term limits for lawmakers

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Goshin

GriftKing
Veteran XX
GOP senators push for term limits - CNN.com

Washington (CNN) -- A handful of Republican senators have proposed a constitutional amendment to limit how long a person may serve in Congress.

Currently, there are no term limits for federal lawmakers, but Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, and several of his colleagues are advocating that service in the Senate be limited to 12 years, while lawmakers would only be allowed to serve six years in the House.

"Americans know real change in Washington will never happen until we end the era of permanent politicians," DeMint said in a statement released by his office. "As long as members have the chance to spend their lives in Washington, their interests will always skew toward spending taxpayer dollars to buyoff special interests, covering over corruption in the bureaucracy, fundraising, relationship building among lobbyists, and trading favors for pork -- in short, amassing their own power."

Two-thirds of the House and Senate would need to approve the amendment -- a stumbling block that short-circuited the idea 14 years ago. The new proposal echoes the Citizen Legislature Act, part of the original Contract with America proposed by Republicans before they won control of Congress in 1994.



this is exactly what i have been saying as well, term limit ideas included

this would be fantastic. Lets hope it works.
 
yeah, this will happen

it needs to a proposition posed in the next election. let the people decide this one directly.
 
I don't know if term limits are the solution to the problem. With one broad stroke of the bruch, both effective and ineffective legislators are removed from office once an expiration date has been reached.
 
96% incumbency rate, even in the face of blatant corruption. The average congressman serves 10 years before being replaced, usually because they ran for the senate or for a governorship. They spend most of that time campaigning for re-election, and the other half out of session. People are not ousted for being ineffective or corrupt, because nobody will deviate from a party line in districts so gerrymandered that it's unheard of to see an incumbent receive less than 70% of the vote...
 
Fool said:
96% incumbency rate, even in the face of blatant corruption. The average congressman serves 10 years before being replaced, usually because they ran for the senate or for a governorship. They spend most of that time campaigning for re-election, and the other half out of session. People are not ousted for being ineffective or corrupt, because nobody will deviate from a party line in districts so gerrymandered that it's unheard of to see an incumbent not receive less than 70% of the vote...
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How will that change with term limits? Hell in many ways it gives them incentive to be even more corrupt so that they can ensure they'll have a job even sooner at lobbying firm or corporation they helped out.
 
Not so sure I'd advocate for term limits in the Senate, though I do want the 17th Amendment repealed. Direct election of senators is a stupid idea; give it back to the state legislature which is more responsive to the people and more likely to throw out ineffective senators.

However I think the House has become a fucking joke compared to what was envisioned by the Founders. They were looking for 60% turnover every two years in that chamber. So I think instituting term limits there makes some sense.
 
Icey said:
Not so sure I'd advocate for term limits in the Senate, though I do want the 17th Amendment repealed. Direct election of senators is a stupid idea; give it back to the state legislature which is more responsive to the people and more likely to throw out ineffective senators.

However I think the House has become a fucking joke compared to what was envisioned by the Founders. They were looking for 60% turnover every two years in that chamber. So I think instituting term limits there makes some sense.
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Personally I think the Senate should be totally dropped. At the very least the filibuster shouldn't be allowed.
 
meh
someone who has served for 50 years has no idea how to run the country anymore
we become stagnant, prisoners to old ways of thinking, and just like a business, without change you get passed up and die

you can see this in the UK, and from Eddie Izzard's stand up on how the british empire fell.
 
I've never seen a convincing argument as to why term limits will actually bring us better lawmakers. I think it makes much more sense to focus on making elections more competitive (getting rid of gerrymandering for example) and to try to change the system so that it doesn't favor the two main parties so strongly. Then again, neither change will occur in the near future due to the fact that it hurts both parties.

Hell the bill in question is pointless since it won't pass (and the senator proposing it knows it). There are many senators/congressmen who produce bills instituting term limits, yet come back again election after election. They're just acting like they support them but obviously are just scoring points with the public that doesn't pay attention enough to realize he doesn't practice what he preaches.
 
I think it could work well with consecutive service limits. Instead of capping service in the House at 6 years, you can only serve 4 years in a row, followed by a 2 year break. If you are good, then you can beat the incumbent. Otherwise you can't and you have to wait 2 more, plus you have more cloud hanging over you for the primary for that year. That plus removing the 17th amendment ought to work.

Of course, our congress would never go for it, so we need to call a constitutional convention.
 
the best thing to do, i think, is to guarentee 30 second spots on all major channels for commericials for election stuff, and have a mandatory 5 debates or something between rivals. No other commericials allowed, by 'other' parties rooting for their favorite, or by the people running the campaign

take the money out of the equation
 
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