In Congress, the leadership has tremendous power over what bills and resolutions reach the floor for a final vote. Even if something is incredibly popular, the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader have almost total power to block bills from getting a vote.
There isn't a lot that Republicans and Democrats agree on nowadays, but Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi have found common ground to work together: blocking any bills to impose term limits on Congress.
This shouldn't come as that big of a surprise. Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress for 32 straight years and Mitch McConnell has "served" in the Senate for 34 years. We need term limits to vanquish these career politicians from Washington... but they're the ones who get to decide whether the measure ever gets a vote!
Like clockwork, both McConnell and Pelosi have told their allies that they will never allow a term limit bill to reach President Trump's desk.
The President is working with Ted Cruz to push through Senate Joint Resolution 1. This is a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on Members of Congress. Congressmen would be limited to serving just three terms (6 years total) and Senators would be capped at serving only two terms (12 years).
This would finally return the United States Congress to a service model. Republicans and Democrats would no longer be allowed to turn public service into a career. We would once again have a People's House.
Ted Cruz made sure that his term limit amendment was the very first resolution filed in the new Congress. He is doing everything in his power to push it through, and he has already gained some powerful allies, including Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul. Even powerful Democrats are in talks with Republicans right now over the proposal.
But Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi are promising to kill the bill, no matter what it takes!
Luckily for us, the Founding Fathers knew a day like this would come. That is why they wrote into the House and Senate rules a way to bypass the leadership. In the House, it is called a 'discharge petition.' They are called 'discharge resolutions' in the Senate.
Basically, if a majority of Congressmen/Senators sign onto a provision -- enough support for the measure to pass a final vote -- then the co-sponsors can force that vote. These tactics are designed to be a last-ditch effort only to be used when the Leadership is unreasonably blocking something incredibly important and popular.
Up until this point, Congressional Republicans have been willing to defy the leadership on term limits, but they always stop short of trying to force the vote. They're willing to add their name to the amendment, but aren't willing to do everything in their power to force the vote.
In the past week, we have bombarded Congress with tens of thousands of FaxBlasts demanding that they pass Ted Cruz's term limit constitutional amendment. That is why the Establishment is fighting so hard against this. They know that they are close to losing!
This is our best chance to add term limits to the United States Constitution. We even have the President of the United States on board.
Please, whatever you do, don't let a handful of career politicians block it!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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