President 2012: Rick Perry Proposes Making Congress Part-Time and Ending Lifetime Tenure for Federal Judges

Texas Governor Rick Perry has proposed a massive overhaul of the federal government.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced a proposal on Tuesday that ranks among the most radical plans to alter the federal government offered by any major Republican presidential candidate this year — and one that legal analysts say will almost surely never happen: making Congress operate part-time with half pay and ending lifetime tenure of federal judges.

“I don’t believe that Washington needs a new coat of paint, I think the whole place needs to be overhauled,” Mr. Perry said, speaking to applause from more than 100 people on the floor of the Schebler manufacturing plant. “I’m a true believer that we need to uproot, tear down and rebuild Washington, D.C., and our federal institutions.”

Mr. Perry proposed cutting the pay of Congress in half (or by three-fourths, under one scenario he sketched out) and halving both its budget and the time members spend in Washington.

“We have a lot of well-intentioned members of Congress, but they have become creatures of Washington,” Mr. Perry said. “They get paid more than three times the average American family and they have doubled their own budgets in the last decade.”

Mr. Perry also vowed to “reform” the federal judiciary. “Too many federal judges rule with impunity from the bench,” he said, “and those who legislate from the bench should not be entitled to lifetime abuse of their judicial authority.” He proposed 18-year terms, staggered every two years, for new Supreme Court justices, and suggested similar limits on federal appellate and district court judges.

It seems Perry is just trying to revive a failing campaign for the Presidency. This nonsense won’t do it.

Congress will never agree to limiting itself and the federal judiciary change will have to be via a Constitutional amendment.

This proposal is just “Hot Air.”