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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS
(AND SOME REASONABLY GOOD ANSWERS)
Q. We already have term limits. It’s called elections. We don't need a new law.
A. In the ‘olden days’ (say 50 years ago or more) Congress had reelection rates closer to 50-60%, which caused a healthy turnover of seats. Today, a Congressperson can expect to get reelected 99% of the time, whether or not he does a good job, and sometimes even when he does a lousy or crooked job. Why? Well, because the pols have figured out how to ‘work the system’.
For example:
a. They can get free media exposure to get name recognition. Challengers must pay for the same.
b. They know that voters are apathetic, and vote for “the name they’ve heard of”, not for new names.
c. The higher the reelect %, the fewer the challengers willing to run, thus they have less competition.
d. The higher his seniority, the more ‘pork’ he is able to deliver. National taxpayers pay for local benefits)
e. Congress has distorted legislative redistricts to guarantee reelections and discourage challengers.
The only people against Term Limits are Congress itself and the special interests who deal with them, who donot like the idea of having to develop new relationships with fresh Congresspeople who might have fresh ideas. Yes, we need Term Limits to end 99% reelection rates.
Q. Term limits would force out ‘good’ politicians. Is this smart?
A. True, but we have no idea how many really good people donot run for office because of the near impossibility of beating an incumbent. And remember, tenure corrupts, so that many ‘good politicians’ will turn sour after being too long in office. Furthermore, a ‘good’ Representative can always run for the Senate and likely win. A 'good' Senator could run for the House and win. And there's always the governor's office!
Q. Experienced politicians would be forced out just when they ‘learned the ropes’ and achieved enough seniority to get key committee positions. Isn’t that a bad idea?
A. How much time does your boss allow you to 'learn the ropes'? Certainly not more than a few weeks or months, not years! The current system runs on seniority, which protects and delivers mediocrity. A term limited Congress would end seniority. (When practically everybody is a freshman, who needs seniority?) Then they would favor a merit-based system where talented, effective people will achieve power, based on the merit votes of their peers in Congress.
Q. When all the ‘experienced’ pols are gone, won’t the staffs and lobbyists run Congress?
A. There is no question that a relatively ‘permanent’ staff does embody the skills and institutional memory required for any Congressional office to operate smoothly. However, opposing these factors there is the real power that the type of people who run for, and win the office, bring to that office. The new incumbent can hire and fire, and demand that the staff produce the bills and other results that he is determined to accomplish during his tenure, so that he can win reelection. He is very unlikely to accept significant procedures and policy positions pushed on him that are at odds with his own agenda.
Q. Term limits is not democratic. It prevents voters from choosing to reelect who they want.
A. Is a 99.3% reelection rate democratic? Remember that this number covers all 535 members of Congress. Doesn’t your own commonsense tell you that something must be out-of-whack? Is it even remotely conceivable that all the politicians in the Congress deserve unlimited reelection? Remember, for many years, polls have given Congress very low approval ratings! And the recent 110th Congress has reached all-time lows of 9%
Q. You really don’t believe we can ever get Congress to move on this, do you?
A. Yes I do believe it. I have enough faith in the commonsense of the American people that I expect that one day they will rise up and demand term limits for Congress. I’m only trying to expedite it. Remember, local and statewide term limits are currently spreading around the country. It is only a matter of time before people ask "Why not Congress?" Furthermore, when enough state legislators are term limited, they too will ask "Why not Congress?".
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