Congress' only goal: getting re-elected

Someone once said, "The only way to get to paradise without dying is to become a United States senator". For all practical purposes, you are a senator for life. Once enshrined into that very private club, it will require one to, kill your wife in front of, not one, not two, but three witnesses, in order to be sure to loose one's seat. The average seat turnover is negligible. Our founding fathers never envisioned perma-senators or representatives. They also never envisioned that a majority in senate's employment experience would be government jobs. Where are the carpenters, mechanics, grocery market managers, engineers? Very few in our Congress have any real-world marketable skills; they are empty suits. They only have skills at being re-elected. We have people in Congress who have been there for more than 50 years. In school, teachers like to tell the students that anyone can become president, and we have recently seen proof of that. One of the reasons is that it is an eight-year term limit, not a president for life, as in many countries. But it is different for our Congress. Once in office they try to hog that seat forever. The typical Congress person has a small army on the his (our) payroll whose sole function is to gather up money for the next re-election. I wish the teacher would also tell the class to only try for president; the odds are better.

D.O. Lipensky

Wheaton