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I know the easy approach here is for people to want an age limit in Congress, but I've always been more partial to a term limit. I'm sure there are plenty of h

I know the easy approach here is for people to want an age limit in Congress, but I've always been more partial to a term limit. I'm sure there are plenty of hypotheses as to why this happens, but whatever the cause elected officials seem to have an extremely easy go of getting re-elected these days. The increasing average age in Congress is just a side effect of that in my opinion.

banannaise 3y ago
The problem with term limits is that they don't apply to lobbyists. Lobbyists basically writing most of the legislation is already a major problem, and it becomes worse when all the representatives are new to the office.
- noirbot 3y ago
  This is somewhat the difficulty of balancing the needs of governments. A short term/term limit leads to more inexperienced people doing the job. That's good in some ways - keeping new ideas coming in or keeping people from doing the job far too long. On the other hand, it means some large portion of the legislature is people who are more or less still learning. The process of writing good law that avoids unnecessary downsides, or simply understands the downsides and works to mitigate them isn't something you can just pick up over a weekend, especially when there aren't many people to learn it from. As you say, it's easy to point to the folks who have been in office forever as being an issue, but there's also staff and lobbyists and other unelected roles that are hard to get rid of the influence of. At the end of the day, someone needs to be the expert, either on the vast array of issues that can come up in national government, or in how to actually do something about those issues.
- rdedev 3y ago
  Wouldn't term limits atleast slightly mitigate this issue? Harder to be buddy buddy with the person in power of they keep changing every other term or two. But you are right about the influence of lobbyists. It's very messed up when an unknown unelected person can write parts of a law as is and get away with it
  - alistairSH 3y ago
    No, the term limit just shifts power from members of Congress to their staff members.
- beej71 3y ago
  99% tax on political donations received seems like a decent plan to me. KNK
- flagrant_taco 3y ago
  One really interesting question there, how much of the work is really don't by the elected official? If a lot of the "real" work is done by the staffers, career government workers, etc then the politician really is the public face and occasionally redirecting the ship. I'd say there is less risk there and more to gain from fresh faces and opinions in that spot, again if that's how the workload shakes out behind the scenes
  - Clubber 3y ago
    Many times the lobbyists actually write the laws, so that's off their plate too.
- pauldenton 3y ago
  Lobbyists are just part of it. The revolving door means politicians can become lobbyists when they hit their term limit and lobbyists can become politicians where there is an opening. Amakudari is what Japan has, the so called descent from heaven. They fixed the revolving door by making it go one way. Government officials retire to lucrative corporate jobs in their retirement, but they can never get back in to Heaven

banannaise 3y ago

The problem with term limits is that they don't apply to lobbyists. Lobbyists basically writing most of the legislation is already a major problem, and it becomes worse when all the representatives are new to the office.

noirbot 3y ago
This is somewhat the difficulty of balancing the needs of governments. A short term/term limit leads to more inexperienced people doing the job. That's good in some ways - keeping new ideas coming in or keeping people from doing the job far too long. On the other hand, it means some large portion of the legislature is people who are more or less still learning. The process of writing good law that avoids unnecessary downsides, or simply understands the downsides and works to mitigate them isn't something you can just pick up over a weekend, especially when there aren't many people to learn it from. As you say, it's easy to point to the folks who have been in office forever as being an issue, but there's also staff and lobbyists and other unelected roles that are hard to get rid of the influence of. At the end of the day, someone needs to be the expert, either on the vast array of issues that can come up in national government, or in how to actually do something about those issues.
rdedev 3y ago
Wouldn't term limits atleast slightly mitigate this issue? Harder to be buddy buddy with the person in power of they keep changing every other term or two. But you are right about the influence of lobbyists. It's very messed up when an unknown unelected person can write parts of a law as is and get away with it
- alistairSH 3y ago
  No, the term limit just shifts power from members of Congress to their staff members.
beej71 3y ago
99% tax on political donations received seems like a decent plan to me. KNK
flagrant_taco 3y ago
One really interesting question there, how much of the work is really don't by the elected official? If a lot of the "real" work is done by the staffers, career government workers, etc then the politician really is the public face and occasionally redirecting the ship. I'd say there is less risk there and more to gain from fresh faces and opinions in that spot, again if that's how the workload shakes out behind the scenes
- Clubber 3y ago
  Many times the lobbyists actually write the laws, so that's off their plate too.
pauldenton 3y ago
Lobbyists are just part of it. The revolving door means politicians can become lobbyists when they hit their term limit and lobbyists can become politicians where there is an opening. Amakudari is what Japan has, the so called descent from heaven. They fixed the revolving door by making it go one way. Government officials retire to lucrative corporate jobs in their retirement, but they can never get back in to Heaven