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Bad idea that sounds like a good idea until you discover that it actually leads to greater special interest influence because nobody in Congress knows how to do
by waterphone 10y ago
Bad idea that sounds like a good idea until you discover that it actually leads to greater special interest influence because nobody in Congress knows how to do anything so lobbyists just do it for them. http://prospect.org/article/populist-road-hell-term-limits-california http://prospect.org/article/populist-road-hell-term-limits-c...
- finid 10y agoA reasonable term limit has to be in place. A person who has been in the Senate since 1986, like John McCain, should have been out of there if term limits were in place. Thirty years is a long time to be elected, re-elected and re-elected and ...
- zaphods-towel 10y agoI don't see what the problem is with that? The term limits on the president are in place because he has such an inordinate amount of power. I am concerned about a president trying to seize non-democratic power. Not so for a Senator. Can you explain more about why you think reps need term limits?
- ViViDboarder 10y agoYup. I'd rather see a term limit in the Supreme Court. Doubt that's going to happen any time soon...
- nommm-nommm 10y agoSupreme Court doesn't have "term limits" so they can make legal decisions without worrying about being replaced.
- Mathnerd314 10y agohttp://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/charlie-daniels/charlie-daniels-our-system-was-not-designed-career-politicians http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/charlie-daniels/charlie-da... Basically, without term limits, politics turns into a game of power plays and re-election campaigns, instead of actually representing the constituents.
- zaphods-towel 10y agoInteresting. I definitely hear that, and I find that argument somewhat convincing. On the other hand, I worry a wholeee lot about term limits encouraging a revolving door between public and private work. I guess the ideal solution would be an appropriately-sized term limit: not too short and not too long? Or perhaps shorter term limits & some other way of protecting against revolving door behavior. Thanks for sharing the article!
- finid 10y agoDo you realize how much power and influence a Senator like John McCain has? Are you not concerned about that?
- zaphods-towel 10y agoWell, I'm certainly not worried about some specific senator trying to seize more power than they already have— there are too many other powerful (& more powerful) people in the government who would stop them. If term limits for reps/senators were instituted, I would be very worried about that supporting a "revolving door" between public & private work. I would much prefer to have career politicians in those positions than to have people serving short times and then getting a big payout from private sector depending on how well they served those private interests.
- joesb 10y agoI wonder one thing. How are you going to pickup who to run as a president, since usually most presidents candidates (except Trump, obviously) comes from senators and congress? Where would candidates like Bernie Sanders be if he is not in congress for so long?
- Mathnerd314 10y agoCongress is different from state legislatures in that a lot of its laws create agencies, and those agencies preserve institutional knowledge (e.g., the FDA, FBI, etc.). There's a reasonable argument that Congressmen shouldn't need to know any specialized knowledge. If the law is so obscure that only lawyers can interpret it, that's a bug, not a feature.