Rep. Comer Says His Constituents 'Were the Most Excited About Term Limits'

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said of all the issues raised by conservative Republicans in the 118th Congress, his constituents were most excited about the intention to vote on term-limits for lawmakers.

“The people in Kentucky back home this weekend were excited about the changes in the rules,” Comer told Fox News on Monday morning.

“They were the most excited about term limits. This is something that Republicans campaigned on every election. But yet we haven’t had a term limits vote in the six years I’ve been in Congress. I’m glad we’re going to do that, and finally do the things we campaigned on and will serve us well moving forward.”

Comer said something similar on Sunday, when he appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I represent an overwhelmingly Republican district that Trump won by nearly 50 points the first election, when he got elected the first time,” Comer said:

“They — they constantly seem disappointed that Republicans aren’t able to do the things that Republicans say they’re going to do, like, for example, vote for a term limits bill. That is overwhelmingly popular among conservative voters in America. Republicans always campaign for Congress in two things. They say we’re going to pass a term limits bill and we’re going to pass a balanced budget amendment. But yet those two votes are neither voted on.

“So I understand the — the frustration that a lot of new members, a lot of new conservatives have. And, you know, they drew a line in the sand on some of these bills that we always campaign on but we never seem to vote on. And I’m — I’m confident Kevin (McCarthy) has heard from our conference that we want to vote on these things. And — and I’m confident that we’ll do it.

“Look, it’s going to be a tough job. That’s why nobody else tried to run for Speaker.”

Comer said he believes that Kevin McCarthy is the right man for the job: “And I was proud to not only support him; I nominated him on the House floor for speaker.”

Host Chuck Todd noted that a term-limits bill and a balanced budget amendment have no chance of passing in a divided Congress: “What’s the point of passing (them)?” Todd asked:

“A lot of times, as you know, Chuck, you have to take bills through numerous sessions of Congress before they finally become law,” Comer said:

“More and more candidates will run for the U.S. Senate and claim that they support term limits and they support a balanced budget amendment.

“I think you have two coming into the Senate now from the House, Ted Budd and Markwayne Mullin, that would support that. They replace members of the Senate that probably wouldn’t have voted for that.

“So we’ve got to start taking steps to make fundamental change in America. And I’ve always said, from my first campaign for Congress to today, that if we want to fundamentally change Congress, the two things that we can do today is pass a term limits bill and pass a balanced budget amendment. Because if there’s not a balanced budget amendment, I don’t have a lot of confidence that Congress is ever going to balance the budget.”

Comer agreed that Democrats seem to be more united than the fractious Republicans are: “I don’t dispute that, but here’s the reason,” he said:

“Democrats unite around spending money. Whenever you have an unlimited amount of money and you can promise every Democrat any amount of money, any earmark, any new social program, they’re always going to get on board in the end.

“You look at the Republicans, we want to actually balance the budget, which means we’re going to have to make spending cuts in every area of state government except Social Security and Medicare. And that’s a lot tougher job. So it’s going to be tougher for Republicans to get to 218, but I believe we will.”

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