Friday, March 29, 2019

James Tulp: A Safe Space for Politicians

The Mississippi legislature recently adopted a resolution to call for an Article V Convention of States to amend the U.S. Constitution, becoming the 15th state to do so. We have the unfortunate distinction, however, of being the first of the fifteen to include in the resolution a prohibition on term limits.

Buried within the text of the Convention of States resolution are the following words:

“The Mississippi delegates are hereby instructed not to support term limits for members of Congress.”

Americans overwhelmingly want term limits placed on members of Congress. A poll from M&A in 2018 found that 82% of Americans approve of a constitutional amendment that will place term limits on members of Congress. Term limits is one of the main reasons why millions have been advocating for a Convention of States since 2013.

Here in Mississippi, we love our career politicians. Thad Cochran was in Congress for 45 years. Roger Wicker has been in for 25 years and counting. Wicker’s 1st District predecessor, Jamie Whitten, was the second longest serving member of of the House of Representatives ever (53 years).

The argument against term limits in Mississippi goes something like this: “As the poorest state, we rely on the seniority of our congressional delegation to appropriate much needed funds to our state.”

It is true that Mississippi relies more on federal aid than any other, but could it be that this is one of the reasons why we’re the poorest state as opposed to being the result of it?

Don’t conservatives believe that dependency on government aid destroys the incentive to be productive?

Also, the expressed desire of the legislature to pass a balanced budget amendment flies in the face of their argument against term limits. "We need to balance the budget to curtail federal spending, but we can’t have term limits lest federal dollars stop flowing our way."

The perfect is the enemy of the good. It is good that we as a nation are one step closer to a much needed Article V Convention and reeling in the national debt, but the Mississippi resolution was incredibly revealing about our representatives in Jackson.

We all already knew it, but now it’s official: Mississippi is a safe space for career politicians.

James Tulp hosts The James Tulp Show weekdays at 7am on WYAB 103.9 FM. Check him out on his Facebook page at facebook.com/jamestulp

Kingfish note: Just couldn't resist adding this video.


23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Knifing Mississippi in the back has always been the MSGOP way.

Anonymous said...

The line from the beginning of the movie "The Patriot" comes to mind:

"Why would I fight against one tyrant 3,000 miles away in exchange for 300 tyrants 1 mile away?"

Without term limits, we have established kings in Washington.

Oh well, I still love this State.

Anonymous said...

[AND] yet the RINOs here in Mississippi still still struggle to understand why conservatives are unhappy with the Republican party.

Anonymous said...

WE can impose our own term limits by voting against ALL incumbents. In MS, you can go from being a school teacher, county supervisor, to the wealthiest member of the Congressional delegation from MS. Oh the evils of Federal money! Republicans rail against it and at the same time line their friends pockets with it and of course a little something for themselves.
Democrats use it to oil their machinery and keep their constituents placated. Both parties play the ends against the middle to keep their narrative in play hoping that the average "Joe" will never rise from their slumber to challenge the status quo!

Anonymous said...

Ah, Tulp’s idiotic babiling again. Glad he is no longer a proffesor! Also he has KF running interference for him in the comments. Seems like Tulp needs a safe space.

Anonymous said...

Disagree that the provision is 'unfortunate'. Term limits for Congress are established in the Constitution - two year terms for Reps and six year for Senators. You want to make a change in the membership - go to the polls on election day.

If we were to establish mandated limits, it would do nothing but to strengthen the power and influence of the permanent, unelected staffs.

Anonymous said...

WHICKER, Cochran and whitten....all in current and recent mississippi politics......about 125 combined years in washington. let that sink in

Anonymous said...

Unless the MS RHINO's become more "user friendly", they will cease to exist within the next two voting generations. Bet on it! I will not see it, but my grandchildren will.

Anonymous said...

I thought the reason for the convention was to modify the constitution without placing restrictions on the delegates. OH well, if appointed, I would vote my conscience anyway, regardless of what the clowns in our Legislature told me to do.


See - problem solved.

Anonymous said...

The state legislature is a brood of vipers... they truly don’t know what’s going on or what impact these bills will have on the people of the state. Sad. There will be corruption in this new HB571...

Anonymous said...

The Sandersons love them some Wicker and open borders.

Anonymous said...

Most people seem to get the term limit thing backwards - the problem isn't that a congressperson CAN spend more than 1-3 terms in office, the problem is that they WANT to spend more than a couple of terms in office. A normal, sensible person who wants to help his or her community knows doing so will come at a cost of their time and likely money yet is willing to make reasonable sacrifices to do their part, but they would have to refuse a request to literally make extensive altruism a career. If most elected officials didn't find it extremely beneficial to themselves versus their alternatives (most often monetarily), the vast majority would not and could not make it "a career."

Rod Knox said...

Mississippi is LAST in all that is important to the average working tax payers here because it is among the top at all things corrupt. We seem to vote our way down to the bottom of the barrel because our politicians have learned to round us up into a few manageable herds, each with a 'lead steer' to mosey its crowd to fall in line.

My congressman has me on a mailing list and he also has a facebook page and it's obvious that his greatest efforts are toward being photographed at various locations where he can appear important and impressive. His only political efforts are to keep congratulating his constituents on their masterful political insight and throwing his vote at anything that pats them and therefore himself on the back regardless how useless it is. Mississippi's hard core anti abortion, pro gun fundamentalists are as clueless as San Francisco's pro gay, pro abortion secular humanists in their throwing away their votes for candidates who can portray a grand image of support for their emotional cause while turning a blind eye to our continuing deleterious slide toward oblivion via national bankruptcy.

Anonymous said...

Those bunch of dispirits that call themselves legislators may have set a record for sneaky bullshit legislation this year that is solely designed to benefit themselves.

I will not vote for a single fucking incumbent regardless of party.

Anonymous said...

Stennis, Eastland, and Cochran ever heard of em?? Where would Mississippi be without them and their tenure?? Let that sink in!

Anonymous said...

The Founders didn't put in term limits so we could protect institutional knowledge ( ie. have some folks who knew why some laws existed and how the overall system functioned). They thought you'd actually value your freedom enough to know what your representative did and that you'd want to keep a Thomas Jefferson around.

If you want to fix what is broken ,you have to know which Congressional actions " broke" the system;

Demand your legislators:

1. Reinstate The Fairness Doctrine. It would allow the FCC to stop " fake news" overnight.
2. Reinstate those regulations that prevented monopolies and that required a Wall Street prospectus to be accurate rather than a promotional offer . And, give the SEC enough people again to enforce it.
3. Reinstate the banking regulations that prevent banks from speculating on high risk investments and overvaluing appraisals. Make it criminal again for banks to gamble with our money.
4. Require all rules and ethics changes that governed both the House and Senate be abolished and return to those that existed in 1960. And require any new change proposals to be publicly announced in a news conference and that 60 days of comments be allowed and any future votes be on record.
5. Allow insurance companies to compete across State lines and for insurance pools to be created across State lines.
6. Allow the Federal government to contract for all essential medications.
7. Demand that Congress must again declare war before we can send troops into harm's way.
8. Reinstate the original Special Counsel law that was put into place immediately after Nixon resigned.
9. Reinstate the procedure to approved Supreme Court justices based ONLY on their legal credentials and require that all those appointed or who run for office have to meet the conditions of The Hatch Act.

We broke it by not paying attention and we still are not. This is "new convention" is a ploy to give us one party government that will allow a dictator to emerge.


Anonymous said...

1:19 - You need to get a hobby.

Anonymous said...

10:05, how is what Mr Tulp said idiotic or not true ? I may not and do not agree with all of his opinions on politics, but in this article,everything he said is true. We conservatives in MS yell and scream about how we should end the welfare/entitlement system, or at least greatly limit it, and that people should stop depending on the government and take care of themselves. But yet MS is a welfare, handout dependent State. Over 40% of our annual budget comes from the federal government. Without that federal handout, we would be in even worse shape than we are already in. (I'm sure you'll try to argue that what we get back from the feds are just the taxes we paid into the fed, but the fact is we get $3.50 back for every $1 we pay in, so $2.50 is a handout, a freebie.)It's hypocritical for us to say we should stop or limit welfare to others while at the same time holding our hand out waiting and asking for more welfare to be paid to us. I agree the entitlement system has gone too far, but unless and until we as a State quit asking for and expecting the same handout, we should quit being hypocritical.

ople in this country should

Anonymous said...

A Convention of States would create a theocracy. That is the real purpose behind all of this.

Anonymous said...

"Stennis, Eastland, and Cochran ever heard of em?? Where would Mississippi be without them and their tenure??"

Tennessee if we were lucky but we would have been better off in the long run regardless. All three managed to lock their lips on any and every tit that could offer a drop, plus, they were/are racist, backwards-ass redneck white trash, and did a large part to put Mississippi last in anything that matters in the 21st century.


"Let that sink in!"

Oh, "sink" is the right word and it sinks in more and more every day.

Anonymous said...

Would that restriction be binding on the delegates? I would think they would be free to vote however they choose.

Anonymous said...

Donna and Tom need to post elsewhere. I get tired or reading their posts over and over.

PS: I hate having to click 50 photos to get my post submitted. Donna and Tom obviously have nothing else to do.

Anonymous said...

“WE OPPOSE TERM LIMITS”

FARM BUREAU POLICY HANDBOOK

Follow FARM BUREAU CORRUPTION on Facebook

#MeTooFarmBureau #FarmBureauCorruption



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