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Show Limit Congressional terms to check power abuses By U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen What this Congress needs is a group of Kamikaze pilots who are willing to put their political careers on the line to : do what is right for this nation. However, instead of Kamikaze pilots, this Congress is full of pilots who land softly on the deck of the Congressional ' aircraft carrier and walk quietly to the captain's quarters for a sociable wine and cheese hour. After one and a half years in Congress, Con-gress, it has become clear to me that the secret to staying in power on Capitol Hill can be found in three words don't offend anyone. The following is the advice ad-vice I get from many of my colleagues : Don't ruffle feathers. Don't buck the seniority system. Don't say no to too many special interest groups. Tell people peo-ple what they want to hear. Unfortunately, in their preoccupation with staying in power, many Representatives Represen-tatives cannot muster the courage to say no to the enticing propositions of powerful special interest groups. Congress has its political ear so close to the ground that it is blind to the future needs of this nation. The primary goal of some in Congress who are career politicians is getting reelected and increasing their political power. I have observed that when a Member of Congress has been in office a certain length of time, he begins to build his own little bureaucracy or empire made up of special interest groups in and out of government. The result is a Representative who becomes concerned concern-ed mainly with preserving his empire, and he eventually loses touch with the needs of his District and his country. While drafting the U.S. Constitution, our Founding Fathers recognized the corrosive effects of unrestrained power. They, therefore, placed checks and balances in the Constitution to protect pro-tect against the centralization and abuse of power. Regarding the abuse of power, Thomas Jefferson said, "The principles of our Constitution. ..are wisely opposed to all perpetuation of power, and to every practice which may lead to hereditary establishments." Had the founders foreseen how the Congress of the past 30 years had abused abus-ed their spending and taxing powers, I am certain they would have added a provision to the Constitution to limit the terms of Representatives and Senators. Therefore, I have cosponsored legislation legisla-tion calling for a Constitutional amendment amend-ment to limit Congressional terms. Under the resolutions that I have cosponsored, the Constitution would be amended to limit Representatives and Senators to 12 years of service. I would . personally support limited sen the House to 8 years. I believe we would all benefit fro system where citizens would sen government briefly, bringing U varied experiences to bear on the i rent problems, and then wouldretu live with the consequences they made. Congress has abused its power in the Constitution, and, as a result, weakened this nation's political economic freedoms. I believe Irs Constitutional amendment to limi'1 gressional terms will help checi past abuses of power by Congress- |