Bush Stumps for Wilson, Backs Call to Limit Terms

As Congress approaches a resolution to the budget negotiations that have strained voters’ patience, President Bush said in a breakfast visit to Orange County this morning that the way to avoid the problem in the future is to limit the terms of politicians.

“It puts the power back into the hands of the people,” the President told an audience in Irvine gathered to raise money for Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Wilson.

“That is one way to correct the abuse of power and the unbridled influence of an entrenched congressional staff,” he said. “I say it’s an idea whose time has come.”

Like Wilson, Bush called for support of Proposition 140 on the Nov. 6 California ballot. Fueled by public frustration with the budget controversy as well as recent political scandals in Sacramento and Washington, polls indicate Prop. 140 has tapped a well of frustration among the electorate and appears likely to pass.

Bush added that the same policy should be applied to members of Congress.

“The 1988 Republican platform supports limiting the terms of members of Congress,” he said. “That was 1988--we’re not just jumping on the bandwagon, that was in our platform.”

Wilson, who is in Washington to vote on the budget agreement being negotiated in Congress, spoke to the breakfast crowd via telephone.

And, like Bush, he praised Orange County as the seat of California’s Republican strength.

“I think a political party, like a nation, should have an elite fighting force,” Wilson said. “Well, in California, for Republicans, ours is in Orange County.”