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Not having term limits promotes corruption. It makes everything more about "looking good" to the majority, and thus winning re-election, than about accomplishing anything that needs to be done.
It also helps to breed an "insider's group" where all the buddies can sweep each other's misconduct under the rug.
No way. We have term limits already. It's called the voters.
In any job, there is a learning curve. I don't see how keeping a permanent group of amateurs in office helps us.
If you think that all government is bad, I can see why you'd support term limits. You wouldn't want anyone to become experienced enough so that they can actually be productive and act as mentors for more junior representatives.
Experience is good, in whatever job you have. A desire to constantly "throw the bums out" is based on a pessimism that I don't have in me.
Great points... it makes sense to term-limit Presidents as the executive has more inherent power than a large diffuse body... if you don't like your congressperson, vote him/her out of office.
No way. We have term limits already. It's called the voters.
In any job, there is a learning curve. I don't see how keeping a permanent group of amateurs in office helps us.
If you think that all government is bad, I can see why you'd support term limits. You wouldn't want anyone to become experienced enough so that they can actually be productive and act as mentors for more junior representatives.
Experience is good, in whatever job you have. A desire to constantly "throw the bums out" is based on a pessimism that I don't have in me.
Experience is great. If that is to be utilized correctly and without corruption perhaps more congressional oversight needs to be implemented.
Things like yearly audits by the IRS for the politician and his immediate family that lasts his term(s) and five to ten years afterwards. Maybe a prohibition on a politician ever becoming a lobbyist, and for the staff of a congressmen being prohibited from becoming lobbyists. I would also extend that to the children and spouses of politicians as well. Maybe not paying them six figures a year -- they should earn the median income of their state and no more. And retirement benefits? Not unless they have a 401K account with their civilian job.
There seems to be alot of controversy lately (well, over the past 40 years) about Congress being corrupt and only serving their own interests (to get reelected). Some people believe that it is time for term limits. It does have it's merits, it would slow down the influence of lobbyists because they wouldn't be able to work on one person for 40 years. It could allow for all states to be totally equally represented because senior members get important committee assignments, therefore if one Congressman is the chairman of the Ways and Means committee, he will likely remain it for several years, thus leading to one state or district being disproportionally represented for a very long time, term limits would remove this.
There are other benefits, as well as drawbacks, the main being that genuinely good Congressmen may be forced into retirement. The second, if you have a very senior member of Congress in your district, you will likely get alot of pork (Jack Murtha or Sen. Stevens anyone?) which does tend to benefit only one district.
The idea isn't radical, and it could be implemented just as the 22nd amendment (establishing term limits for Presidents was, just 58 years ago).
So should we have term limits, and I am attaching a poll for how long they should be.
I've long agreed with term limits of some type. The ancient Athenians knew the pitfalls of excessive incumbendy, and had term limits for some of their officials too. It's not a new idea. I'd have a modified version.
1. 5 consecutive terms for the House. They can run again, but only after at least six years out of congress.
2. 2 or 3 consecutive terms for senators. They can run again, but only after one term out
Sure you lose a few really good guys, but there are so few of them it's not worth preserving--besides if they really want to come back, then they can--in six years! And the whole "elections = term limits" part is technically true, but how many stupid voters have you found in your district? Exactly! .
I think 4-6 years is too short of a time. I've seen how the Army used to rotate it's officer's every 2-4 years, and it usually takes until their 3rd year in a staff position to really be a master of a topic, usually. My Army agency was a mostly civilian group in the business of running ocean cargo ports, war planning from a transport perspective, moving household goods, transportation of freight of all kinds, dealing with transport policy or laws and a lot of data processing. These are often complex and/or legal issues that few officers are ever trained for, so their first couple of years is a huge learning curve; beyond which most of them got very competent, though a few were just socialites.
I'm sure that finding yourself in Congress as a Rep, sitting on a committee that deals with complex issues, is the same kind of learning curve. I do want some continuity on these committees, but not decades-long tenure. I think 12 years is the max, two terms for a Senator and 6 terms for a Congressman. But they'd not be on the same committees for all that time, that's where the real games are played, making policy and prioritizing how funds are spent or raised. Right now, you get these old goats who've been on the same committee for decades and nothing changes. Case is point is/was the DEM from Michigan who chaired the committee that oversaw issues dealing with the auto industry. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to why our nation, to this day, does not have a national transportation policy that favors rail and transit instead of our massive spending on highways and why virtually ALL of our families need 2-3 cars to get around?
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