It’s time for Term Limits in Congress

President-elect Donald Trump and others say we need term limits for Congressmen and Congresswomen.

 

Do we ever, for dozens of good reasons.

 

One is that we would get more citizen legislators. That is, people who had successful careers outside of politics. These people would be more likely to be in touch with the likes of you and your neighbors. Hooray for that. There is no question that Congress is covered by a bubble.

 

For me the biggest reason for term limits is regulations. We simply choke on them. If we had more ordinary common-sense folks in Congress, they would not allow the choking.

 

Anybody who ever got near the auto industry would not allow the wad of senseless forms you have to sign to buy a car.

 

Anyone who ever worked in the investment business would burn the mountain of regulations that inflict that industry. When you open a simple account your financial advisor spends half an hour on the paperwork.

 

Anybody who knew anything about community banks would shoot the guys who wrote the Dodd-Frank [Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010]. That is the monster bill Congress created after our financial crisis. But politicians caused the financial crisis with policies that encouraged home ownership at any price — setting the stage for the housing bubble. Then they wrote a bill that crushes community banks. Then, while claiming to save banking from future calamities, Congress got things the wrong way around. The Dodd-Frank law is the calamity.

 

Even the janitors in community banks know better. They know that 22,000 pages of new regulations are stupid and sinful. They know small banks could never cope with so many nits to pick.

 

The folks in Congress should have talked with the janitors before they created the monstrosity. They should have talked with businesses that rely on these banks. 

 

Should have talked with folks who run these banks — the folks who lend to the people who run the businesses. The businesses that create the jobs the politicians assured us they wanted to “create.” Idiots.

 

Am I harsh? You be the judge. One in five of our community banks has disappeared since Dodd-Frank. Almost no new banks have formed since Dodd-Frank. Entrepreneurs have formed fewer and fewer small businesses.

 

Ask five small-business owners if these banking regulations have hurt them. My guess is that four will say yes, we can’t get the financing we used to obtain. Our bank is handcuffed.

 

What a wonderful gift our out-of-touch Congressmen gave to us. Poison for our community banking system. Think about how many millions of businesses were stillborn because of Dodd-Frank. Imagine how many never expanded. Imagine how many jobs never saw the light of day. Thanks to Dodd-Frank. It’s really Dodd-Frankenstein.

 

How could politicians be so stupid? Simple. Too few of them have worked in or owned a business. Too few know the slightest thing about how small businesses operate. 

 

So, we need to bring on term limits. They might bring more people to Washington who do know such stuff.

 

Senator George McGovern was in Congress for decades and had a hand in all kinds of legislation. The man also ran for the White House but lost.

 

When he retired, McGovern and his wife bought a small hotel in Connecticut.

 

Within two years, the business was bankrupt.

 

George put some of the blame on the recession of that time. But he placed much of the blame on the regulations that his small hotel faced. The government rules allowed people to file frivolous lawsuits that cost the hotel big money. They forced the hotel to pay people to fill out forms galore. They sucked too many resources from the business of running a hotel.

 

McGovern, bless him, made a confession in the Wall Street Journal. He confessed that his business was whacked by the sorts of regulations he had helped create in Washington. His confession ought to be stenciled on the desks of every person in Congress.

 

“I…wish that during the years I was in public office I had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender.”

 

The headline for his confession was perfect: “A politician’s dream is a businessman’s nightmare.”

 

Here’s to more common sense in Washington. Here’s to term limits.

 

From Tom…as in Morgan.           

 

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta. Several upstate radio stations carry his daily commentary, Tom Morgan’s Money Talk. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com