Paul West's article on term limits ("Idea of term limits for Congress gets new wave of support," March 30) was objective and non-partisan, as it should be. But such an approach ignores the central problem with the idea of term limits: They will not solve the problem of the corrosive influence of money on public policy. And that money comes primarily from lobbyists stalking the halls of power, which makes term limits nothing more than a gimmick that is easily circumvented.

Politicians will gladly step down after their term is up so they can get hired as lobbyists and have as much or even more influence than they did while in office. What's lost in the rhetoric against government is that when government misbehaves, it does so at the behest of financial interests in the private sector. If people want real change, let's attack the problem at its heart: the corporate elites who corrupt our politicians. And a good start would be to ban lobbyists from Washington. No more politicians jumping careers from lobbyist to elected office and back again -- an obvious conflict of interest!

Charles Hilton, Sparrows Point