Yes

by Bill Yuska

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: January 11, 2010

Nothing declares the need for term limits more than the situation our country finds itself in today. We are involved in 2 wars, the disparity in wealth between the classes is widening, debt spending increasing, rising national debt, roads and bridges haven't been maintained, unemployment is on the rise, a disproportionate tax system and, our education system leaves all the children behind. This all came about because there are no term limits and those elected to office seek only power, influence and money for their own gain. 

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina said, "Americans know real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians. As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buy off special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fund raising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork - in short, amassing their own power."

Incumbents are courted by lobbyists because of their lengthy service and accept “campaign contributions” which are not available to an opponent choosing to run against the legislator from their home state. 

Committee chairmanships should be based on the merits of a legislator instead of the incumbent based seniority system used today.

There needs to be a “length of term limit” something where a legislator can only serve two terms and then be mandated to take a term off to live and experience the environment that developed while they were in office.

Today, these permanent politicians remain immune to the problems they created by promoting an agenda that favors special interests instead of meeting the needs of the people.  Elections will be more competitive by encouraging a wider range of candidates to seek election and provide more choices for the voter.

Qualified candidates of the same political party will be able to campaign where now politics prevent them from seeking election when an incumbent is running. Additionally, a prior legislator (having been out of office for one term)would be able to run and the people would get to decide if he was worthy enough to represent them again. 

This would insure that those elected were pursuing a desire to help promote the general welfare instead of their own specific interests.

Those who oppose term limits often state as a reason that the ballot box is sufficient to the task; however, a high level of complacency means many eligible voters don’t bother and we are stuck with the incumbent for another term as those in his district have been favored with pork spending to garner their vote.

Another claim is that experienced legislators will be lost but many of those seeking election were either former congressional staff members or state legislators and are well aware of the government process. A few good politicians could be lost but would be eligible to run again after sitting out for one term.

The freshman will offer different perspectives when looking at problems than those that have run out of ideas for solutions and given up finding plausible answers that don’t favor special interests.

Term limits would break ties to special interests and make lobbyists argue their cases based on merit as their long “relationships” were brought to an end and they couldn’t use money to curry favor. This in turn allows the legislator to stand for principals instead of choosing “the lesser of two evils”.

As congress would have no need to build large campaign funds by seeking contributions from lobbyists, the need for pork in spending bills would be drastically reduced because they don’t have to purchase needless items in order to prove to their districts that the deserve the vote.

More importantly, term limits will develop smaller government and increase voter participation as the people come to realize that not only can you fight city hall but you can win!

Term limits will provide: smaller government, less waste, bills argued on merit, and greater voter participation in their government which significantly outweighs losing any good politician for one term.

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