A reader named Jim suggested a topic that needs to be exposed to the sunlight. Today’s column is addressed to Jim and all our other readers who believe in greater government transparency, a smaller, more streamlined bureaucracy at all levels and the adoption of absolute accountability with consequences for all elected and appointed officials.
Take for example the current discourse regarding the Benghazi debacle and the ‘Fast and Furious’ failed episode. Together these disasters caused the deaths of five U.S. citizens and in the case of ‘Fast and Furious,’ the additional slaughter of an estimated 300 Mexican Nationals. Yet there has been no accountability and no consequences suffered by these failures of judgment and action.
When candidates apply for and receive government employment, the job description is clearly explained. The generous benefits of healthcare, vacation and sick leave are important features of government work, especially for federal employees. One of the important elements of the federal compensation system is tenure. Productivity, goals and achievement are minor elements in the compensation system with time in grade and term of employment being the defining determination for compensation and advancement.
If you are in disbelief, ask yourself what specific measurable goals your congressman or senator put in writing before you voted for her or him. Do you remember the vague commitments of our current President (or any other President) that were not achieved? We don’t demand measurable objectives of our elected and appointed government officials. And since we don’t demand these measurable goals and objectives, they don’t provide them. This brings up the subject of term limits because many political officials, both elected and appointed, probably blow their intellectual capacity in the first few years in office. That is why Virginia Governors serve for one four-year term.
The strongest argument for term limits is the situation in and around Detroit, once the fifth largest city in the U.S. The city has become a cornucopia of crime and corruption. Standing by to witness the city’s descending spiral are Congressmen John Conyers (14th district) since 1965, John Dingell, Jr. (15th district) since 1955, Sander Levin ((12th district) since 1983, Senator Carl Levin since 1979 and dishonored Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Conyers’ wife and member of city council, served 37 months for bribery and Kilpatrick has been incarcerated four times since 2008 for various infractions. John ‘inherited’ his father’s seat that has been filled with a Dingell since 1933 (that’s 79 years of Dingell dawdle).
Detroit is a hotbed of crime, abandoned houses, unemployment, unwed mothers (about 80% of births are to single moms) and a poverty rate of more than 46%. None of these politicians have been or ever will be held accountable for the devastation of this great city. If John Dingell, currently the longest serving Congressman in Washington had openly predicted the downfall of this once-great city, would he have been elected and re-elected? The Detroit area and many other jurisdictions around this country need fresh ideas and new faces in the political arena.
There are term limits in various configurations in 36 states. Just eight states allow serving as governor for life, meaning you must give up the office if you are deceased. The President of the U.S. is limited to two consecutive four-year terms. Yet, our members of Congress and Senators can remain in office for life as long as they can provide a constantly increasing flow of benefits for their constituents in exchange for votes. They don’t even have to submit to objective measurements of accomplishment. Our system of government has inched inexorably out of control by those who have gained power without accountability, wealth without wisdom and retirement without achievement.
– Dick Baynton