Paul Ryan on Congressional Term Limits

From: Rob Zerban for Congress:

We are pleased to hear Congressman Ryan agrees with us that no House member should serve more than six terms in Congress. Given that Paul Ryan has now served seven terms in Congress totaling 14 years, we're confident he will drop out of the race any day now. Any day...

But after considering Ryan’s troubling pattern of dishonesty when it comes to Medicare, the federal budget, and nearly every other issue in this campaign, perhaps we’re jumping the gun. Ryan’s already broken his own rule—but that’s par for the course given his record of lies, hypocrisy, and fuzzy math.

Paul Ryan: I support term limits

Posted by Felicia Sonmez on October 15, 2012

 

GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who is running for his eighth term on Capitol Hill, told an audience member Monday morning at a town hall meeting in Waukesha, Wis., that he supports congressional term limits.

“There was a time in American history when our country term-limited the presidency,” a man in the audience at Carroll University asked Ryan. “Would you and Governor Romney consider a proposal to term-limit the members of Congress? Example, two six-year terms for U.S. senators and six two-year terms for a member of Congress.”

Ryan responded that he’s “always been a fan of term limits.”

“Yeah, I co-sponsored that when I was in Congress,” he said. “I agree with that. I’ve always supported that in Congress. That takes a constitutional amendment. What you don’t want to do is have a state do it to itself and short-change its seniority and its clout in Congress. But I’ve always been a fan of term limits. I’ve always supported that. I’ve always believed that this should be something that you serve temporary, not for an entire lifetime.”

A Ryan spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for details on term-limit legislation the congressman has co-sponsored.

A search of the THOMAS legislative database shows that since Ryan entered Congress in January 1999, at least 16 House measures have been introduced proposing such a constitutional amendment. Ryan does not appear as a sponsor or co-sponsor of any of the 16 measures.

One of those measures, H.J.Res. 2, was introduced by then-Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) in January 1999, the same month Ryan took office. It would have limited senators to two six-year terms and House members to six two-year terms, the same number of years as suggested by the man in the Waukesha crowd.

Ryan has voiced support for a constitutional amendment on term limits since his first congressional race in 1998. During that race, he was targeted by a group, Americans for Term Limits, for declining to sign a three-term-limit pledge, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Ryan explained at the time that since they were not applicable to all members, he believed such term-limit pledges could result in reducing the power of some districts and states on Capitol Hill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/15/paul-ryan-i-support-term-limits/