Congressional Term Limits

[Aristocatt]

I'm wondering if anyone here would be interested in taking up the following position.
"Congressional Term Limits would be good for the US"

For context as to why I am asking this...
A few days ago the issue of Congressional term limits was brought to my attention.  I have, for years now, been aware of how term limits(the lack thereof) have been handled in the US legislative branch, but I had not taken the time to research it.  So...I started researching it, and the more I look into it, the more difficult I am finding it to believe that Congressional term limits are a good thing.

I'll be the first to admit, that this has been a huge cognitive dissonance for me.  I was expecting to look into this a bit, and find that Congressional term limits are an obviously good thing, and a slam dunk policy to advocate...That's not what I found. 

So with that in mind, I am reaching out to a few different platforms, forums, peoples, etc to see if I can't find someone to steel-man the argument for Congressional term limits.  The approval rating for Congressional term limits is incredibly high, and has broad bipartisan support, so I know there are smart well meaning individuals that hold this position.  I'm hoping that by reaching out and engaging with others that I can be more confident in how I am approaching the issue, whether that is to be in support of it, to reject it, or to remain agnostic on it.

Mentioned above, but worth clarifying...Initially I was in support of Congressional term limits, and now I am agnostic on it...


So, with that in mind...what is the argument for instituting Congressional term limits!!!  I will take the position that Congressional term limits are NOT a good thing to help move the conversation forward.

[HappySkeptic]

I think that Senate term limits are more important than House term limits.

Senators rarely get voted out. That by itself is a problem. Either senators are just universally loved, or else the system gives them enormous advantages in re-election. If the second, that can entrench corruption.

[Aristocatt]

Why is it bad that senators don’t get voted out? Is it just a corruption concern?

[onlinebiker]

Politicians and diapers ahould be changed often and for the same reason.    Anonymous

[Apollo]

I'm wondering if anyone here would be interested in taking up the following position.
"Congressional Term Limits would be good for the US"

For context as to why I am asking this...
A few days ago the issue of Congressional term limits was brought to my attention.  I have, for years now, been aware of how term limits(the lack thereof) have been handled in the US legislative branch, but I had not taken the time to research it.  So...I started researching it, and the more I look into it, the more difficult I am finding it to believe that Congressional term limits are a good thing.

I'll be the first to admit, that this has been a huge cognitive dissonance for me.  I was expecting to look into this a bit, and find that Congressional term limits are an obviously good thing, and a slam dunk policy to advocate...That's not what I found. 

So with that in mind, I am reaching out to a few different platforms, forums, peoples, etc to see if I can't find someone to steel-man the argument for Congressional term limits.  The approval rating for Congressional term limits is incredibly high, and has broad bipartisan support, so I know there are smart well meaning individuals that hold this position.  I'm hoping that by reaching out and engaging with others that I can be more confident in how I am approaching the issue, whether that is to be in support of it, to reject it, or to remain agnostic on it.

Mentioned above, but worth clarifying...Initially I was in support of Congressional term limits, and now I am agnostic on it...


So, with that in mind...what is the argument for instituting Congressional term limits!!!  I will take the position that Congressional term limits are NOT a good thing to help move the conversation forward.

What is your reasoning in not supporting limits? What are the pros and cons in your mind?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The only way to do this would be by constitutional amendment, a process entirely in the hands of elected politicians.

 Good luck with that.

Boru

[Aristocatt]

What is your reasoning in not supporting limits? What are the pros and cons in your mind?

So that’s pretty much the thing...all of the things I assumed were pros, like decreasing corruption, decreasing lobbying, etc, appear to be cons(term limits make the problem either no better or they make it worse) I’m not sure if there are any pros.

Take just a basic example of whether or not term limits might broadly reduce corruption by changing their incentives...
https://economics.yale.edu/sites/default...071112.pdf
It doesn't seem to be the case that it makes the incentives any better, but it does appear to make them worse in the final year of an officials term.

We could drill down into the specifics of the kind of corruption we think we might be addressing too, and the data isn't very promising.

The wall that I am kind of hitting here, is I thought term limits were an obviously good thing until I started looking into it more. Now I have a bit of cognitive dissonance, with part of me being amazed at how ineffectual term limits are, and the other part thinking "I must just be missing something here". So I am trying to be as open ended with the question as I can to see how other people might frame their arguments.

---

The only way to do this would be by constitutional amendment, a process entirely in the hands of elected politicians.

 Good luck with that.

Boru

It isn't immediately clear to me that a state couldn't sue again and possibly overturn term limits v Thornton.  That had a pretty strong partisan split Dems(majority) Reps(Minority), and no one from the majority is in SCOTUS any more.

That would probably be the path of least resistance, to attempt to make it constitutional for individual states to mandate term limits for their Congressional officials.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The long the Congresscritter stays in office the more power they get. It's an advantage to a state to have very senior Congressmen, they get seats on the House Ways and Means committee. https://waysandmeans.house.gov/

[Aristocatt]

The long the Congresscritter stays in office the more power they get. It's an advantage to a state to have very senior Congressmen, they get seats on the House Ways and Means committee. https://waysandmeans.house.gov/

Yeah, that makes sense to me, I’m not sure it’s really a good or a bad thing though. Having experience, on the whole is probably a good thing, and it makes sense that more experienced congressional members would have more influence.

[Fireball]

Politicians and diapers should be changed often and for the same reason.    Anonymous

Mark Twain said it. One wise cat, right there.