Ted Cruz: Here's How to 'Drain the Swamp'

He and Rep. Ron DeSantis call for congressional term limits
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2016 12:41 PM CST
Ted Cruz: Here's How to 'Drain the Swamp'
Sen. Ted Cruz waits onstage before speaking at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention in Washington Nov. 18, 2016.   (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Donald Trump promised to "drain the swamp," and in the Washington Post today, Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Ron DeSantis have an idea for how to do just that: congressional term limits. When the 115th Congress convenes, Cruz (who is in his first term) and DeSantis (who will be starting his third term) will introduce a constitutional amendment that would put a three-term limit on members of the House and a two-term limit on members of the Senate. "On Election Day, the American people made a resounding call to 'drain the swamp' that is modern Washington," they write, and "passing term limits will demonstrate that Congress has actually heard the voice of the people."

Capitol Hill is complacent right now, with the same power players making the same "backroom deals" and making and breaking the same promises, all for their own enrichment at the expense of taxpayers. Legislators try to hold onto their posts as long as they can in order to gain more power. But the Founding Fathers never intended to create "a permanent political class that existed parallel to, rather than enmeshed within, American society," Cruz and DeSantis write, and enacting term limits will ensure "more frequent changes in leadership and within congressional committees, giving reformers a better chance at overcoming the Beltway inertia that resists attempts to reduce the power of Washington." Click for their full column. (More Ted Cruz stories.)

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