And let us nopt forget, a vote by congress to put them under the same restrictions would onl hurt their chances of re-election, which is the only reason we are in the mess we are in now. No more than they will put term limits on a ballot, will they restrict their ability to get sweetheart deals to the detriment of this country. Hence the reason it may be time to start over - the founding fathers never would have believed that anyone would want to make a "career" out of being in Washington, so it wasn't set out in the Constitution - the President, yes, because that is too much power for anyone to have unrestricted, but Congerss is now the powerful branch, with the president being a figurehead most times. What we need is a national movement to limit terms, and let's get some new blood in Washington - rather than thse who have been there for 30, 40, 50 years or more who have totally lost touch with what is going on. Hard to see the people in the streets from the ivory tower.

Good point and succinct letter, or as Sherlock Holmes would say, elementary Mr. Watson. We also need to eliminate the lobbyist systems and have congress represent the citizens.

Mr Watson hits the nail that is the source of most of the snags in the function of Congress. Three controls that the people have placed in state constitutions do not exist at the federal level. These are: balanced budget amendments, line item vetoes, and single-subject requirements. It will take an amendment to the Constitution to impose these restrictions on the grafters. Most Congressmen spend most of their time, I believe, in arranging concessions for campaign donors that would result in impeachment or indictment for any official in the Judicial or Executive branch that did the same thing. Every governmental failure that I see, in education, the finance sector, health care, welfare, and regulatory incompetence, is the direct result of congressional "favors" dispensed over decades. Health care costs and other absurdities are the product of "favors" to the AMA, Big Pharma, HMOs and other Healthcare Oligopoly Grafters (HOGs) that have been handed out for campaign support and assured incumbency. To correct it, Congress would have to admit that they did it, and denying responsibility is the one thing, throughout US history, that congress does even better than cultivating campaign funds.

We've been down this road before: in the late 1800's the huge money in railroads utterly corrupted congress until the national economy was strangled by the railroad monopolies. The resulting anti-trust legislation was a fix that was later corrupted as another excuse to extort campaign funds.

If we don't fix this profound and fundamental flaw in our Federal government, we're doomed.