4 Reasons We Should Have Congressional Term Limits and Do It Now

2.  Term limits are a reality check.

Term limits also would provide inescapable, bracing reminders of what life in the real world is like. After former Senator George McGovern tried (and failed) to succeed in small business after spending eighteen years in Congress, he observed: “I wish I had known a little more about the problems of the private sector…. I have to pay taxes, meet a payroll — I wish I had a better sense of what it took to do that when I was in Washington.” (Fund, op. cit., p. 10.) Ensuring that Members eventually are exposed to life outside of Congress should inculcate a more sophisticated understanding of the logic and the limits of federal regulation.

Image Credit: By Leffler, Warren K., photographer. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons