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

4.  Term limits would restore respect for Congress.

Use of discreditable tactics like pork-barreling that have powerful electoral effects is a major cause of declining respect for and satisfaction with Congress. Term limits would arrest the decline of congressional legitimacy, ensuring that Members would be more truly representative of their communities, and would renew American citizenship by writing into law the principle that people can govern themselves — and that this representation falls within the competence of any reasonably interested and well-educated citizen. The objection that long service is essential to understanding the complex legislative process says far more about the current congressional system than it does about the concept of term limits.

In short, the best way to reinvigorate government is to bring in legislators with fresh outlooks, new ideas, and better incentives. Term limits are the only realistic way to change the culture of legislative careerism in Congress — a culture that undermines the public interest.

The only way to impose term limits on the U.S. Congress is via a constitutional amendment. Congress will never propose such an amendment, which is why the states must do it via a Convention of States. 

Image Credit: Pixabay

By Dan Greenberg for the Heritage Foundation