by James Alvarado, Georgia State Director, U.S. Term Limits
If you want to know why Congress needs term limits then look no further than members of the Congressional leadership and how long they’ve stayed in office.
Look at the sky-high re-election rates members of Congress enjoy while they curry favor with high-powered lobbyists and enjoy unimaginable perks, including salaries nearly five times what the average Georgian makes.
Look at all the promising candidates for Congress who don’t go far. Lobbyists shower incumbents with money, thus drowning out the voices of any opposing candidates.
More than 80 percent of Georgia residents who were polled said they’re fed up with career politicians. Those same Georgians said they want term limits imposed on Congress sooner rather than later.
Georgia legislators have an opportunity to give their constituents precisely what they want through a special resolution (S.R. 195) that would give state residents a voice on this issue. If passed, Georgia would send someone to a constitutional amendment proposal convention to discuss term limits and term limits only.
Some people oppose the resolution because they say it’s unnecessary. They go on to say that certain politicians are elected but stay in office for 10 years or less — but those people are citing average current tenures.
I’m going to get technical for a moment, so bear with me. The average completed tenure of a senator who started serving in the 1980s is 15.3 years. The average completed tenure for a House member who started in the 1980s is 10 years. So, if we had done his calculus in 1988 John McCain would have counted as a 1. Because that was his current tenure at the time. The proper metric is “average completed tenure,” which USTL has calculated.
But instead of focusing on the average member of Congress, let’s focus on the leadership. Studies show the average tenure of a member of leadership is more than 20 years. Where the power is truly concentrated is important. Senior members of Congressional leadership are the ones calling the shots — not the average members of Congress.
By the way, members of Congress have enjoyed a 95 percent re-election rate since 1970 and a 98 percent re-election rate since 2016.
Some of the people who oppose the term limits resolution also cite the turnover in the Georgia legislature to help make their case.
But this resolution pertains to members of Congress only, and for good reason. Georgia legislators are part-time legislators with low pay. You see them often enough on their home turf. They are, for all intents and purposes, citizen legislators. Members of Congress, unfortunately, are not.
Members of Congress belong to a highly-paid political class who devote more time to fundraising than legislating. They make great money and they don’t return home often. They lack the courage to do what’s best for their constituents and their country.
Term limits are a way to sever the ties that incumbent officeholders develop with special interests. Term limits create competitive open seat elections. They have bipartisan support, including past and present support from former presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Some of our Founding Fathers argued for term limits.
If the Founders could communicate with us they would no doubt ask why we haven’t gone forward with term limits already. More than 80 percent of Georgia residents continue to ask the same question.