Opinion: Term Limits

It’s not exactly a controversial opinion to say that you are in favor of instituting term limits for Congress—a vast majority (5 out of 6) Americans are in favor of amending our Constitution to establish such term limits. But while saying you are in pro-term limits wouldn’t rock the boat, actually doing so would mark a major change to how our Congress and entire federal government operates, for the better. In order to best make this change, understanding the best arguments of the opposition is essential. Analyzing a Brookings Institute article, point by point, will make more visible the good arguments in favor of term limits. 

  • Taking Power Away From Voters

The first argument given against Congressional term limits by the Brookings Institute is that it would limit the power of the voters; when they want to vote for someone but they are not able to because of term limits. However, setting up term limits would do exactly the opposite. In our current political system, people don’t majorly impact the candidates who are on the ballot. Incumbents have a major advantage, especially in their primary races. Right now, people often just vote for the incumbent because of the advantages they have. However, with term limits, fresh candidates would be given the opportunity to represent people. Term limits allow voters to pick new candidates when compared to our current system which heavily favors incumbents and limits voter choice. 

  • Severely Decreasing Congressional Capacity

The next argument given against term limits is that older statesmen are better equipped to run the government. This, however, is not some major issue to be considered. So much of how the government is run is not done directly by congresspeople, instead being done by staffers and lobbyists. The actual congressperson is just one cog in the machine of how their office operates; their inexperience would not shut operation down. Additionally, term limits—though not specified in length—would still likely give people enough time to learn how to effectively be a congressman. A helpful analogy is to the average college student: they learn how to succeed in their own path in less than 4 years. If a college student could do it, why not a congressman?

  • Limiting incentives for gaining policy expertise

The next argument against term limits is that congress people would stop trying to become experts during their time in office. Countering this point, it is again helpful to compare a congressman to a college student: even though we have an end-time, we still become experts in what we need to know for the remaining time that we have. If a representative is unable to serve for a needlessly long period of time, that would not excuse them from trying to learn more about what they would need to know. Additionally, lobbyists and staffers already form a major part of the knowledge pool in Washington DC. Even if congress people stop trying to become experts in necessary fields—which I disagree with—supporters of these congressmen will keep up being experts. 

  • Automatically kicking out effective lawmakers

The next argument is that effective lawmakers will be kicked out of their jobs with term limits. Again, it is helpful to recognize that staffers and lobbyists have so much sway in how Washington DC is run. When one congressmen is term limited, the staffers and lobbyists will likely move on to support someone else. The efficiency, which is largely impacted by the support staff a congressman has, could easily transfer to someone else. 

  • Does little to minimize corruptive behavior or slow the revolving door

The final argument that the Brookings Institute makes is that term limits will do little to diminish the corrupt behavior of congress people or stop the revolving door of representatives becoming lobbyists. This, I find, is their most powerful argument. Even with term limits, congressmen will rely too heavily on lobbyists and people who do not have the best interests of the public in mind. Additionally, people in congress will still use their time in the legislature to springboard into lobbying roles. However, these problems already exist. The benefits of term limits outweigh the negligent effect of term limits on these nasty sides of government. 

Knowing what opponents are saying is necessary when you want to make some major change. People are vastly in support of term limits, but knowing what dissenters are saying and how to effectively argue against them can move our system to a better place. 

"For the first time since the beginning of the 114th Congress, Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meet in the U.S. Capitol" by SpeakerBoehner is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

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