OPINION:
Hunter Biden’s misadventures have entered a new chapter in which the first son may yet wind up a convict. While his legal woes appear well earned, his case illustrates the ease of corrupting Washington elites — and their families. The need to extend term limits to members of Congress has seldom been more apparent.
President Biden’s son strutted from a Secret Service SUV into a Delaware federal courthouse Wednesday to complete a deal — carefully arranged with his father’s Department of Justice — in which he would plead guilty to two tax fraud misdemeanors and skirt a gun felony charge altogether with good behavior.
He stormed out later with his case blown apart after Judge Maryellen Noreika surprised the defense with her unwillingness to fold, spindle or mutilate the law. The ride back to the White House, where Hunter has reportedly been making frequent extended stays, must have been colorful.
Hunter Biden might as well be stamped with the label “a product of privilege.” Just 3 years old when his father kicked off his daily commute from Delaware to the U.S. Senate, Hunter was raised on the rewards of a potent Democratic household.
Heading off to Georgetown University, he wound up in the thick of Washington ways himself. Yale Law School took him away geographically, if not politically.
Supporters eager to please his father provided Hunter with steady employment. Delaware-based bank MBNA, whose employees showered the longtime senator with campaign cash, hired and propelled him up the corporate ladder to vice president.
Hunter was appointed a board member at Amtrak, his father’s choice method of travel, by Republican President George W. Bush in an apparent trade with Senate Democrats to move forward on other nominations.
A bewildering series of startup consultancies followed, which Hunter advanced using the Biden name. Along the way, he raked in millions around the world with dubious accounting methods that may have finally caught up with him.
Moreover, his legal troubles have exposed evidence that whistleblowers name President Biden as chairman of the international business schemes that have raised suspicions of influence peddling and bribery.
Leveraging political power for self-enrichment is Washington at its dirtiest. With the elder Biden defending his seat — as a senator, vice president and finally as president — Hunter has known little but the advantages of proximity to political power for most of his 53 years.
That’s why term limits for members of Congress are simply common sense. The idea gained momentum with the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America, but the Supreme Court in 1995 made it clear in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton that only an amendment to the Constitution could limit congressional terms.
Toward that end, Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina proposed a constitutional amendment in January that would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the House of Representatives to three two-year terms.
An overwhelming 83% of registered voters favor such an amendment, according to the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.
Had such an amendment been in effect when the elder Biden began his 36-year Senate career, he would have been forced to relinquish his ambitions in 1985, after a dozen years of service. In that case, Americans would likely have been spared ever knowing the lurid details of the younger Biden’s escapades.
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