Term Limits

Term limits for US politicians is a hot topic. The majority of citizens want term limits. When I started to spend a little time researching this, it started to look like a rabbit hole.

The president of the United States has term limits.

17 states have term limits

The presidential term limits was enacted through the 22nd amendment..

While there are 17 states that have term limits, in May of 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, that states cannot impose term limits upon their federal representatives or senators.

Confused yet? I sure am. It would appear that even within our own legal political structure, there is ambiguity. (legally)

While researching further, I found many who argue that term limits removes the ‘expertise’ of those senior politicians. This argument goes on to say that it takes experience to draft legislation that can be passed. Hmmmmm. In my opinion, perhaps that’s part of the problem. Have you ever heard the term ‘rider’? A rider is something added to the bill that may and many times, may not, have anything to do with the actual bill. Read what Wikipedia had to say here.

That’s what our experienced, senior politicians do well. They devise convoluted wording, add riders that have nothing to do with the bill and structure the whole thing in such a way as to allow lawyers, lobbyists and corporations loop holes. We don’t need that kind of experience in our government anymore.

The majority of Americans want term limits – Let’s implement term limits.

Remove riders on bills. One bill, one thing. No hiding agendas, additional funding, political double speak.