Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), introduced a proposed amendment Tuesday to enforce term limits for members of Congress.
Co-sponsored by Rep. Ron DeSantis, (R-Florida), the bill would restrict senators to two six-year terms, and members of the House to three two-year terms.
Cruz told WMAL’s The Larry O’Connor Show that the framers of the Constitution never intended for politicians to remain in Washington for a majority of their careers.
“The framers of the Constitution, the authors of The Federalist Papers, envisioned citizen legislators- envisioned men and women who would take time from their businesses, from their farms, come to Washington, serve for a period of time in their nation’s government, and then leave and then return to be among the people,” Cruz said.
Instead, Cruz said, we have politicians who don’t leave their posts and it’s harming our government.
“We have right now career politicians in both parties that come to Washington and stay here for decades and decades and decades,” Cruz said. “They get entrenched in power, they become captive to the special interests, and the power of incumbency is such that many of them can get elected as long as they like. That is much of what is contributing to the explosion of government spending, to the explosion of debt.”
Cruz said he thinks limiting terms is the reform that America needs to end corruption in government.
“Something like 80 percent of the American people support term limits as a way to limit the corruption, to break through the bipartisan corruption in Washington so that you come, serve a period of time, and then go home,” Cruz said. “That is one of the major structural reforms that I think we need to actually really solve the problems in this country, and as President-elect Trump puts it, to drain the swamp.”
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