The line promises made, promises kept is already taken but in the early going Florida’s junior Senator Rick Scott is following through on the first step of a campaign promise. In the midst of the partial government shutdown, Senator Scott has joined with Texas Senator Ted Cruz to propose one of the most widely supported measures nationally. Term limits.
Nationally term-limits poll at around 80% support. It’s about as non-partisan of an issue as there is in this country among voters. The challenge, of course, is who has to make it happen. As the bill was brought before the Senate here’s what Rick had to say:
“I spent a career in business and one thing is clear: career politicians are never going to change Washington; that’s evident now more than ever. I’m proud to be working to implement term limits for all members of Congress to make sure elected officials work for Americans, not for themselves. The only people who don’t understand why we need term limits are in Washington, D.C. but I wasn’t elected to represent them. I was elected to represent Florida families.
Washington is much more than broken. The current shutdown is just the latest example, but certainly not the only one. We need to dramatically reinvent and reimagine government and term limits is the first step. Over the next few months, I will be fighting for legislation to reform government and Make Washington Work for the American people, not the politicians.”
The proposed bill would enact term limits of two terms for US Senators and three terms for US Representatives. This is where the cynical come out and say yeah, but it’ll never happen. All I know is that to those people, thank God you weren’t fighting the Revolution for this country. Surely those odds were longer and more treacherous than compelling our elected officials to do something that more than eight in ten Americans want to see happen.
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