Ted Cruz introduces constitutional amendment putting term limits in Congress - Polidicks

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4245 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) today introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to impose term limits on members of Congress. The amendment would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms. “For too long, members of Congress have abused their power and ignored the will of the American people,” Sen. Cruz said. “Term limits on members of Congress offer a solution to the brokenness we see in Washington, D.C. It is long past time for Congress to hold itself accountable. I urge my colleagues to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification.” Francis Rooney stated, “The American people support term limits by an overwhelming margin. I believe that as lawmakers, we should follow the example of our founding fathers, Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who refused to consider public service as a career. Our history is replete with examples of leaders who served their country for a time and returned to private life, or who went on to serve in a different way.” The amendment was cosponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and David Perdue (R-Ga.). The full amendment may be viewed here. Sen. Cruz introduced a similar amendment in January of 2017.

Lets do it, better late than never. Maybe adjust it for a longer allowence if compromise is needed but otherwise we have to start somewhere.

Michigan's state legislature has term limit's and apparently it's a mess, also I saw a point that with term limits, unelected lobbyists would have more power.

I'm surprised, but this actually seems like a good idea. Highly unlikely to pass, but I'll at least respect the effort. The proposal is very short, and straightforward to read, but I'll summarize anyway. The term limits it sets are 3 terms as Representative or 2 terms as Senator, counting vacancy appointments if it's over a half a term. So that's 6 years as a Representative, and 12 as a Senator. And no limit on mixing them, so 18 years in Congress is still possible (but not every Representative can move on to the Senate when their term limit is hit, since there's eight times as many Senators as Representatives, so the average combined term should drop to about ten years).

Which causes them to be almost entirely out of touch with society, and prevents new blood from floating new ideas or being more open to ideas since they have to keep their position for reelection.

I wonder if this would increase the flow of young people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez since the swamp of your geriatric life long politicians would have to be drained periodically. Having more young people would be good when it comes to passing bills related to things young people have a better understanding of, like technology. As demonstrated with the Zuckerberg and Google hearings that were embarrassing. Or if the carousel would just be other old out of touch aristocrats from within state governments.

Hey nice, Cruz doing something productive for once. Or doing anything at all lol.

Personally I'd make it that you have to take time off equivalent to how long you served and then allow rerunning (so after two six year terms you have to take twelve years off) but this is certainly a good start.

This is the first time I've ever not been embarrassed by Cruz.

I'm in the minority here but, I'm honestly don't know how term limits is going to solve anything, and I think it has the potential to be somewhat of a detriment. Having new members doesn't necessarily lead to new ideas, and incumbent members often shift their positions to reflect the changing public. Look at how Democrats from the 90s have come around on issues like gay marriage and marijuana. Members who cling to old ideas can face primary challengers who have the potential to unseat them. The danger here is that there is real value in having experienced congresspeople. There is a lot more to being a congressperson than casting a ballot every once in a while, especially when it comes to party leadership. Navigating Washington is a skill that comes with experience and shouldn't be ignored. Losing that is especially concerning to me, since this bill would restrict House members to a maximum of a measly 6 years, barely longer than a single Presidential term. I think efforts to fix Congress would be better spent primarily dealing with campaign finance and electoral issues such as districting and voting reform.

I'd be interested to see what a one-term limit policy would look like in practice there's that old adage about everyone's first term being a campaign for their second term, but if you get just one shot at effecting real change who gives a fuck about the lobbyists and the extremes on either side?

they tried, everybody liked them, then when a congressman was facing term limits, suddenly everybody sued and the SCOTUS ruled that the states cannot limit one's ability to stand for federal office. I would surmise that congress itself cannot impose term limits on itself either, so you would need a constitutional amendment to get it to work.

If you only get one term then you are incentivized to sell out hardcore to lobbyists on day 1 and get in there while the getting's available. While it is intended to reduce corruption, it is more likely to encourage speedrunning said corruption.

pandamonium. Nobody would ever be able to gain any seniority and what's left of our institution's democratic traditions would be destroyed. The house and the senate should have the same years per term limit, so 12 house terms and 2 senate terms, that's more than the average stint anyone does in a job these days.

That's my concern too, but I would like to see how this goes for consecutive terms. Then they'll at least have to switch it up a bit every so often, without permanently losing that experience.

I should also point out the danger in having a lot of legislators on their last term who don't care about reelection. Some would argue that means they can act more boldly and make real progress, but they way I see it, it allows them to act in a way that doesn't align with the interests of their constituents.

I hope Republicans start urgently introducing good and useful legislation as a last ditch effort to save face after endorsing and electing Trump ... before they implode and fall apart from all the crimes they committed to get where they are now.

I feel largely the same. The term limits Cruz suggests seem really short in regards to the House of Representatives. Speaking of which, I also really think people should re-consider House elections in general. I would argue that four year election cycles would better serve Members' constituents as it would allow them to not think in the mindset of "oh god how am I going to get re-elected" every moment of the day. I rather have those Members not concern themselves with fundraising half of their time/maintaining their appearance back in their district and instead focus on substantive policy. The Senate has this luxury with their 6 year terms -- the House doesn't. A former Member of Congress, Jason Altmire, also had some pretty good suggestions in one of his books. He recommends that Congress should have five day work weeks in D.C as well as coordinated schedules between the House and Senate in regards to when they are in and out of session. At least this would force some more deliberation between Members as well as allow them to hear more policy briefs (considering there is nearly one in the Capitol every day).

If you want to challenege lobbyists, you should force them to wear bodycams while within 5 miles of any capitial meetings and any meetings happening in a Senator/Congressman's office on the capital hill should be recorded, logged and uploaded to the internet for anyone wanting to hear it. We need transparency, and we need it now.

that and you get families that hand off seats like actual nobility. this past election had a state senator mother and state house rep son run for each other's seat because the mother was term limited.

I still think the way it should work is as follows: To be eligible for re-election, you have to have a 50% or higher approval rating. Any lower than that shows you're not cutting the mustard. And if you want a raise, you better have 60% or higher approval rating. Further raises require higher approval ratings.

approval ratings from who? that's limiting representation based on a statistical survey instead of an actual election result.

Eh I'm not buying it tbh, this is Ted Cruz we're talking about, not a very trustworthy politician, and it's only being supported by other rather untrustworthy Republicans. This feels more like a ploy to make you trust in them more and ignore their seediness. Don't lol

Think of it as a primary before the primary.

To me this kind of sounds like something he wants to put through before his next reelection since his competition got pretty close to beating him and could possibly win next time.

It occurs to me that this plan would limit the House's powers because with such short term limits, no one could gain the experience and political capital to really get things done. And since the Senate is predicted to stay mostly Republican and the House has a fair chance of being Democrat, it could come off as a sneaky political ploy.

I'd say maybe up the term limits for Reps to 4, giving them 8 years. Then you'd have a nice fully rounded 20 year total. At the same time too: In the olden days, in the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries, you didn't have technology as advanced as we do now. You didn't have stuff like the Internet, or the convenient abundance of information that you could easily nab straight from your fucking phone wherever and whenever you wanted. The system might've worked a lot better back then, but times have definitely changed. And likewise, it's time that we updated the system. Having a bunch of old, out-of-touch fogies who want the world and society to stay the way they see it doesn't really fly as much anymore, especially when that world left them behind a long time ago.

more than that he's giving the senate twice as long as the house in term limits, convieniant for a senator.

I was actually thinking along similar lines. It's one of those real interesting coincidences that a Republican should come out with this right after a rather disastrous midterm for the Republicans

dmographics wise if the current trends hold, urban areas shift further democrat, rural shift further republican, the house will only further fall away from republican control while the senate has a large republican bias thanks to its unequal representation. so in a future where one can serve 12 years in the senate, and only 6 in the house that will drive a lot more fighting for blue senate seats, and also drive a huge churn in the house, especially since you might not even be able to maintain a house majority through a two term presidency