Grassroots support is VITAL!

     The Responsible Representation Committee was established in late August of 2015 in response to a variety of polls which stated that a vast majority of American citizens indicated they were in favor of limiting the time any one person may serve in the United States Congress.  Despite the desire to limit the terms of our representatives in Congress,  a very small minority of those polled indicated that they thought it unlikely that this would ever happen. Research on my part indicated that the discrepancy between the desire for term limits and the actuality of it occurring showed that the majority of American citizens believe that the only way for term limits to be imposed upon congressmen is for those congressmen to vote for legislation limiting terms and/or enact an amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit the time served by any one person in congress.

     Realistically,  most people believe that those serving in the U.S. Congress would not vote for any amendment or legislation which would limit their own time served as congressmen. However, the reality is that we do not, in fact, need those congressmen to vote against their own power as the founding fathers and authors of our United States Constitution predicted that there might come a time in which the citizens of the United States desired laws or constitutional amendments which those sitting in congress would not pursue and therefore added a means by which the states themselves could bypass a vote by the U.S. Congress in order to amend the Constitution. The mechanism by which this could be achieved is outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.  Therefore, it is only through the support of everyday Americans  that the abuses of power by U.S. Congressmen may be curtailed through amending the U.S. Constitution so as to impose term limits on those serving in the U.S. Congress.

Speaker resignations, Congressional Pugilism, Ideological Grandstanding and NO Benefit for the People.

It was announced this morning that Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) will be resigning from both the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives AND his seat in that body as well.  This might just be the best move Boehner has made in his career as Speaker of the House. It has become clear over the past few years that Congressional effectiveness and representation of the people who that Congress are supposed to represent has been severely lacking.  Boehner claims to have wished to retire in 2014 but the failed election bid of Eric Cantor, who was perceived at the time to be the next Speaker of the House, caused Boehner to put off his retirement and to step up to fill the leadership role that Cantor would then be unable to fill. His time as Speaker of the House has been filled with turmoil and controversy and the ineffectiveness of the House since that time has caused many to claim Boehner as the least effective Speaker in modern history. But, is it really Boehner who has been the one lacking, or is Congress as a whole spinning it's wheels in a quagmire of partisan conflict, ideological stubbornness and special interest influence?

Campaign Contributions by Corporations and the Federal Support and Business they Incur

      The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which seeks to bring out into the daylight the creeping fungus of corruption that likes to hide in the shadows of the American political machine. By examining the particulars of campaign contributions and the resulting rewards gained by corporate entities that make those contributions, Sunlight's Influence Explorer presents strong evidence that it is NOT the constituents who vote Congressmen into office that reap the benefits of the efforts of those Congressmen, but instead the corporate interests who help elect and re-elect those Congressmen election after election. 

     The very first paragraph on their Fixed Fortunes page states:

     "Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support."

     This means that for just under 6 billion dollars in campaign contributions, corporate entities who contributed to the campaigns of various congressmen garnered 4.3 trillion dollars above what they spent on contributions in federal subsidies and business contracts. You can view on the Fixed Fortunes page a table that shows 200 corporate political contributors compared to the federal business and federal support each received. The numbers are staggering. As stated on that page, the $4.4 trillion received by those corporations exceeded the $4.3 trillion paid out by the Federal Government to Social Security recipients for that same time frame.

From Highest Per Capita Income to Bankrupt since John Conyers Jr. took his seat in Congress 50 years ago.

Democrat John Conyers Jr. was first elected to serve in the United States House of Representatives in 1965 as the representative from the Michigan district that includes portions of the Detroit metropolitan area. Representative Conyers has represented the Detroit metro area for a continuous fifty years. In 1960 Detroit was ranked as having the highest per capita income of any city in the United States.  On July 18, 2013, the city of Detroit filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history by debt, estimated at $18–20 billion. According to the 1960 U.S. census, the population of Detroit was estimated at 1,670,144 people marking it as the 5th largest city in the United States. The 2010 U.S. Census data shows that the city of Detroit had a population of 713,777 which made it the 18th largest city in the U.S. The U.S. Census bureau estimates the 2014 population of Detroit as 680,250.

How we will impose Term Limits without needing the votes of those whose terms we propose to limit.

     In order to impose term limits upon all persons serving in the United States Congress, an amendment to the United States Constitution is necessary.  In the past, EVERY amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been added by way of a vote in the U.S. Congress followed by ratification by three fourths of the legislatures of the States in the Union at that time. Two Thirds of both houses of Congress must vote in favor of an amendment before it is sent to the states for ratification and three fourths of the states must ratify that proposed amendment before it becomes a legal addition  or change to our U.S. Constitution. This is the exact process that took place to enact the twenty second amendment to the U.S. Constitution which limited the terms of any U.S. President. The U.S. Congress passed that amendment on March 21st, 1947 and it was ratified by the requisite three fourths of the state legislatures on February 27th, 1951. Traditionally, this is how all amendments to the United States Constitution are implemented.

What is a Political Action Committee and what do they do?

What is a Political Action Committee?

A Political Action Committee (PAC) is an organization that is registered with the Federal Elections Committee (FEC) and whose purpose is to raise funds for the election or defeat of candidates for political office or to support or defeat specific political issues.

What are the types of Political Action Committees?

There are three types of Political Action Committees.  Nonconnected PACs (Ideological PACs), Connected (Separate Segregated Funds) PACs and Independent Expenditure-Only Political Committees which are also known as Super PACs or Hybrid PACs.

The Responsible Representation Blog – Introduction

This blog will be one source of information through which The Responsible Representation Committee presents information about our mission, news about the issue of term limits and advocacy for responsible representation by our elected officials in the federal government.
This first post will outline who we are, what our goals are, how we will achieve those goals and what you as a citizen can do to help.

WHO WE ARE:
 
We are a non-connected federal political action committee dedicated to advocating for responsible representation by our elected officials in the federal government.  Our first mission is to impose a twelve year limit on the time that any one person may serve in the United States Congress. This would be a twelve year limit on serving in either the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives or a combination of both.