Punt, Pass and Term Limits

Currently we have people in government that are more interested in protecting their job security than they are in making the tough choices. Having people serving thirty or more years may help congressmen bring in the bacon to their own districts, but it certainly doesn’t do the country on a whole any good.

Let’s just imagine what it would be like if our elected officials actually made the hard choices. Social Security and Medicare wouldn’t be on the verge of insolvency, we would have laws in place in regards to enemy combatants, and our borders would be more strongly protected.

Social security has been in trouble for decades. Yet, the problem goes unsolved. It has been described as the third rail of politics. No one will touch it for fear of a political death. We need to make the tough choices of raising the retirement age or lowering the payments that people will receive. Neither of these is popular so they are left undone.

Medicare is just as broken. On the verge of going broke it is another third rail. We keep hearing from the administration this is one reason our country needs socialized medicine. One of the reasons that medical costs keep skyrocketing is the fraud in the Medicare systems. Another problem with Medicare is the payment systems that promote medical professionals to do more tests. They get paid by the tests they perform instead of the health and wellness of a particular patient. But the tough choices are not being made. They want to overhaul the entire system before fixing this one.

Another unpopular topic is enemy combatants. This is especially true on the left side of the spectrum. Conservatives and republicans tend to believe in a strong national defense so they are more willing to address this contentious issue. The democrats have a much harder sell with the far left of their party. Many of the fringes of the far left would be happy to read them Miranda rights and try them in open court and let the intelligence breaches be dammed. We are almost 10 years out since 9/11. It is malpractice against the American people that we do not have clear laws stating what is to be done with terrorists picked up on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is just easier to keep blaming the Bush administration. The mistakes made by the Bush administration are no excuse for not doing anything.

The protection of our borders is another highly contentious topic. Again, almost 10 years has passed since 9/11 and our borders are barely more protected than they were on 9/10. The leaders in our government are more worried about being called racists than they are at fixing the problem. Our borders could be protected, if we had leaders that had the political will to do so.

If we had term limits on all elected positions many of these problems would actually get solved. Making the hard choices would not be a one way ticket to the unemployment line. It may actually help keep that particular seat within the same party. Right now, we have career politicians that will say and do anything to stay in power. President Obama still sometimes sounds like he is on the campaign trail. He seems already geared up for the re-election process that is more than three years away. Once a second term for a President begins they actually start worrying about legacy issues.

The American people need to stand up and demand that we get term limits. It won’t be easy to get it done, but it will be worth it in the end. We finally will get something done rather than punting, passing and kicking the ball down the field. Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change?