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seawulf575's avatar

Do you support term limits for congress?

Asked by seawulf575 (17137points) January 5th, 2019

I found this article:

https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-term-limit-amendment-term-senate-2019-1

Ted Cruz and the Repubs are proposing term limits for congress…two terms for senate and 3 terms for House. Is this something you think is a good idea or should it be avoided?

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16 Answers

chyna's avatar

I think it is a great idea. I think some of these people get in there and stay way beyond their usefulness. We had a senator in WV that was very much loved, but he was well into his 90’s before he retired and he was so unhealthy, there was no way he was making informed decisions to vote.

MrGrimm888's avatar

Absolutely. Trump claimed that he would accomplish this. I’m waiting….

KNOWITALL's avatar

Yes!! And salary reductions as well.

Darth_Algar's avatar

I’m not in favor of term limits so much as a mandatory retirement age. But hell, if we’re going to implement term limits then make it 6 terms for the House.

Darth_Algar's avatar

But in all honesty I think this is just political theater. Ted Cruz can propose it because he knows it has no chance of going anywhere, but by the proposal he can look good to his constituents.

Think someone like Mitch McConnell, now in his 6th term as a Senator, really wants term limits?

si3tech's avatar

YES!! Retroactively! “nunc pro tunc”

filmfann's avatar

No. Why rid the House and Senate of the people who know how to make it work?
We currently have a president who doesn’t understand civics. How much worse if congress doesn’t either?

Darth_Algar's avatar

Yeah, it’s weird. Politics seems to be the only field where career experience is considered a bad thing.

zenvelo's avatar

I want term limits for your Congressman and Senators. Not mine!

Seriously, ther should be a mechanism for people to vote out Represnetatives from other Districts. The Nazi White Supremacist Steven King of Iowa comes to mind.

LadyMarissa's avatar

I believe in term limits for every elected official!!! I remember 1 senator who serve 48 years in the Senate. He even switched parties 2 times. He lived to be 100. The last 20 years of his service, he was out of his mind & he had aids who “handled” him telling him what to say. Even before that he had aids who stayed with him to feed him the name of the person getting ready to speak to him.He was chairman of many of the important committees so he was important to his party & they knew that they could control him. Even IF the limits are weak, I think that they should be knocked out of office after several terms!!!

LostInParadise's avatar

No. It takes time to become an effective legislator. Having term limits would also increase pressure on congressmen to establish close connections with outside interest groups so that they have a job waiting for them when they are forced to leave office. Brookings Institute article

ragingloli's avatar

I am for a public corruption index and limit and intracranial detonators.
As soon as one of these people get too many corporate “donations”, for example, if their corporate total exceeds the amount received from actual people, their heads explode.
Counting starts from the moment they run for office.

rojo's avatar

I agree with @LadyMarissa Term limits for all elected officials. The job should be a service to community and nation, not a way to make a permanent living.
And, while some may think it takes time to become an effective legislator, that time is usually used in learning how to game the system for personal advantage.
Also, by setting limits it gives the elected official the opportunity to do the job without having to spend the majority of their time running for the office and groveling for the funding necessary to do so. So, increase the length of term and limit the number of times you can hold that office.

rojo's avatar

@ragingloli there was also a suggestion that elected officials should have to wear patches on their suits that identified their donor/benefactors much like race car drivers. I always thought this an excellent idea.

zenvelo's avatar

I would rather propose a law that says you can take contributions from anyone, but voting on any legislation that affects one of your donors is bribery.

Zaku's avatar

I much prefer @ragingloli‘s suggestion.

I am afraid that term limits is it’s a gut-reaction wrong solution that hopes to fix corruption and rotten eggs.

The huge problem that sadly isn’t noticed by the jerking knees of its supporters, is that there are sometimes really good senators and reps.

Term limits would mean we couldn’t keep Bernie Sanders or other good people in the senate.

It’s easy as sin for the nasty wealthy elements to replace their corrupt pawns in government, but it’s difficult to replace the few really good folks.

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