The only way we could get term limits for members of Congress is through a Constitutional Convention (ConCon). IMO, there is no way Congress would pass and send to the states for ratification, an amendment to the Constitution to limit their own terms of service.
Many have considered a ConCon a wild card, with wide open, and therefore very dangerous possibilities. I tend not to see it that way. Whatever comes out of the ConCon would then have to be ratified by ¾ of the states, so wild crap, like an equal rights amendment, which failed last time, probably would fail this time too. So far I believe about 32 states have passed resolutions calling for a ConCon. 34 states are required. The convention would be open to anything. The last time we had one, in 1787, they were convened to fix the Articles of Confederation, but apparently they considered that a hopeless cause and scrapped it entirely and wrote a new Constitution.
Payback from the hoi polloi for the last time they got dissed by Congress (Jim Wright’s middle of the night pay raise) was Article XXVII, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” It had originally been proposed in 1789 with the other 11 amendments of what became the Bill of Rights. It was approved in 1992 after Jim Wright angered enough people. Jim Wright was small ball compared to the number of people upset about Obamacare. Over the years there have been calls for a Constitutional Convention, but they haven’t gotten enough states to approve resolutions to call one, but they are very close. They only need a couple of more and then it is on. I think this probably won’t happen while people see what happens in the next presidential election. If O’Bummer is seen to steal the election like Ahmadinejad did in Iran, then it could produce a ConCon; it could be very colorful. There have already been books written about it.
Here is my list of tops to consider for amendment into the Constitution:
1. Term limits for members of Congress, both House and Senate. How about 3 terms max for Congressmen and 2 for Senators?
2. Renewable terms for judges and justices (10 yrs?) No more lifetime appointments. California has this. Rose Bird lost her election as chief justice of the California Supreme Court after managing to come up with reasons to commute the death sentences of over 50 convicted murderers. She took down three more justices with her.
3. Kill the bill. Whatever is necessary to kill Obamacare and prevent it in the future.
4. Modify Article XIV and allow people born in the US to be automatic citizens only if mom is here legally. No anchor babies! This may not require an amendment, just a clarification.
5. Reign in the Commerce Clause
In addition, I suspect people would propose:
6. Right to Life Amendment restricting abortion
7. Balanced budget amendment. The likely result would be never again to cut taxes.
8. Repeal Article XVI, the income tax and put a limit on types and quantities of taxes (No Value Added Tax (VAT) perhaps?)
9. Repeal Article XVII, statewide general election of senators.
10. Repeal Article XXVI, giving the vote to 18 yr. old citizens. Take it back to 21.
You can see where this is going. It would be open to anything that could garner a 2/3 vote in the convention and a ¾ vote in state legislatures, which is why the ConCon has always been considered so dangerous, but we may be at a tipping point: a ConCon may be necessary to prevent the country from being hijacked by the Marxists and lost forever.
