Proposed Amendment on Term Limits
“Each U.S. Representative and Senator shall serve no more than 12 consecutive years, or shall serve no more than 18 non-consecutive years.”
Reasoning for the Amendment on Term Limits
Term limits for members of Congress are absolutely necessary. Why do we need term limits? Term limits are necessary to ensure that our representatives are connected with the people.
When a representative works far away from his district, he loses touch with the people he is supposed to represent. Furthermore, Washington DC is nothing like America. Most representatives begin to lose all common sense and integrity after working in DC for a few years. Therefore, as the representative works for many years away from his district he loses touch with his constituents, and at the same time gets absorbed into the DC culture. The best system is to have a continuous refreshing of representatives in our nation’s capitol.
Why are term limits necessary if we have elections?
One of the arguments against term limits is that elections naturally eliminate the representatives who are not representing the people. This is not true. The fact is that elections alone rarely replace unethical representatives.
Replacing an incumbent is generally difficult to do. The incumbent has the political connections and the media connections to promote himself. He can use his connections to portray a positive public image and spin his negative history. Unless there is a great uprising, most people will vote for incumbents, including incumbents that have behaved poorly.
Furthermore, almost rarely does a person challenge an incumbent from his own party. The money and political support will go to the incumbent, no matter how unethical, rather than the challenger. However, if we have term limits then there will be an automatic opening for new challengers within each party every few years.
Why 12 years?
I have believed in term limits as a principle for a long time, yet it was only recently that I decided the specific number of 12 years. There are several approaches to the reasoning.
First consider that the term of a Senator is six years. Therefore the term limit must be a multiple of six. Also, most term limits for offices are set for 2 or 3 terms. Two terms for a Senator is 12 years. Three terms is 18 years.
Then take that same 12 years for a Representative. Twelve years for a Representative is equivalent to six terms. That seems like plenty of terms in office to me.
Now let us take the 12 years and see how it compares to a normal life. Start the clock after you graduate from college. You travel the world, you start a business, you raise a family…you do all this while your Congressman and Senator still hold the same office. Think of all the things you have accomplished in that time. In comparison, your representatives seem quite stagnant. Therefore, I believe 12 years is quite plenty.
Suppose you want more of a good man in office? That’s where the 18 non-consecutive years comes in. In order for a good man to serve the people for a longer time, he must sit out a few years.
In other words, for a good man to serve more years on office he goes back to the community he came from. When he does run again he will be that much more familiar with the needs of his community. At the same time, a new fresh representative arrives in Washington who is still familiar with the people and who has not yet been tainted by the DC culture. This is a win-win solution for everyone.
With this Amendment we will have 12 consecutive years for both Representatives and Senators. This translates to six consecutive terms for Representatives and two consecutive terms for Senators.
A Representative or Senator can choose to serve a total of 18 non-consecutive terms. The person must return home for a few years before being elected again. This translates to nine terms total for a Representative, and three terms total for a Senator.
To repeat the Amendment
“Each U.S. Representative and Senator shall serve no more than 12 consecutive years, or shall serve no more than 18 non-consecutive years.”
