Congress Term Limits and Closing the Congress-Lobbyist Revolving Door -- Trump's Plan Is the Most Important Promise of the 2016 Presidential Campaign

Late on Wednesday, we have the final presidential debate. It is Donald Trump's last opportunity to remind America who his opponent Hillary Clinton really is. He can call up her miserable record as Secretary of State -- Benghazi, Libya, Syria, Russia reset, Iran's path to nuclear weapons, silence in the face of North Korea's nuclear menace that impacts key allies Japan and South Korea, China's refusal to bring North Korea to heel, aiding Obama to close Guantanamo -- this list alone would take several debates, but Trump can mention each point. Then, he can tick through Hillary's corrupt history as a 'public servant' -- illegal personal unsecured secret email server that compromised national security and US intelligence field operatives, lies to Congress and the FBI, pay-for-play enriching the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State, lying about the Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens in order to help Obama be re-elected, using the Foundation to skim off money intended for Haiti rebuilding after the earthquake -- and we haven't even mentioned earlier corruption, such as Whitewater, Travelgate, cattle future gains used to bribe her Governor husband in Arkansas, and deliberately destroying the credibility of Bill's sexual assault victims. Donald Trump is going to have a busy evening. ~~~~~~ And perhaps the single most important promise of the 2016 campaign was made by Trump on Tuesday when he promised to seek a constitutional amendment limiting terms for Congress members. It is part of his new ethics reform proposal : "If I’m elected President I will push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress. Decades of failure in Washington and decades of special-interest dealing must and will come to an end." Trump released a five-point ethics plan Monday night in what he called an effort to "drain the swamp" in Washington. In addition to term limits for Congress, Trump wants Congress to pass a law preventing all administration officials, lawmakers and congressional aides from lobbying the government for five years after leaving public service. His plan also includes a call for Congress to pass legislation banning registered foreign agents from raising money in US elections -- Hillary & Hacks are now taking this kind of campaign donations, as we mentioned yesterday. Trump's plan would close loopholes that allow former government officials to call "themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists." ~~~~~~ And guess who benefits from lobbyist money?? Not Trump, but Hillary. After the Democratic National Convention, 62 lobbyists raised nearly $11 million for Clinton in the quarter from July through September of this year, according to disclosure forms recently filed with the Federal Election Commission -- a dramatic increase over previous quarters. In the weeks surrounding the convention, the Hillary Victory Fund -- a joint fundraising committee that Hillary & Hacks share with the Democratic National Committee and 32 state party committees -- took in $10.6 million raised by lobbyists. Donors can give more than $350,000 to the joint venture with a single check. "K Streeters" bundled an additional $300,000 for Clinton’s campaign account, called Hillary for America, during the same period. Two lobbyists brought in the top amount in the third quarter, about $1.6 million : Richard Sullivan, a veteran Democratic fundraiser now at Capitol Counsel, and Ankit Desai, a lobbyist at Cheniere Energy. Other names that stand out include Liz Robbins of Liz Robbins Associates, with $741,000 bundled; Linda Lipsen at the American Association for Justice, at $575,566; Al Mottur of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, with $533,575; and Fred Humphries of Microsoft at $458,328. First-time Clinton bundlers rising into the top of the third-quarter list include John Jonas, a top healthcare lobbyist at Akin Gump, DLA Piper’s Matthew Bernstein and Karissa Willhite of Ogilvy Government Relations. Lobbyists have bundled $19.6 million for Clinton over the course of the Democrat’s presidential campaign. A majority of the bundled funds -- about $12.7 million since the campaign began -- went into the Hillary Victory Fund. The remaining $6.9 million bundled from lobbyists since April 2015 went into Clinton’s campaign account, according to an analysis of disclosure forms by TheHill. In addition to the huge checks they collected for the Hillary Victory Fund, the top lobbyist fundraisers for the Hillary for America campaign account include :• Capitol Counsel’s David Jones, who raised $762,666 for the campaign alone. • Richard Sullivan, also at Capitol Counsel, brought in $592,891.• Holly Macarro, of Ietan Consulting, bundled $430,900. • Heather Podesta, of Heather Podesta + Partners, raised $406,878. • Steve Elmendorf, of Subject Matter, bundled $360,084. Bundlers, usually an elite tier of lobbyists or well-connected individuals, solicit donations from others and submit the checks to the campaign in a "bundle." Being a bundler can give individuals huge clout with a candidate. Lobbyists who collect at least $17,600 in checks from donors must be reported by candidates to the Federal Election Commission on a quarterly basis. Campaigns do not have to disclose the identity of bundlers who are not registered lobbyists. NOTE that Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has not received enough cash bundled by a lobbyist to trigger the reporting threshold. ~~~~~~ Dear readers, Washington is awash with money that feeds the increasingly cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship between lobbyists and Congress. It leads to laws that favor special interests instead of the American people, and it bloats the budget and national debt. Republicans are as guilty as Democrats of taking campaign money from lobbyist bundlers (called "K Street" money because so many key lobbying firms have their offices on "K" Street in Washington). Hillary Clinton has not outlined any concrete plan for lobbying reform -- perhaps partly because family members of her campaign manager John Podesta have raised more than $1 million for Hillary in the last quarter alone, and we can bet that Podesta money contains Geroge Soros funding. It is a system that cries out "corruption" through its revolving door that leads from the halls of Congress to lobbying firms to presidential appointments to personal wealth -- all in the name of "public service." We need look no farther to understand why GOP career politicians do not like Donald Trump and want Hillary Clinton to be elected. Their personal interests lie with her and the corrupt lobbyist system. Donald Trump has promised ot put an end to it. That in itself -- his promise to save the Republic from this insidious corrupting influence -- is reason enough to vote for him.