Columnist Eden Liu argues against term limits for elected officials and discusses their dangers.
Credit: Kylie CooperIt seems every few years the topic of term limits and age limits for elected officials floats back up to the political conversation. Pictures of United States Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pop up. Rants about the “Washington Establishment” squawk from screens. Across the political landscape there seems to be nothing that unifies Americans (and their think tanks) more than term limits. It’s an undying hate for the political class.
Term limits are a bad idea — not just for the United States, but for any government in the world. They are, by design, meant to make it easier to remove elected officials from their office by legally establishing an automatic kill switch for their tenure. That is just ripe breeding grounds for an inexperienced, expensive, and just outright amoral system of government to take hold. Term limits are the definition of anti-democratic — even Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) thinks so.
Term limits, while well-intentioned, have a knack for forcibly ejecting experienced legislators from office. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) proposed term limit constitutional amendment gives house representatives six years and senators 12 years, for a grand total of 18 years. Public policy requires experience; 18 years is just scratching the surface of that. Furthermore, term limits have the effect of encouraging congresspeople to make the best of their time in Congress and hit it big. Obama literally told the Russians he’d have “more flexibility” after his reelection — and he wasn’t even reelected yet! Imagine that on an even larger scale with Congress. If you think Congress is dysfunctional right now, boy are you going to love the new term-limited Congress.
Aside from disincentivizing politicians from working, there is a monetary cost aspect to this half-baked plan to term limit legislators. Just like every other job, elected officials need job training and repeating the training every few years en masse is costly. In 2024, the House appropriated $843.6 million on Members’ Representational Allowances. The MRA covers official expenses, including staff salaries, office supplies, and travel. It also helps freshmen members of Congress hire staff, rent office space, and move. This means on average $1.9 million is spent per member, with differences based on the size and distance of the district from Washington . Given that 20-30% of legislators leave office every election cycle in states with term limits (excluding those who lose reelection), replacing retiring members becomes a monumental task that adds pressure to an already burdened national financial situation. So much for the fiscal hawks who soil themselves every time they see the national debt figures; so much for the progressive Democrats who want to see more healthcare, welfare, and education funding. Your money is going to be spent helping some freshman senator hire an intern to respond to your hate mail.
There will be those who say self-serving and green congresspersons are the prices we must pay to inject new blood into an age-old machine, that the political class has become too old, too stuck in their ways, too corrupt — and they would be correct. But if you want change, do it yourself. Run for office, get behind stricter ethics rules, organize protests demanding Congress pass the reforms you want. Change doesn’t come from some hashtags on TikTok or Instagram Reels lamenting what hasn’t been done. Change comes from truly participating in the system. If you can’t back up your principles, who will? Of course there are those who will still say, “who cares, we want to get those old bags out of their lairs in Washington.” Which begs the question, is this urge to root out old politicians so noble that one subjects themselves to moral discrepancy?
There is a great moral hypocrisy to forcing politicians to leave their job when time’s up when there is no equivalent requirement in any other field. Why is the standard different than for politicians? Why is being a public servant a career that must be penalized? When did loving one’s job become a sin that invites the vitriol of the masses? We do not ask doctors to leave after 18 years. We allow them to perform until they cannot anymore and they either resign, retire, or are sacked. Politicians should be afforded the same right. Let them have the same carte blanche. If they perform badly, then fine, they lose reelection or their primary. But we must at least afford them the chance to prove themselves.
EDEN LIU is a College first year studying politics, philosophy, and economics from Taipei, Taiwan. His email is edenliu@sas.upenn.edu.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate
