Regardless of your political party, do you think there should be term limits on Congress?
Regardless of your political party, do you think there should be term limits on Congress?
06/11/2012
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Yes but I also believe that people need to stop blaming congress so much because we are the ones who vote them into power. So I see it as our own fault.
06/11/2012
we have term limits, they're called elections. If the electorate of a district or state doesn't want to remove their elected official why should they? isn't there something to be said of letting our officials learn the job and then keep them around, rather than fire them once they understand the job? As for the advantages of incumbency, why not simply work to eliminate those? start by eliminating franking privileges and establish a nonpartisan redistricting commission for every state.
Money is a trickier wicket, but there are things that can be done. It would likely require a constitutional amendment, but superpacs could be eliminated, money for state election and possibly some federal elections could be limited to only instate donors (although there's an argument that's worse) or a nationwide mandatory public financing system could be established but a lot of evidence suggests that would hep the incumbents a lot more than the challengers)
There are a lot of ways to attempt to fix the problem with congress, but term limits seem silly. If the public doesn't like someone they'll remove that person from office. if not, then either they were either well liked, or the opposition didn't try hard enough enough. term limits is like forcing the best athletes out of the race so other, lesser challengers have a chance.
Money is a trickier wicket, but there are things that can be done. It would likely require a constitutional amendment, but superpacs could be eliminated, money for state election and possibly some federal elections could be limited to only instate donors (although there's an argument that's worse) or a nationwide mandatory public financing system could be established but a lot of evidence suggests that would hep the incumbents a lot more than the challengers)
There are a lot of ways to attempt to fix the problem with congress, but term limits seem silly. If the public doesn't like someone they'll remove that person from office. if not, then either they were either well liked, or the opposition didn't try hard enough enough. term limits is like forcing the best athletes out of the race so other, lesser challengers have a chance.
06/11/2012
I'm still a little on the fence about it. I think so, mostly, but I'm unsure. If someone does a great job, then it's a hard decision.
06/11/2012
no, because congress is up for re-election after a certain number of years. Every 6 years for senators and every 2 for representatives. If people don't like the person, they don't have to keep voting to keep them in power.
06/12/2012
If someone is doing a great job, they should be able to stay as long as they keep getting elected into office or to stay in office. Of course everyone has a different opinion about who's doing a good job..
06/12/2012
absoulutely we need fresh minds and new ideas
06/12/2012
We have term limits for our president, so why not congress? The re-election rate for congressmen and -women is astounding, especially when compared to the extremely low approval rating that the congress usually has. Honestly, I think that Gerrymandering is the cause of this problem more than term limits - if congresspeople were actually held accountable by the same set of constituents each year, they might not stay in office for as long.
06/12/2012
Yes I think so.
06/12/2012
Quote:
still, the incumbency rate of senators, 75% is only a little less than the house's 90%. gerrymandering has an effect, but it's not ALL gerrymandering.
Originally posted by
pootpootpoot
We have term limits for our president, so why not congress? The re-election rate for congressmen and -women is astounding, especially when compared to the extremely low approval rating that the congress usually has. Honestly, I think that
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We have term limits for our president, so why not congress? The re-election rate for congressmen and -women is astounding, especially when compared to the extremely low approval rating that the congress usually has. Honestly, I think that Gerrymandering is the cause of this problem more than term limits - if congresspeople were actually held accountable by the same set of constituents each year, they might not stay in office for as long.
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06/12/2012
Total posts: 10
Unique posters: 9