Should there be term limits in the US Congress

Posted by admin on September 17, 2010

Carly Fiorina, the Republican U.S Sentorial candidate, has pledged that if she is elected she will push for term limits in the U.S. Congress. She said she would put forward measures that will cap the terms of senators and representatives to 12 years in each house in the Congress.

However it is extremely important to know about the pros and cons of the term limit argument that has taken the nation previously famous for cheap car rental usa by storm.

First, the points for those who are in favor of the argument. It has been shown an overwhelming majority of voters are in favor of term limits. This has been attributed to the basic common sense of the voters who believe a stipulated period in the Congress in better than an unlimited one. It has been seen that voters in as many as 21 states have voted in favor of term limits. Second argument is that, term limit will give importance to merit. Unlimited term allows mediocre politicians to be elected to important committees several times over. Term limit will also increase competition and this will add life and new ideas to the house proceedings. Unlimited term means a good politician will have to wait for years even if he is elected to become a recognized name.

The cons of the term limits are it will terminate the good politicians along with the bad ones and the good ones will have to leave office even if they do splendid jobs. Another major argument against term limit is that it will greatly increase the influence of lobbyists, staff and the bureaucracy. As the politicians are in office only for a limited time it is the bureaucrats and the lobbyists who run the show. They seemingly remain forever while the good politicians are terminated. Another argument is the term limit will limit the choices of the voters.

If it can be shown that term limit will help to improve governance then it is my view that it be imposed. But what if they are no good candidates except the existing candidate? Should a candidate be prevented from serving simply because it is believed that time is up for them. We have certainly seen here in Britain many candidate for office who having won their respective seat turn out to be a bad choice. So let everyone candidate win on merit and not because a certain amount of time has passed.