Vol. 38, No. 13
07/11/2022
The Folly of Term Limits
Almost everyone recognizes that lame-duck congressmen are less responsive to their constituents. So why would anyone want to create more lame ducks via term limits? ...
Adding an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to balance the federal budget (the subject of the previous article) is arguably the single biggest reason why conservatives want to call a Constitutional Convention. But there are other reasons too, among them term limits, the subject of this short piece.
The argument for term-limiting congressmen out of office is that their removal will enable others to be elected who will be more in tune with the wishes of the people. But does this argument hold up under scrutiny?
It is ironic that many conservatives who genuinely believe that term limits would result in better congressional representation also believe (and rightly so) that lame-duck sessions of Congress are largely disconnected from voters. It is ironic because congressmen who are prohibited from running for re-election because of term limits are lame-duck congressmen, as are congressmen who were voted out of office yet continue to serve in Congress in a lame-duck session. In both cases, these congressmen do not have to worry about facing another election for the office in which they serve.
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The full article includes detailed analysis of Massie's legislative strategy, exclusive quotes from the interview, and insider information about upcoming votes.
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- Renews automatically