Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site uwmacc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!rick From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: economy Message-ID: <382@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 7-Oct-84 18:50:16 EDT Article-I.D.: uwmacc.382 Posted: Sun Oct 7 18:50:16 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Oct-84 19:06:10 EDT References: <855@ihuxe.UUCP> <847@opus.UUCP> <1014@pyuxa.UUCP> <156@hocsf.UUCP> <1019@pyuxa.UUCP> Reply-To: rick@maccunix.UUCP (Rick Keir) Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center Lines: 79 Summary: In article <1019@pyuxa.UUCP> wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) writes: >It has been my contention for many a year that congressmen and >senators should have a limited number of terms ... >There was a time when congressmen and senators left >office for more lucrative pursuits, but, with these knuckleheads >finding out how to raise their salary and make money on the side, >they fight tooth and nail to stay in office. How, just how, can >someone justify spending one million dollars to gain a two year >seat in Congress? Gee, I don't know why. Maybe a commitment to public service? Certainly NOT for the money -- it is quite easy to show that many of them could make more money in private industry. Look at Sen. Percy, for example, who made his fortune as an executive of Montgomery Wards. Congressional salaries don't compare with what top business execs make. It is certain that it helps a lot to be independently wealthy BEFORE you run for election. So I don't think it is for the money. (Parenthetically, these days it isn't for the respect, either: look at the grief Ferraro and Meese have gotten, apparently for the sin of not being particularly rich.) >I don't give a damn which party, Republican, Democrat, or First >Annual Meadow, no person should be allowed to continue in office >for the obscene lengths some of them have. If all they think >about is reelection, then the whole country suffers. I say >throw the bums out. There's a time for "throwing the bums out" : it is called election day. Face it, these long-term office holders are able to hang on because they are doing the sort of job the voters want. >Get mad. Get educated. Tell those Bozos that your MAD AS HELL >AND YOU AREN'T GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE. If people must keep resurrecting this tired cliche of populist rhetoric, I wish they would at least learn that the word is "you're". Those bozos are the people's bozos, chosen because they reflect what the voters would want to do if if was possible for everyone to participate in the decision making process. Throwing the bozos out merely means getting a new set of bozos with the same beliefs, and less experience. >My solution is to throw the rascals out after 6 years in the >House, 10 years in the Senate, and 8 years in the White House. >Only one of those is true now. If we had a congress that was >not continually looking to the next election, we might get a >little more response to our real worries and needs. I also >feel sure that spending would begin to drop as they stopped >trying to pay off certain segments of the population for their >support. >T. C. Wheeler There is no evidence that limiting terms improves the ability of politicians to exhibit "statesmanlike" vs. "political" behavior. In fact, there are good reasons to believe the opposite: you get a more volatile Congress (with the concommitant erosion of party discipline as a tool for allowing unpopular stands to be taken). More people are leaving each election, making it more likely that they will be voting for legislation favoring their chosen post- Congressional career area. There will be far fewer "safe" districts producing Congressthings who can get reelected on their record, rather than on a platform of promises. Consider Wisconsin Senator Proxmire, for example: his reelection campaign last year cost less than $100, because his base of support here has become so solid he need put no effort into being anything other than a Senator to get reelected. Prox doesn't wander around promising goodies if reelected. His competition has to. (Not that I like Proxmire, but a lot of people do.) >T. C. Wheeler -- "Democracy means that some people rise to the top, and other people rise to the bottom." -- Unknown Philosophy 103 student, Fall 1975, UofI Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC 1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706 {allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick