The Federal Government receives its authority and power from the Constitution. The Constitution in turn was ratified by the states to form the UNITED States of America. Therefore, it is the agreement by the states to delegate some of their authority, which forms the federal government. The federal government is not superior, but rather subordinate to the states. This fundamental principle of our nation has been damaged in recent decades. The trend however, seems to be reversing. More and more states are beginning to reassert their sovereignty and their right to increased freedom. Of course, this is being received by the federal government as a threat to its power and authority. The federal government will not readily surrender its influence and control. Still, this must not discourage state lawmakers, governors and citizens from exercising their rights provided by the U.S. Constitution. As your representative I would support the following actions to limit the influence and power of the federal government.

1. I will sponsor and support legislation that places term limits on both the U.S House of Representatives and the U.S Senate. Currently there are no term limits for persons serving in the U.S. House and Senate. Some may even argue that we do not need specified term limits for federal elected officials since they could simply be voted out of office at the next election. On the other hand, consider that since the 1964 U.S. Representatives have been reelected 93% of the time. Over the same period U.S. Senators have been reelected 82% of the time.¹ These reelection rates are extremely high considering that the approval rate of Congress is less than 20%.²

   Why then do these same people keep getting reelected? The main factor is money. In 2006 U.S. Representative Incumbents raised an average of $1,270,855 for reelection, while their opponents raised 70% less, or $283,075. The story is similar for U.S. Senators where incumbents raised an average of 11,317,025 for reelection while their opponents raised an average of $1,814,844.³ This disparity on money raised and spent all but ensures that the people in power by in large remain in power. If we want to change what is coming out of Washington DC we need to change what is going in. We cannot keep sending career minded politicians to represent us if we expect them to have our best interests in mind. One way we can do this is to limit the terms someone can serve.

2. I will sponsor and support legislation that prevents persons currently holding a public office from seeking another public office until after they have completed their current appointment.

   Instituting term limits will be a good first step towards eliminating the sense of privilege and superiority that exists among federal officials, but it is only a first step. I believe we need to go further. Term limits alone will not be enough. Politicians are crafty, and they will certainly behave the way Louisiana State Senators and Representatives did after we imposed term limits here in the State of Louisiana. They will simply switch from the House to the Senate or vice versa once they reach their designated term limit. Therefore, I believe we need to create a provision to prevent politicians from moving from one office to another without first returning to the private sector for a specified period of time.

   "...the elected might never form to themselves an interest separate from the electors, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often; because as the elected might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the electors..."- Thomas Paine

   Thomas Paine understood that politicians should not be allowed to develop and seek interests that are separate from the people they represent. However, this is exactly what has taken place in Congress where career politicians have created retirement plans, healthcare and other benefits for themselves, but not for the people they represent. This is also evident when it comes to an issue like school choice. Thirty six percent of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and forty four percent of the members of the U.S. Senate sent at least one of their children to private schools.⁴ They do this while they continue to vote on bills that prevent and/or limit the ability of parents in the U.S. to provide their children with the same options. We are largely to blame since we have allowed our Representatives to develop political careers by running for local office and then regional / state office and finally federal office without taking breaks to return to the private sector. This all but ensures that they will see themselves as separate from, and more often than not above the general population.

   Personally, I am skeptical of anyone who moves from one political office directly to another. Frederic Bastiat explained that there are often two underlying motives for people seeking to obtain political power. They either wish to either correct the injustices of lawful plunder perpetrated by legislators, or they wish to share in the bounty of the legalized theft.⁵ We have to change the process if we expect to take back our country. Let's end political careers, and once again look for people who will be true representatives of the people.

3. I will sponsor and support legislation that ties compensation for federal offices and federal appointees to a specified multiple of the median net income in the United States.

   Businesses try to develop compensation packages and incentive programs that will lead to increased profitability. In some cases systems are manipulated for the purpose of greed however, in most cases the incentives work to encourage increased productivity, job performance and overall profitability. It is obvious however, that federal elected officials either do not understand the idea of compensation based on job performance, or more likely, they understand it, but as usual, they just do not think it applies to them.

   Politicians were quick to speak out against the excessive compensation that existed on Wall Street while at the same time speaking in defense of their own perks and compensation. Every time Senators and Congressmen want a raise, or a new perk they simply write a bill and vote it into law. Can you imagine voting yourself a raise? No? How about this, can you imagine getting a performance review from your employer where you received a 20% job approval rating and then still getting an annual raise? It does not make any sense to me, but that is exactly what happens in Washington DC.

   We need to make sure our politicians have some skin in the game. As such, we must modify the system so that politicians are rewarded for creating the conditions in our nation where business thrives, and workers benefit through jobs and increased net income (after taxes, take home pay). This is why I believe we should tie compensation for federal elected offices and federal appointees to a multiple of the median net income in the United States. If their annual raises depended more on the success of the people they represented I am certain that their policies would improve.

4. I will sponsor and support legislation that limits the content of bills proposed in the U.S. House of Representative and U.S. Senate to one topic.

   When politicians want to push something through that would not have the support to stand on its own they slip it through the system by hiding it in another bill that they know will pass. For example, recently politicians have attached the Hate Crimes Law to the Defense Bill as an amendment. This is not exactly transparency. Why do our elected officials feel like they can get away with this behavior? Maybe it is because they have done it for so long it is now simply how things work in Washington. The common sense solution is simply to require that bills introduced must pertain to only one topic. Unrelated issues must not be added to the bill in any fashion to include amendments. There are many complicated issues facing our nation. This is not one of them. There is no logical reason that every Representative and Senator should not support this simple change.

5. I will support legislation that requires all proposed bills in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate to be available for review in their entirety for a minimum of 30 days prior to being voted on.

   There is absolutely no reason a bill should be allowed to hit the floor of the House or the Senate on the same day it will be voted on. This is even more true if the content of the bill is over 1000 pages long. Pushing through the stimulus bill and the climate change bill in such a rush only raises questions. If politicians really believed that citizens would be in favor of this legislation why did they need to push for a vote before anyone had an opportunity to review the content? Again, where is the transparency? The lack of trust and the low regard for job performance that citizens have for their members of Congress are not surprising given the lack of respect shown by Congressmen for the people they represent. One way we can demand more accountability is to require that there be at least a 30-day period where bills will be available for review prior to a final vote.

1. Center for Responsive Politics. Reelection Rates Over the Years. Retrieved April 3, 2009 from http://www.opensecrets.org
2. Saad, L., Congressional Approval Hits Record-Low 14%. Retrieved June 30, 2009, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/108856/Congressional-Approval-Hits-RecordLow-14.aspx
3. Center for Responsive Politics. Incumbent Advantage. Retrieved April 3, 2009 from http://www.opensecrets.org
4. The Heritage Foundation. Congress Keeps School Choice to Itself. Retrieved July 2, 2009, from http://www.theheritagefoundation.org
5. Bastiat, F. (1998). The Law (D. Russell, Trans.). New York: Foundation for Economic Education. (Original work published 1850).