Ben Carson vows to make term limits for Congress a reality

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson has pledged support of a constitutional amendment to impose congressional term limits, saying the move will “create more opportunities for fresh ideas” in the nation’s halls of power.

“We must encourage innovation and ingenuity to improve the state of our nation,” said Carson, as he signed the United States Term Limits Amendment Pledge.

U.S. Term Limits (USTL) President Philip Blumel applauded Carson’s decision to make supporting term limits a key part of his campaign.

“In making the transition from medicine to politics, Dr. Carson knows firsthand the need for new insights and perspectives in Washington,” Blumel said. “He agrees with three-quarters of Americans that Congress now lacks the common sense principles citizen legislators can deliver.”

Amendments to create congressional term limits have been introduced in both the U.S. Senate by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA.) and the House of Representatives by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.).

USTL says that presidential support is a key element in moving such legislation forward.

“Members of Congress have almost no objectivity on term limits, because they want to preserve their own careers,” Blumel said. “For this effort to be successful, we need a president who will call out Congress for not listening to the public on this issue.”

In order to pass, a term limits amendment would need to muster a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate, and be ratified by 38 states in order to become part of the Constitution.

And while members of Congress are in no hurry to impose term limits, the idea is very popular among likely voters.

Back in 2013, Gallup reported that 75 percent of Americans support congressional term limits.

“Republicans and independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue,” Gallup said.

USTL noted during the spring that other GOP contenders have also expressed support for term limits.

From the organization’s website:

[I]n his first speech as a candidate for president in 2016, Paul showed he has every intention to remain a leader in the term limits movement. He told a packed house in Louisville that if “we limit the president to two terms, it’s about time we limit the terms of Congress.”

The line got huge cheers, and a “term limits now” poster quickly became visible in the crowd. Paul said he knew term limits were a good idea before getting to Washington, and unlike his colleagues, has only been convinced by his experience that they are more necessary.

“There is no monopoly on knowledge there,” he said of our nation’s capitol.

Paul is not the only presidential candidate to show enthusiasm for term limits. Fellow Republicans Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush have both endorsed the idea, with Bush having presided over a term-limited legislature here in Florida.

During his recent trip to Africa, President Obama said that the “democratic progress is at risk when leaders refuse to step aside.”

While Obama praised term limits for African officials, USTL officials were left wondering why the president doesn’t apply the same logic to the U.S. Congress.

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