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What are the political aspects of congressional term limits
What are the political aspects of congressional term limits
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Assignment #4 Research The main argument of people who favor the term limit is that it counterbalances incumbent's advantages and keeps congress' reverence. Incumbents receive about 130,000 dollars a year while they are campaigning. They can utilize their money to pay for staff salaries, office and travel expenses, and advertisements; however, other challengers have to resign from their jobs to spend more time for their campaigns. They usually do not have enough money like incumbents to support their campaign. In the article "Term Limits: The Only Way to Clean Up Congress", Dan Greenberg, a American nonprofit executive and former politician, insists, "On official time, these political aides [incumbents] perform all sorts of jobs unrelated to …show more content…
legislation but closely tied to reelection, such as soliciting media attention and doing favors for constituents." Incumbents can work on their campaigns while they are working on their jobs so that they have more time to prepare for campaigns than other challengers do. The other argument is that Americans do not respect Congress as much as before. Greenberg claims, "Use of discreditable tactics like pork-barreling that have powerful electoral effects is a major cause of declining respect for and satisfaction with Congress." To serve in congress for longer time, incumbents use sneaky ways like pork barreling to keep their positions. This will ruin the reputation of Congress; however, term limit will help to restore Americans' negative perspective on Congress. On the other hand, people who go against term limits argue that term limit is undemocratic and unnecessary.
Voters will have restricted choices although they want to vote for experienced incumbents who want to run for reelection. The term limit is not necessary because candidates have to be elected by their constituents. Jeff Biggs, press secretary for House Speaker Tom Foley, asserts that the term limit is unnecessary by saying "There are term limits in place every two years -- candidates have to go before constituents and get reelected." Although incumbents run for election again, they cannot be elected if they do not have good reputation among constituents. Other disadvantage caused by the term limit is limited power of small states, which used to reelect only few incumbents again and again. Because they have only few possible candidates, there are not enough people who can run for the next election after one person retires from Congress. However, I still do think that the term limit is necessary to distribute power evenly and keep equality. As certain people are elected for the same position again, they will get more “experience” and find much sneakier ways to keep their positions. Term limit also prevent new and young candidates who have not experienced from having less chance to work in Congress. As more skillful but unknown candidates get more chance, they will improve and change our …show more content…
country. To be a member of the House of Representatives, which is also known as the lower house of Congress, people should be older than 25 years old.
They serve for 2 years and are elected from single-member-districts. Bigger states like California have more members than small states. Members vote to choose the leader of the House, the Speaker of the House. To be a member of the upper house of Congress, the Senate, people should be at least 30 years old. They serve for 6 years and are originally chosen by the legislatures of the individual states. In senate, each state can only two people regardless of the size of the state or the population. The leader of the Senate is the Vice-President and he or she cannot vote unless there is a
tie. The House of Representatives has power to choose their own speaker and officers. Members also have power to impeach their members; however, the Senate has greater power. Members of the Senate have power to impeach anyone regardless of people's positions. When they are trying to impeach the president, two-third of the members should be present in Congress. Impeachment cannot further affect people after they are removed from the office and disqualified. In section 4 from the article I of the Constitution, it says, "Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States." Another power that the House of Representatives has is enumerated power. The enumerated power enables the Congress “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." (Section 8) Furthermore, the Article I of the Constitution describes more specific laws and rights of the Senate and the Representatives.
It is not uncommon to find members of Congress who have genuine goals of spearheading, designing or even just supporting good public policy. It would be harsh to say that every member of Congress is against good policy. However what is difficult for members of Congress is deciding what is more important, the wishes of their constituents or national policy. Although it is rare, members of Congress vote against the popular opinion of his or her district in order to make what would be considered good policy in the national interest. This hinders their chance of re-election but is necessary for America. In very rare cases members of Congress have gone against the wishes of their constituents for moral reasons like in the aftermath of 9/11. When voting on the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, I am certain that the last thing of the minds of members of Congress was re-election. A very conservative House of Representatives member Jimmy Duncan said ‘‘when I pushed that button to vote against the war back in 2002, I thought I might be ending my political career.” In times of crisis members of Congress have decide between what is right, not what their constituents believe is right. Another goal other than re-election that members of Congress have is their own future. For many, being a members of The House of Representatives is a mere stepping stone in their career on the way to better things. Therefore for some members of Congress, re-election does not worry them and gives them the freedom to act in an environment striped of the constant pressure of re-election. However, considering that most of the members of The House Of Representatives goals lie within the Senate or high executive positions, re-election is still on their mind, all be it in the form of a different
Preventing federal judges to serve for life is a good concept, except when the judges become too old to continue presiding. Setting term limits for judges would be a great idea, because it would add diversity to the court systems every time a new judge arrives. Some judges are just too old, and senile, to still rule on cases and do their job effectively; therefore, setting term limits would ultimately benefit the courts because it would allow for diversity, and a new judge who may have different standards.
Government exists to serve the people, and not the politicians, American citizens know this. Polls show that Americans want term limitation by margins as high as three-to-one, even four-to-one. Congressional term limitation is the most important issue of our time because the future direction of our country depends upon it. There is no other way to restore government to, us, the people. There is no substitute for term limits. There are many second steps, depending upon where you sit, but there is only one first step toward turning the country around. It is con...
The 22nd Amendment creates a lame duck and which stops abuse of power3. Presidents in their second term have been seen to usually suffer diminished power, particularly after the second midterm elections. This diminish of power creates a lame duck. The president becoming a lame duck, stops him from being able abuse of power. The 22nd Amendment also stops the country from being a monarchy. US. Senators and Congressmen don’t have term limits because their voices are balanced by opposing parties in their chambers, the presidency is different. The president has no similar
Term limits could increase the quality of the Supreme Court nominees. One of the driving factors behind a Supreme Court nominee is their age (Ringhand np). Individuals over 60 years of age are less likely to be appointed. This means presidents intentionally exclude a large number of highly qualified individuals from serving on our nation’s highest court (Ringhand np). Term limits resolve this problem. Furthermore, the threat of a justice’s cognitive decline may be reduced, since there would no longer be a temptation to hold out for a strategically timed retirement.
The president is a very significant role in not only the U.S., but all around the world. As a matter of fact, the president has a great impact on our country in many ways as well, including relationships and trade. In order for us to have good relationships and trades with the country below us, we would need a strong president. If the presidential term limit was extended, there would be more strong presidents, less weak presidents, the ability to follow through with plans/changes, and less adjusting. This would impact the U.S. and Canada, and other countries all around the world in a positive way. Our society is falling to hatred, bad decisions, and a lack of unity and strength, which could all be reduced or prevented by a strong, beneficial
When the United States was founded, the theme behind the new government was to establish an efficient system without doling out too much power to any one person. The Founders intended to prevent a rebirth of tyranny, which they had just escaped by breaking away from England. However, when members of Congress such as Tom Foley, who served as a Representative from 1964 through 1995, and Jack Brooks, who served as a Representative from 1952 through 1994, remain in the legislative system for over forty years, it is evident that tyranny has not necessarily been eradicated from the United States (Vance, 1994, p. 429). Term limits are a necessity to uphold the Founders’ intentions, to prevent unfair advantages given to incumbents, and to allow a multitude of additional benefits.
Congressional terms have no limits. Controversy exists between those who think the terms should be limited and those who believe that terms should remain unlimited. The group that wants to limit the terms argues that the change will promote fresh ideas and reduce the possibility of decisions being made for self-interest. Those who oppose term limits believe that we would sacrifice both the stability and experience held by veteran politicians. They also point out that our election process allows the voter to limit terms, at their discretion. While experience and stability are important considerations, congressional terms should be limited to a maximum of two.
One important reason Americans want to limit terms of their elected representatives is because they are likely to blame what they observe as professional and almost permanent ruling elect of career politicians for a majority of the country’s ill. Supporters of term limits claim the advantages of incumbency are so overpowering that they instead decrease representative democracy and diminish the effectiveness of the government. “Since 1950, about 90% of all incumbents in the House have won the reelection. The 10% who do not return includes both retiring members and those defeated in reelection attempts.” (Term Limits) “Proponents term limits argue that elected officials in Washington eventually become estrang...
Though, it would be refreshing to elect an official who remained focused on the best interest of their constituent, the reality is, special interest groups hold the purse. We must set term limits to prevent corruption and give the new comer on the block a fighting
Long tenures in office won't take away power from the president or weaken the executive branch. Presidents don't lose the power to appoint
Mayhew’s main argument in, Congress: The Electoral Connection, is that members of Congress are ‘single-minded’ seekers of reelection. What Mayhew means by “single-minded” seekers of reelection is that Congress members are out to seek a Congressional career, for their own gain. He says, “It seems fair to categorize Congress as an assembly of professional politicians spinning out political careers, the jobs offer good pay and high prestige. There is no want of applicants for them. Successful pursuit of a career requires continual reelection” (Page 15). In his book, Mayhew compares the United States Congress to the British model. In Great Britain, the Members of Parliament are locked in, yet they work collectively within their parties and this strategy advances the parties over the politician. In the United States Congress is beginning to become more
For example, Alaska only has 1 representative, California has the most in the USA. Members are elected by the people for 2-year terms, all terms running for the same period of time.. Both the Senators and the Representatives must be residents of the State from which they are chosen. In addition, a Senator must be at. least 30 years of age and must have been a citizen of the United States.
Limited Too was the girls and tween store of the 90’s and 00’s. Limited Too was created by The Limited, INC. (“Tween Brands Inc.”). In 1996, it was turned into a tween store and skyrocketed. They had over 600 stores in 2007 at their peak. The store grew so rapidly and spread so quickly through the tween market that Tween Brands, INC. created Justice in 2004. Limited Too died with the fall of the market in 2009, when Justice, which targeted the same age group, took over and the stores merged (“Tween Brands Inc.”). Parents spend over $700 billion on their children, making this market a hot commodity for capitalist gains (Consuming Kids).
Also, with laws that cater to incumbents rather than new candidates, it often takes years to see the district have a new representative. This system is leaving millions of Americans off the floor of congress, and there are solutions to change