Term Limits

Term limits from the smallest level all the way to the Oval office have been in effect since this country was started. The main reason for term limits is to prevent tyranny (as we fought against the British due to their tyranny on us).
Now under the Constitution, the members of the U.S. Senate are able to serve an infinite number of six-year terms (Boundless). House of Representative members are able to serve an infinite number of two-year terms (Boundless). Reformers in the 90’s put the congressional term limits on the ballot (Boundless).The main Republican platform was to pass some legislation for term limits within Congress (Boundless). The proposed amendment was never passed. (Boundless).
There are some major hurdles between the proposed
constitutional amendment and its ratification (Porter). Some of those are mostly reasons related as to the yes or no factor. Those that are on the yes category think that a politician in their last term are more inclined to ignore politics and the media criticism (Messerli). The current Congress is an epic fail and in drastic need of new procedures, ideas, and influence (Messerli).
Possibly the most important on the yes side is that the lack of term limits lead to a system of seniority (think of like high school) (Messerli).
This ‘society’ rule means that those who have spent the most time in office gain more power as what any form of seniority means (Messerli).
The no side is more short and doesn’t have as many reasons however, it is still a voice that needs to be heard as there are two sides in conflict; large or small. Some say that term limits dismiss the good ones who may deserve to stay in office for a job well done (Messerli). Now, this is a good one for the no side; every job give a new learning experience, any new politician would have to go through the same process once more (Messerli).
The politicians that leave their office take along experience and hard earned contacts that are essential to get things done as in the old saying ‘I scratch your back you scratch mine.’ (Messerli). So all the new members would need to start over. Politicians who are in their last term have increased risk to ignore the people since they will not face the ballot again
(Messerli).
The Senator Ted Cruz and the Representative Ron DeSantis had introduced an amendment that would create term limits for the members of Congress (20170).
“D.C. is broken,” Cruz had said, “The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people. It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.” (20170).
This amendment would limit senators to a two term system, which is 12 years and the representatives to a three term system, which is 6 years (20170). At that time the President-elect Mr. Trump had made it a promise for his campaign (20170). A few senators have co-sponsored the amendment: Deb Fischer, Ron Johnson, Thom Tillis, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and David Perdue (20170).
Many people seem to be in favor of this term limit, a Rasmussen survey was done and it was discovered that 74 percent of Americans supported it, while only 13 percent did not support it (20170).
“President Trump, Speaker Ryan and huge majorities of the American people are demanding term limits,” said the U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel, “Congress must listen and pass the Cruz-DeSantis amendment immediately.” (20170).
A quote from the now President as he was making his campaign, "If I'm elected president, I will push for a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress," Trump said (Donald Trump).
Though under the Constitution, the president has no ‘formal’ role to play in approving a constitutional amendment, which I do find a little odd but I cannot really argue with (Donald Trump).
On the campaign trail Trump’s team had sent out a press release that was emailed during one of his many speeches; "Decades of failure in Washington, and decades of special interest dealing, must come to an end," it says. "We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices a chance to go into government service. The time for Congressional term limits has arrived." (Donald Trump).
The document has calls for the term limits that with any term that had begun before the amendment's acceptance, would not count toward an individual lawmaker's limit; I guess they would be grandfathered in as many laws have done before (Porter).
“It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions," Senator Cruz had made in a statement to the press. "The time is now for Congress, with the overwhelming support of the American people, to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification."
(Porter).
"Eliminating the political elite and infusing Washington with new blood will restore the citizen legislature that our Founding Fathers envisioned," DeSantis added in the statement made by Cruz (Porter). "It's not the sort of thing that's going to enhance the capacity of the legislature or convince better people to serve in the legislature," Professor Josh Chafetz, who is a professor of law at Cornell University, "One question is whether or not there is a 'swamp' there to drain." (Porter). "Legislating actually does require an amount of expertise," Professor Chafetz added. "Basically, what term limits do, is to increase the power of lobbyists." (Porter).
One thing people do tend to forget about swamps, there is usually a few alligators, mud, slime, maybe a poisonous snake or two, and trash. I think that you need to shoot the alligators and venomous snakes first before you drain a swamp.
Even if it does pass both houses of Congress, the amendment would also need to be ratified by a three-fourths vote of the state legislatures before becoming law, and we all know how that will go (Porter).