— The guest editorialist weighs-in in favor of term limits at The Edge of England’s Sword
And finally, term limits does what every politician in Congress does not want the campaign finance reform bill to do – actually limit their power. Because let’s face it, if the politician in question has a limited shelf-life then the money won’t flow in that direction. The ideal result would hopefully be that we’d lose the lifers and see more people running who are interested in serving the will of their constituencies.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Term limits don’t decrease the power of the legislature, which is what you’d like to do, they simply spread it around a little bit more. Some of it goes from the god-powerful Speaker to the committee chairs, but they reign supreme over their underlings. The rest of it goes to the unaccountable staffers and lobbyists who instantly become the experts on all issues. Think about it – under term limits you have a legislature full of people fresh off the boat from the city council and the school board, dealing with issues they didn’t have to confront before. There’s not near enough time to become an expert on even one thing before the term is up and you hit the road. Term limits were invented by lobbyists to increase their power, and they’re very efficient.