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From Sen. DeMint’s Press Release:

Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) introduced an amendment to the United States Constitution that would apply term limits to all members of Congress, limiting U.S. Representatives to three terms and U.S. Senators to two terms in office. The amendment is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). As an amendment to the Constitution, it would require a two-thirds majority vote approval in the House and Senate and must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

Check out the text of the amendment:

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled
3 (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the fol
4 lowing article is proposed as an amendment to the Con
5 stitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all
6 intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when
7 ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several
8 States:

1 ‘‘ARTICLE—
2 ‘‘SECTION 1. No person who has served three terms
3 as a Representative shall be eligible for election to the
4 House of Representatives. For purposes of this section,
5 the election of a person to fill a vacancy in the House of

6 Representatives shall be included as one term in deter
7 mining the number of terms that such person has served
8 as a Representative if the person fills the vacancy for more
9 than one year.
10 ‘‘SECTION 2. No person who has served two terms
11 as a Senator shall be eligible for election or appointment
12 to the Senate. For purposes of this section, the election
13 or appointment of a person to fill a vacancy in the Senate
14 shall be included as one term in determining the number
15 of terms that such person has served as a Senator if the
16 person fills the vacancy for more than three years.
17 ‘‘SECTION 3. No term beginning before the date of
18 the ratification of this article shall be taken into account
19 in determining eligibility for election or appointment under
20 this article.’’.

I have always been mixed about term limits, but this is indeed an interesting constitutional amendment.

I wonder how many entrenched Senators and Representatives would be in favor of this. It may be hard to get 2/3, but 3/4 of the States very well may be on board.

Semper Fi! From Wikipedia:

The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on 10 November 1775, to raise 2 battalions of Marines. That date is regarded and celebrated as the date of the Marine Corps’ “birthday”. At the end of the American Revolution, both the Continental Navy and Continental Marines were disbanded in April 1783. Although individual Marines stayed on for the few American naval vessels left, the last Continental Marine was discharged in September 1783. The institution itself would not be resurrected until 1798. In that year, in preparation for the Naval War with France, Congress created the United States Marine Corps.^[25] Marines had been enlisted by the War Department as early as August 1797^[26] for service in the new build frigates authorized by Congress. The “Act to provide a Naval Armament” of March 18, 1794^[27] authorizing them had specified the numbers of Marines to be recruited for each frigate.

Pittsburgh’s Mayor Says He’ll Pursue 1% Higher-Ed Tax (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) (H/T TaxProf Blog)

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl plans to propose a 1% college-education privilege tax to council today, in a move that’s likely to set off a fight with the city’s schools of higher learning.

College and university representatives met with the mayor on Wednesday and argued against the tax, which would be assessed on a college student’s tuition. It technically would not be a levy on the students or their schools, but rather on the privilege of getting a higher education in Pittsburgh. …

The tuition tax would raise around $16 million a year.

This is right out of Atlas Shrugged. Tax the producers and those obtaining higher education in order to redistribute that money to moochers. Really Pittsburgh?

How about you encourage producers to obtain a College tuition, so that one day they can perhaps rebuild and revitalize your city? Who is Ben Roethlisberger, err John Galt?

The Washington Examiner reports, Pfizer abandons site of infamous Kelo eminent domain taking (H/T Professor K. on FB)

The private homes that New London, Conn., took away from Suzette Kelo and her neighbors have been torn down. Their former site is a wasteland of fields of weeds, a monument to the power of eminent domain.

But now Pfizer, the drug company whose neighboring research facility had been the original cause of the homes’ seizure, has just announced that it is closing up shop in New London.

To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to the land Pfizer was buying for next-to-nothing. Suzette Kelo fought the taking to the Supreme Court, and lost. Five justices found this redevelopment met the constitutional hurdle of “public use.”

Pfizer Inc. will shut down its massive New London research and development headquarters and transfer most of the 1,400 people working there to Groton, the pharmaceutical giant said Monday….

Pfizer is now deciding what to do with its giant New London offices, and will consider selling it, leasing it and other options, a company spokeswoman said.

This tragedy of property rights reveals the pitfalls of eminent domain takings for private development. Suzette Kelo’s home was taken by eminent domain. Years later, Pfizer abandoned the property, but Kelo’s little pink house was no longer (thought it was moved across town).

Scott Bullock, put it succinctly “This shows the folly of these redevelopment projects that use massive taxpayer subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare and abuse eminent domain.”

For shame.

Update: Thanks for the Hat Tip Professor Somin.

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