make any sense? It does to career pols that have had NO private sector experience where there are personal consequences to an individual’s ideas and actions; professional pols are insulated from the results of what they do. Maybe Sen. Max was drunk that day as he was on this day slurring on the floor of the Senate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Y9X5ggxzA

We need to go back to a citizen-legislature! Please support Sen. DeMint’s proposed amendment by signing the petition for term limits on congress at www.termlimits.org

At The Trough since 1955!

John Dingell is 83 and has been in congress since 1955, longer than anyone currently in the House. He is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where some of the biggest legislative battles get started. From deregulating the telecommunications industry, to relaxing promotional standards for drug companies, to changing the nation's health care laws, this committee's members are often the subjects of intense industry lobbying to ensure committee members of continued strong financial support from some of the country's most powerful companies making this committee among the most desirable in Congress. His two largest individual contributors are the IBEW union and Comcast. Money is no problem for Dingell. As an entrenched career pol he has little or no opposition so he could stay in his seat as long as he lives. In his last five elections he raised about $10 million from lobbies of industries he regulates while his erstwhile opponents raised a total of $19,870. Guess why over 95% of incumbents get reelected.

What qualified John Dingell to be a congressman? He succeeded his father who was in congress. As with all of our other poster children so far he had no private sector experience. Yet, these are the people who regulate every facet of American life. John David Dingell, Jr. attended Capitol Page School, Washington, D.C., and Georgetown Preparatory School, Garrett Park, MD. He was given the job as a page in the House of Representatives, 1938-1943, went into the Army for 2 years and then got a law degree at Georgetown University. As a lawyer, he worked for US Circuit Judge Theodore Levin, 1952-1953.

While not an argument for term limits these votes are just to give an idea of where this poster boy stands on some issues. Not a big fan of Israel, in January 2009 he voted “present” on H. Res. 34 that recognized Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza and reaffirmed the United States’ strong support for Israel. He also voted in July 2006 against H RES 921: Condemning the Recent Attacks Against the State of Israel, Holding Terrorists and Their State-Sponsors Accountable for Such Attacks, Supporting Israel’s Right to Defend Itself. Another anti-Israel vote was a NO vote in December 2005 on H RES 575: Providing That Hamas and Other Terrorist Organizations Should Not Participate in Elections Held by the Palestinian Authority.

Of the few times he voted against his party line one was in May 2007 to fund the Iraq war without setting a withdrawal date (HR 2206). Just this month he voted NO to H Res. 915: Encouraging the Republic of Hungary to Respect the Rule of Law, Treat Foreign Investors Fairly, and Promote a Free and Independent Press. The Dems were mostly on the other side of the anti-Israel votes as well as these two votes but according to Open Congress he votes 98% of the time with his party.

Long an advocate of socialized medicine, Dingell's quest for government-run universal health care began in 1932, when his father, John Dingell Sr., was first elected to the House. The elder Dingell was one of the architects of the New Deal. "If you look at the picture of Roosevelt signing Social Security, you'll see a little skinny Pollack with a big broken nose and a mustache standing in back of him — that was my dad," Dingell said in an interview in his office on Capitol Hill last month. "And he was very, very proud of that." They both supported Medicare legislation and now the House version of the FedGov takeover of the country’s healthcare industry will bear the Dingell name as Lead Sponsor.

Dingell: "Nobody is going to be happy with this.” And he is so right. While the Dems are happy to pass this with their current one-party control of FedGov, many are unhappy with several provisions and most Repubs would like to see serious reforms as tort restraint, elimination of coverage mandates and allowing for competition of insurance companies in interstate commerce. This takeover of yet another industry by FedGov looks more like a grab for the enormous power it gives them over the people by making everyone dependent on them for health care. The Repubs, many of whom are for some real health care reform legislation, see only the downside of the “death panels,” rationing of care, greatly increased costs, stifling of innovation, higher taxes, loss of jobs and other economic effects as experienced in other countries as Canada and the UK. So, when it passed the Senate last week the 28-term congressman stood on crutches in the Senate halls and told reporters that lawmakers will have to accept a lot of what they don’t like in order for the bill to become law, no one disagreed with him.

In August at a town hall meeting of constituents Dingell was met by angry protests over health care legislation, spending and taxes. He told journalists, "The last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around." Yeah, sure. The non-partisan National Taxpayers Union rates him “F” denoting him as a “Big Spender” and that was really the thrust of the Town Halls and TEA Party protests. Another poster boy, Harry Reid, took a cue from Dingell and on the floor of the Senate cried about slavery having something to do with opposition to the health care takeover. The contempt these entrenched pols have for their constituents is boundless.

Another one of his ideas that didn’t please anyone was a bill to strip away the mortgage tax deduction on homes over 3000 sq. ft. He calls them “McMansions.” His motivation is perceived by some as envy-driven but it is of a piece with his socialistic inclinations. He was also on the losing side on congress-mandated fuel standards for cars that he knew would hurt the auto industry in Michigan. Which it did, of course. But at least on this one issue he took the side of the free market.

Isn’t it obvious that we need fresh blood in our national legislature? Sen. Jim DeMint has proposed a constitutional amendment that would limit terms of the US Congress. The time has come to get our country back to representative government by citizen legislators with real life experience. We must rid the FedGov of “the scourge of the 20th century –the professional politician,” as Paul Johnson has written in Modern Times. It is infinitely worse in the 21st century. You can help by signing the petiton at www.termlimits.org

Steadfast and Loyal --To ACORN* but not to his oath of office

(updated 5/12/2014)  CAGW reacted with derision at statements made by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on April 15, in which he opened the door to the resurrection of congressional earmarking. Sen. Durbin’s comments are the latest in a disturbing trend among members of Congress from both sides of the Capitol and both sides of the aisle. The congressional earmark moratorium has been in place since 2010, and the House of Representatives and Senate have both claimed all legislation since then has been earmark-free. However, CAGW’s 2014 Congressional Pig Book, to be released on May 7, will show otherwise. “Just like the Easter Bunny, Sen. Durbin wants members of Congress to again hide pork-barrel goodies under every legislative shrub they can find,” commented CAGW President Tom Schatz. “If earmarks are revived in Congress, it will be a sad commentary on the moral compass of the institution.” Read more about the corrosive budgetary impact of earmarks.

(updated to report the term limit vote on 2/2/12) This poster boy for term limits, Illinois Senator Richard “Dick” Durbin, got his law degree in 1969 after already being an intern in the office of then Sen. Paul Douglas for a year. He immediately became counsel to Lt. Gov. Paul Simon until 1972 when he became legal counsel to the Illinois State Judiciary Committee. He ran for Lt. Gov. in 1978 and then was an associate professor for a few years all the while a delegate to the National Democrat party conventions before being elected to the US Congress in 1983 where he has been ever since. He is now in his third term in the Senate and is the Party Whip.

In other words: All politics all the time, just as our other Poster Boys and Girls.

The lack of real-life productive private sector experience is common among career politicians and probably explains the failure of most of their programs to reach their stated goals – and always at enormously higher costs than projected. Ironically, the longer they are in office, the more faith and confidence they seem to have in their ability to plan and execute new programs.

So, no surprise that he voted on 2/5/12 AGAINST the term limit amendment even though he knows full well that his constituents ovewhelmingly support them. See how your Senator voted: http://senateconservatives.com/site/votes/112/2/11?c=5R4F2B4F9B3A137 hint: All Democrats but Joe Manchin of WV voted AGAINST the reform amendment.

Also, because liberals embrace government for ideological reasons as well, it is not surprising that so many of our poster children are liberals. Sen. Durbin's record is a case in point:

* Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating an anti-life, pro abortion voting record.
* Rated 4% from Citizens Against Government Waste for being wasteful with tax money.
* Rated 0% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record.
* Rated F by the NRA, indicating an anti-2nd Amendment Rights voting record.
* Rated 85% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record.
* Rated 14% by the non-partisan national Taxpayers Union (www.NTU.org) indicating a "Big Spender" on tax votes.

Whether you consider yourself as leaning to the left or right of the political spectrum, you may be appalled by Durbin’s animosity towards those who defend us with their lives. Durbin called our soldiers in Iraq “Nazis.” He made a statement in 2005 morally equating U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (zero killed) with prisoner treatment by Pol Pot (200,000 killed).

After all of the evidence of election fraud by ACORN, Dick Durbin was one of seven Democrats that voted to continue funding it. He was well aware that The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And recently it was exposed for being willing to finance underage prostitutes, as well. No problem – give them taxpayer money as all of their voter registration fraud efforts are on behalf of Durbin and his party. See: ACORN: A Criminal Enterprise Run Amok www.getliberty.org/files/ACORNExecSummary.pdf

Durbin went to Catholic grade school and calls himself Catholic yet is aggressively pro-abortion even voting against a ban on partial-birth abortion. In January 2006 he said that “I’ve stood for election more than 12 times in the House and Senate, general and primary, stating my position as pro-choice.” This was at the hearings on Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He was trying to get Judge Alito to say he converted to pro-abortion, too. And just last week he voted for the confirmation of David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is the District Court Judge who has ruled to suppress religious freedom, protect child predators, and rule leniently against career criminals. Judge Hamilton has ruled that prayers to Jesus Christ offered at the beginning of legislative sessions violate the Constitution, but that prayers to Allah do not. Hamilton worked for the ACLU and as a fund-raiser for ACORN. When originally nominated to the U.S. District Court by President Clinton, Hamilton was rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association. What in Dick Durbin’s eyes qualifies this judge now for this high position? His connection to ACORN? update on ACORN, *click here One Bite at a Time

On spending and the economy, on education, he is all for FedGov being the major force regardless of Constitutional restrictions. He is for more government controls regarding the environment and energy production. He’d like to give the District of Columbia a seat in Congress. He voted yes on another congressional pay raise in the midst of this recession and to approve more gifts from lobbyists. Durbin is against requiring photo ID for voting. (Hmmmm that sounds like something to make ACORN’s job easier.)

Durbin voted against the Iraq war and against the Patriot Act’s provisions for wiretaps on foreign calls. He is for U.S. Constitutional rights for Guantanamo detainees. Other positions: For taxpayer funding for the “sanctuary cities” to protect illegal immigrants; for welfare and Social Security benefits for illegals; against the border fence; Against English as the official language of the US. Against more visas for skilled workers who, after obtaining advanced degrees at US universities, have to leave the country – we can always outsource to their scarce skills, I guess. Durbin is against the death penalty and three strikes mandatory sentences for repeat offenders.

He always votes against any limits on the national debt, he’s against personal retirement accounts like the Roth IRA and against a lock box or reserve for Social Security funds. You get the idea. So, if you like Statism, you’ll love Durbin.

Because professional politicians generally believe in the State as the ultimate authority as that gives them more power, they tend to dominate in our government. Challengers have so little chance of defeating an incumbent because of the overwhelming advantages of office – 95% are reelected, most without any meaningful opposition—so the statist-types gain control over us. And that is where we are today without checks and balances, without respect for the limitations of our Constitution. Tenure corrupts and we are up to our eyes in corruption because we have no limits on professional politicians.

There is hope: Sen. Jim DeMint has formally proposed a Constitutional Amendment, which is cosponsored by Senators Tom Coburn, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Sam Brownback, that would limit U.S. Representatives to three, two-year terms, and Senators to two, six-year terms.

Said DeMint, "Term limits will increase legislative turnover, expand the field of candidates who run for office, and instill transparency and accountability in our public officials," and “the power of incumbency had created an almost insurmountable advantage for Washington politicians." You can help by signing the petition in support at www.termlimits.org