Everywhere I go people ask why does Congress keep voting to increase the national debt while telling us that the national debt is bad? Why do they challenge us to live within our means while they continue to live outside of their own? And why after spending trillions of dollars on “stimulus” and bailouts do we have so little to show for it?

The simple answer and maybe the most honest answer is what I call careerism. The career politicians in our nation’s capital are trapped between wanting to get re-elected and doing what is in the people’s best interest. This was obvious just this week in the news. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who is not running for reelection, spoke out against extending unemployment benefits and DOT funding. The shockwaves reverberated throughout Washington DC. Both Republicans and Democrats were denouncing his position. With outrage they cried “How can he be so insensitive? Doesn’t he know we are in an economic crisis?”

Senator Bunning was asking a question that rarely gets asked by career politicians. How are we going to pay for this? Just weeks after Congress voted for a “pay-go” requirement in the budget--where any increases in expenditures must be offset with cuts elsewhere or tax increases--they are already ignoring it. What Senator Bunning wanted was for the leadership to explain how the extension was to be funded. He could ask this very important question because he didn’t care about his reelection. The political fallout didn’t matter. What mattered was the principle.  We must pay for our services now; we cannot force our grandchildren pay for what we receive. Pretty simple and very honest.

This issue is not about whether or not extending benefits was the right thing to do. There are all kinds of important projects in government and each one has its own constituency. The point I am trying to make is that many members of both chambers, and both parties, feel that they can’t ask tough questions anymore because they become victims of politics – the classic GOTCHA moments. It’s time for these career politicians to step down. These are important issues and how we as taxpayers pay for services and benefits must be part of the national discussion.

The government has no money of its own. Therefore it must take from one and give to another. Since we as taxpayers are the ones the money is taken from we are the primary stakeholder. But career politicians apparently no longer care about that. It’s time to vote them out and not send just another carbon copy to replace them. That’s why I have already gone public by self term limiting my time in DC to four terms. Then I will step down and let another go serve. By doing this I can shield myself, and more importantly you, from the politics that has taken us to this critical juncture in history. By doing this I can remove the insider pressure that is certainly causing some of the problems.

There are other issues in Washington DC, but I believe any measure that forces politicians to do what’s right, not just what’s politically expedient, is in all our best interests.