Time period Limits
As we rejoice Time period Limits Day in America on Feb. 27, commemorating the seventy fifth Anniversary of the ratification of the twenty second Modification which imposes a restrict of two phrases on the presidency – it’s a good time to take inventory of simply what an absence of legislative time period limits has contributed to our society.
Congressional time period limits had been handed in as many as 24 states as of 1995 when the Supreme Court docket dominated them unconstitutional (US Time period Limits v. Thornton). Justice Clarence Thomas brilliantly wrote of this ruling in his dissent, “Nothing within the Structure deprives the individuals of every State of the ability to prescribe eligibility necessities for the candidates who search to characterize them in Congress. The Structure is solely silent on this query. And the place the Structure is silent, it raises no bar to motion by the States or the individuals.” However deprive us they did.
So, what have we gotten since that ruling? In the beginning of the 104th Congress in 1995, the typical age was roughly 52.2 years for each the Senate and Home of Representatives mixed. In contrast, firstly of the 119th Congress in January 2025, the typical age is roughly 58 to 59 years outdated, making it one of many oldest in U.S. historical past.
Along with seeing the typical age of a lawmaker leap 7 years, the 119th Congress has a big variety of members over 70, with 120 members on this age vary. Extra importantly, management in recent times – like Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Harry Reid – are all amongst the oldest members of the legislature, setting the legislative agenda for a whole nation that’s on common half their age.
That gulf between the age and views of the rulers and the dominated is a sound one, to not be lowered to easy “ageism.”
Maybe crucial impression of getting time period limits banned by judicial fiat has been that on nationwide spending. Unbridled by time period limits, lawmakers have been unleashed to spending with abandon. In 1995, the full outlays for the American federal authorities amounted to $1.52 trillion. Quick ahead to 2025 when the full outlays at the moment are north of $7 trillion a yr, greater than a 360% enhance in nationwide spending within the 30 years since time period limits have been wrested from the American public.
Nobody describes this dynamic higher than late convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff says of a term-limit free Congress, “Once I was a lobbyist, I hated the concept that a congressman who I had purchased with years of contributions would resolve to retire. That meant I needed to begin over again with a brand new member, dropping all of the management I purchased with years of checks. If you wish to see pigs screeching on the trough, inform them they can not keep there endlessly. There’s no trough as harmful because the one in Washington.”
Nick McNulty
Windham, NH
