A majority thinks that it is time for Congressional term limits

August 5, 2025

It isn’t a new thing, but there is a lot of talk about term limits for members of Congress. The topic of term limits for federal office holders has been around since our nation was founded. In fact, the first controlling document, the Articles of Confederation, did address term limits for Congress.

However, the Founders decided during the Constitutional Convention not to include that in the Constitution.

Back in the early days, Congress was not looked at as, and was not supposed to be, a career. You were elected, you served a while, and then went back to your previous non-congressional job. There were definitely fewer, or perhaps no, 20-year or more congressional members in the early decades.

Currently, despite several attempts through the years to impose term limits via a constitutional amendment, the efforts were never popular enough to generate the two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress to produce an amendment.

Some states have tried to put term limits on their Representatives and Senators, but the courts have struck down all of those efforts. And, the Supreme Court has ruled that only a constitutional amendment can put term limits in place.

Currently, a majority of Americans do favor term limits for members of Congress, according to polls. The U.S. Term Limits (USTL) website notes the following: “Term Limits is known as the largest grassroots movement in American history, and US Term Limits was, and still is, the leader of that movement.”

Three reasons are often cited favoring term limits:
* Term limits could lead to more frequent changes in congressional personnel, and this could bring new and different ideas.
* As their time in Congress increases, some members lose their focus, become comfortable, and do not respond well to constituents.
* Over time, some members may also develop relationships with special interests and lobbyists, and this may change what they think is important.

Another element that has people favoring term limits is the number of members who have become much wealthier during their time in Congress. This includes members from both major parties, and others, as well.

And, of course, there are reasons cited for not imposing term limits. One is that over time, members gain valuable experience and institutional knowledge. Another is that rookie members may be more susceptible to lobbying and special interest efforts. The experience that members gain over time enables them to deal more effectively with passing complicated legislation, and if there is a large number of newer members, that could be a problem.

Then there is the question of what limits should be imposed. The USTL website provides this idea: “Currently, Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas are sponsoring the USTL amendment on Capitol Hill. It calls for a three-term (six year) limit on representatives and a two-term (12 year) limit on senators.” 

This might be the best solution, but some problems could result from it. First, House members can only serve half as many years as those in the Senate. And, if a person is elected to the House and serves two terms, or four years, can that person then run for one or two six-year terms in the Senate? 

Or, the other side: A one-term senator decides to leave and run for the House. Would he or she be eligible for any House terms?

Perhaps a better system would be a limit for the same number of years for all those who serve in Congress, regardless of whether they serve in one house, or both of them. Maybe a total of 12 years in one or both. Or perhaps 12 years is too long. Then, adjust the Senate term to four years, and make eight years the limit.

There is the question of whether current members of Congress will vote to approve an amendment to the Constitution that will limit their length of service.

However, even if members of Congress refuse to pass term limits on themselves, there is another method for getting the job done. A Term Limits Convention can be called to write and pass a constitutional amendment. This process bypasses the Washington roadblock, and allows we the people, and the states, to impose congressional term limits.

To call the Term Limits Convention, the state legislatures in 34 of the 50 states will have to vote for it. That could be difficult, however, given the strong feeling for term limits among the people, it will likely be less difficult than getting both houses of Congress to agree.

There are undoubtedly some or many members of Congress who have served many years and done the job as expected. Maybe one of them is your Representative or Senator. But again, Congress is not supposed to be a career.

One of the nation’s major problems today is that over the decades since its formation, some of the original ideals that made the United States of America a one-of-a-kind nation with a superior system of government have gradually been forgotten, changed, or replaced. Moving back to the way Congress was originally designed to work will be a beneficial step toward restoring the original design.

The Democrat’s criticism of detention facility is no surprise

July 22, 2025

The Trump administration and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have opened a facility in Florida to hold illegal aliens, most of whom are convicted of, or charged with, crimes, until they are deported from the United States. Democrat critics, as usual, make charges that are exaggerated, not true, or inciteful.

Florida Democrat Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz described the facility as an "internment camp," with detainees housed in "cages,” using combined toilet-sink units for drinking water and brushing their teeth, a shower facility lacking privacy, an internal temperature of 83 degrees, and having to eat a meager lunch of a small turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple, and chips. 

Alligator Alcatraz is a prison, a detention facility, not a 5-star hotel. While these law breakers will not have gourmet food and lush accommodations, they will have an air-conditioned place to sleep, meals and bathroom facilities, until their deportation.

Further, Alligator Alcatraz is actually not a facility in which inmates sleep with and try to avoid alligators, as the leftist critics would have you believe. It is a place where inmates will be protected from and not be threatened by alligators, so long as they do not try and succeed in escaping the facility and then having to cross the Everglades swamplands on foot.

The game plan of Democrats and other critics of the Trump administration’s efforts to restore order and legal behavior to immigration is to exaggerate the situation, and even to outright lie to make the situation for the illegal aliens look far worse that it is.

The detention center got its name due to being in the heart of the Everglades, in which reptiles such as alligators and pythons reside. Gov. DeSantis authorized the construction of the center on a 30-square-mile property in Miami–Dade County under an emergency order in June. 

Another critic of the detention center is Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. In a news release last month, she commented, "This proposed detention center isn’t just cruel, it’s environmentally catastrophic. This facility would desecrate ecologically critical wetlands, trample on Tribal sovereignty, and transform one of the world’s most cherished ecosystems into a prison camp for political gain."

However, the center is not located on a large expanse of nature. It is located on a recently available part of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport that has been transformed to house 5,000 illegal immigrants in sturdy tent structures. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem remarked that the facility's remote location adds an extra layer of security protection, while noting that the detention center is air-conditioned. 

Providing information on exactly who the inmates of the facility are, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, commented that "This group of murderers, rapists, and gang members are just a small sample of the deranged psychopaths that Florida is helping President Trump and his administration remove from our country."

Some of those facing deportation are:

* Lazaro Rodriguez Santana, a Cuban national, was convicted in Texas of sexual assault and failure to register as a sex offender. 
* Honduran national Jose Fortin, convicted of second-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, Florida. 
* Oscar "Satan" Sanchez of Honduras, an alleged MS-13 gang member charged with resisting arrest, conspiracy to commit murder and assault in New York, as well as RICO offenses.
* Venezuelan national Wilfredo Alberto Lazama-Garcia, wanted for murder and aggravated robbery in the South American country. In the United States, he was convicted of conspiracy "to defraud the U.S. government in Oklahoma." 
* Eddy Lopez Jemot of Cuba, convicted of murder, arson, and assault. He was arrested for "cutting the throat of an elderly woman" in Key Largo, Florida, and then lit her residence on fire with hopes of hiding the evidence. Later that night, he allegedly "threatened to kill" another woman via beheading.

Many people wonder why the left works so hard to defend those who entered their country illegally, and many of whom commit vicious crimes.

Author and radio host Jason Rantz offers this explanation: “Somehow, in the warped world of progressive politics, removing predators from our communities is deemed ‘controversial.’ Arresting child rapists, gang members, and drug traffickers has become a rallying cry for Democrats who insist these deportations violate ‘human rights.’ You’d think protecting law-abiding families — immigrants and citizens alike — would be common sense. But not when the Democrats get involved.”

The ridiculous and dangerous practice of the Biden administration to essentially have opened the border to all, regardless of who they were and why they wanted in, is what got us to this place. No sensible person serving as President of the United States would merely shrug their shoulders and allow the 20 million illegals that are still here to roam the country and do as they please. 

Despite all of the good reasons for ICE and CBP to find and deport these people, hundreds or thousands — some politically motivated, others who have fallen victim to the hyperbolic rhetoric — protest against these actions, go so far off course as to interfere with law enforcement, and even stoop to physically attack them.

While America defends the right to hold any idea, these ideas and actions are un-American, and some are criminal.

Democrats missing the boat on immigration and the economy

July 29, 2025

Millions of illegal aliens crossed into the United States over the four years of the Biden-Harris administration. They settled in blue cities and states, for the most part. This was because the blue cities and states welcomed them.

Why would those living in, and running blue cities and states want illegal aliens in large numbers living among their citizens, given the costs of feeding and housing them, and the other problems that they bring with them, like murders, rapes, robberies, etc.?

One explanation is that the basis for how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, and votes in the Electoral College depends upon how many people — not just citizens, but all people, including illegals and other non-citizens — reside in a state. Illegal aliens help gain additional representatives and electoral votes.

Many on the left will laugh at that assertion, claim it is some sort of MAGA tactic, or just right-wing misinformation. But there are at least a few Congressional Democrats who support this idea.

Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York is one. She admitted in comments over the last few years that she wants immigrants to enter the United States to help Democrats with redistricting.

The original comments from Clarke came in 2021 during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, and again in a 2024 post on X. Back in 2021, she fussed at Republicans who opposed Haitian migrants.

“I’m from Brooklyn, New York,” she said during the hearing. “We have a diaspora that, that can absorb a significant number of these migrants and that, you know, when I hear colleagues talk about, you know, the, the, the doors of the inn being closed [and] no room in the inn, I, I’m saying, you know, I, I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes.”

Now that we have Donald Trump in the White House, many of the illegals are being caught and deported, and others are self-deporting. Also, the blue states, especially New York and California, are having problems and are losing businesses and residents.

Beginning back during the COVID-19 pandemic, progressively strong states have been seeing a heavy exodus of citizens leaving due to high crime rates, heavy taxes, and government overreach.

Looking for safer streets, economic and personal freedom, thousands are heading for better places like Florida, Texas and Tennessee. These states are projecting gains in congressional seats, with Texas expecting to gain three, and Florida looking for at least two.

This heavy exodus of citizens to red states has caught the attention of at least one blue state governor: California’s Gavin Newsom. He is threatening to call a special legislative session in an emergency effort to redraw district lines. California Republicans now hold only nine House seats, and Newsom hopes to replace between two and five of them with Democrats.

This process is customarily done once every decade. Whether Newsom’s effort to gerrymander more Democrat representatives, if it comes to pass, would be legal or not remains to be determined. It seems that some Democrats have no limits on how far they will go to stop Donald Trump.

It must be noted, however, that red state Texas is considering the same thing to build its Republican majority.

While the left wants to encourage illegal entry to the country and to their states to help them get and hold a majority in the House of Representatives and in Electoral voting, they still do not understand about taxation and prosperity. 

They want to punish the wealthy with absurdly high tax rates, never understanding that high tax rates are harmful to the economy, not just the wealthy.

Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts support a return to 50%, 60% and even 70% tax rates. The left believes that lowering tax rates is just a method to benefit the rich, who they maintain do not pay “their fair share.”

However, why would it ever be fair or even sensible to collect half, or up to 70% of what someone — anyone — earned?

Economist Stephen Moore suggests that those Democrats and others who believe in this plan would be well served to read Arthur Laffer’s latest book, titled, “Taxes Have Consequences.” Laffer, known for the Laffer Curve, and his co-authors show that over the last 100 years, every time tax rates have been cut, three good things have happened: 

* Tax revenues have risen.

* The economy has improved.

* The rich have paid a higher share of the tax burden.

Think about it: If we have a smaller, less costly government that is efficient and restricted to constitutional functions, we will need less tax income to pay the bills. And, people will be able to keep more of what they earn, and use that money to buy the things they need and want. 

The more American citizens — both rich and not rich — spend their hard-earned money on the things they want to purchase is a true benefit to the economy. That will help increase businesses and a growing business sector means more jobs and generally better pay.

The Democratic Party today is much different than in the past

July 15, 2025

Those who are old enough to remember the 1970s and 1980s no doubt realize that today’s Democratic Party has only one thing in common with the Party of those days. That one thing is its name.

The way Democrats thought and functioned back then was much different, and much better. Democrats did have their own ideas about things, but they were not nearly so different from Republicans. Both parties generally held “American” ideals, but had some differences in how they should be sustained.

There was a much broader acceptance of values such as faith, individual rights and freedom, and a smaller, less intrusive government. There wasn’t the heavy focus on ideological issues and how we should view the way our country is being operated. That was due to the fact that the two parties were very close in their idea of what America was and should be. 

If people had different ideas, they weren’t attacked for them, and no set of ideas carried with it a strong effort to “encourage” those with different ideas to accept them.

Today, there is a vast gulf between the ideas of Republicans and Democrats. Even the way each group is referred to is different. Democrats are often referred to as liberals, progressives or socialists. Republicans are often referred to conservatives, MAGA radicals, or Nazis, and such.

But when you look at the fundamentals of each party, the Republicans are the ones whose ideas are by far most like the original founding principles.

Many Democrats support our previously open border, and defend and protect the illegal aliens who entered the country the wrong way. Republicans, however, are working hard to remove these illegals, many of whom are killers, drug or child traffickers, rapists, terrorists and others of ill will.

It is those on the left who deliberately interfere with ICE and CBP agents trying to do their job to protect the people. They attack the agents, throw rocks at them in their vehicles, identify them and threaten them and their families.

President Donald Trump is under heavy leftist criticism for his actions, such as executive orders, deporting illegals, military actions without prior Congressional approval, et al. But those critics on the left either don’t know history, or don’t care, as long as they can use falsehoods to make Trump look bad. The truth is that other presidents — Barack Obama, notably — have done these same things, and been praised for it.

People representing the liberal left in government are pushing further left than ever before, even getting others on the left to criticize them.

A poll in May and June conducted by Unite the Country, a Democrat super PAC, showed that voters perceived the party as “out of touch,” “woke” and “weak.”

This is reflected in persons in positions of prominence on the political left.

The newly elected Democrat nominee for mayor of New York City, “proud socialist” Zohran Mamdani, has been characterized as a communist for his extreme views, past and present.

His anti-America positions include setting up city-run grocery stores, massive tax increases on the wealthy, engaging in anti-police rhetoric and railing against Israel in refusing to denounce the phrase “Globalize the intifada.” 

California Governor Gavin Newsome has essentially ruined his state by imposing foolish leftist policies that have driven businesses and residents out of the state.

A while back, now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson got a great deal of attention in her confirmation hearing. When asked to define a “woman,” Jackson responded that she couldn't provide a definition, citing her non-biologist background.

In the vote for her confirmation, some Republicans cited that she dodged the question on whether she favors court packing, has a soft-on-crime sentencing record, and danced around explaining her judicial philosophy.

As a practicing Justice, she has come under criticism from some of her court peers for her apparent lack of understanding of how things work.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a judicial conservative, commented on a dissent she had made. Barrett wrote that Jackson's opinion "is at odds with more than two centuries' worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself." "We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary."

And Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of Jackson’s liberal judicial colleagues, noted that the points she made in a dissent addressed a topic which was not before the court.

Democrats and other leftists demonstrate daily that the direction of their ideas and policies is clearly at odds with the established values of the Founders of the United States of America. They don’t want to make the United States better, they want to fundamentally transform the country.

A good explanation of what the liberal-left is working for comes to us from the great Thomas Sowell, who said: “At the heart of the liberal-left vision is the idea that the self-anointed saviors should be telling the rest of us, through the power of government, what we ought to do, what we can do and what we cannot do. They will define for us what is good and what is bad, remaking us in their image.”

This is not what our Founders envisioned, and not what is good for America.