Eichenbaum applauds Rep Foxx's support of H.R. 2913 to scale down congressional retirement

Asheville, NC – September 27, 2011. Dr. Dan Eichenbaum was pleased to receive a statement today from Representative Virginia Foxx, NC 5, in support of H.R.2913, sponsored by Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman (R). The bill will amend Title 5 of the United States Code to provide for the termination of further retirement benefits for members of Congress, except the right to continue participating in the Thrift Savings Plan.

Eichenbaum says, “For far too long, members of congress have lived off the taxpayers’ backs inside the beltway completely isolated from the taxpayers and with little understanding of the reality of life back home. In difficult economic times like today, each of us needs to exercise personal thrift and sacrifice. We must demand the same of our elected officials. They should be required to participate in Social Security just like the rest of us.”

“We send what appear to be honest, hard-working citizen-representatives to Washington, where they become entrenched in special interest money and favors for votes. Over the years and regardless of constituent dissatisfaction, it becomes virtually impossible to get rid of them.” Eichenbaum says Congress has a 10% approval rating but 94% of incumbents get re-elected. “Presidential term limits were enacted with enthusiasm after FDR’s reign. Congressional term limits are necessary and desirable today for the same reason. A constitutional amendment to impose term limits on congress would require those guys up there to vote themselves out of a job, and that’s just not going to happen.”

Eichenbaum is the first candidate of 2012 to self-impose term limits by signing the Alliance for Bonded Term Limits Pledge, legally and financially obligating him to pay $500,000 to the Moore County Sentinels of Freedom should he not keep his promise. “The founders intended statesmen and women would go to Washington, do the limited work of the federal government and then come back home to their real jobs and live by the same rules they helped to enact,” Eichenbaum said.