Toomey calls for term limits in Congress

Pennsylvania senator proposes 12-year-limit in Senate, 6-year limit in House

A Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania has proposed a constitutional amendment to limit how long a person may serve in Congress.

There are currently no term limits for federal lawmakers, but U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey wants to change that.

Toomey, along with his colleague Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, are advocating that service in the Senate be limited to 12 years, while lawmakers would only be allowed to serve six years in the House.

"Congress should not be a body of career politicians who have forgotten why they were sent to Washington in the first place," Toomey said in a press release.

The senator pointed out that he kept his promise to serve just three terms in the House, before running for his current post in the Senate.

"Not allowing individuals to remain in office for an eternity is an important step we need to take to restore confidence in Congress," Vitter added.

I must admit that I'm shocked that a Senator would actually propose this. Pleasantly surprised though. I've been an advocate for term limits for many years. I'm sick of career Fat Cat politicians who are getting rich at our expense. I feel that they've forgotten that they are supposed to be our representatives and are working for us and are here to help us. But more and more it seems they are there to achieve power and wealth. And lets face it...neither party has done a very good job overall.

It wouldnt solve all our problems, and it'll probably be blocked by Reid and maybe Boehner, but term limits would be an excellent start. We keep hearing about gridlock and how its all one side or the other's fault that nothing gets done in Congress, but I think Term limits, bans on lobbying and election reform would be very good for this country.

My question is...how can the people make this happen?