It is time for term limits. Recent polls indicate approval of Congress is just 24%. Tribal warfare between the two parties is at a modern-times high. Something has to change. Term limits could make huge difference in the way the House and Senate operate.
Currently, members of our House of Representatives spend as much as 50 percent of their time in their two-year terms “dialing for dollars” for their respective party. They are also preoccupied with fundraising for their own campaigns and running for office in their home district. Of their elected two years, these reelection requirements leave precious little time to address their legislative agenda, the very reason they were sent to Washington.
Term limits would help to address these problems. In addition, the House’s two-year terms could be increased to four years, with a limit of two terms. I argue that the Senate should do the same, including reducing terms to four-year terms for senators and limiting the number of terms to two.
Some background:
• In the House election periods from 1964 to 2018, about 90% of the incumbents were reelected.
• More than 80% or sitting senators were re-elected during that same period. Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has noted that, “We [senators] have term limits, they are called elections,” it’s obvious that elections have not served to limit the number of terms our elected officials serve.
• Fifteen state legislatures have already set limits on their own legislative terms, typically by instituting two four-year terms.
• Polls have reported that well over half of voters want term limits. In some polls, 80% favor term limits.
The term limit argument is not new. The primary advantage is that they encourage politicians to have the courage to do what is right rather than with an eye towards the next election. In fact, a two-term politician would only need to campaign once while in office.
In addition, term limits reduce the influence of corporate/special interests lobbying and help to bring new ideas and leadership to Congress.
There are disadvantages as well. Term limits would reduce the time effective politicians could serve, along with their ability to develop cooperative relationships with others in Congress. In addition, term limits have had little support from members of Congress, going back as far as 1943.
We should lobby our state legislators to be the 16th state to adopt term limits for its two legislative bodies, and push our elected congressional representatives to support and lead the move toward congressional term limits.
These changes would raise important questions about congressional leadership and committee assignments, the election cycles, including the initial transition, the roles of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee and pension contributions. However, these issues could be handled by leadership and a bipartisan committee addressing and hammering out the solutions.
Let term limits begin!
Bob Henson
Bob Henson, Salt Lake City, has a Ph.D. in business from the University of Utah and is a consulting business owner and manufacturing executive.
