Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Ted Cruz is right!

Sen. Ted Cruz

A bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz would limit House members to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.

Sergio Flores/Getty Images

Natbony is the author and originator of The Lonely Realist.


Sen. Ted Cruz is the lead sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose term limits on members of Congress. Senators would be limited to two six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms. Although voters in the 1990s supported sweeping term limit legislation that imposed limits on state and local officeholders, the congressional term limits movement stalled in 1995 when the Supreme Court ruled that federal limits require a constitutional amendment.

The result has been congressional term limit stagnation, with more than 90 percent of House incumbents being re-elected year after year and the reelection rate among Senators falling below 80 percent just three times since 1982.

More than 60 percent of Republicans and Democrats support the adoption of federal term limits, recognizing that the Congressional Incumbents Club is a paradigm of careerism, combining power, stature and influence with lavish benefits: a high salary; unparalleled business connections; limited working days; spectacular working conditions; periodic taxpayer-funded fact-finding trips; a sizable staff (that could include family and friends); exceptional medical, dental and retirement benefits; weakened insider trading rules; taxpayer funded legal expenses; the ability to moonlight at other jobs; free flights back and forth to the lawmaker's home state; a family death gratuity; and free parking.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

No wonder those elected to Congress make every effort to hold onto their jobs and special-interest groups spend lavishly to ensure that those they've elected continue to protect and enhance their special interests.

These perks help to explain why public confidence in Congress remains near an all-time low — 12 percent according to a 2021 Gallup poll. The consensus that Congress is broken is so widely-held that if ever there was an issue that should command bipartisan support, it's congressional term limits. Although the Heritage Foundation concluded in 1994 that "term limits are here to stay as an important issue on the American political landscape," it and the U.S. Term Limits lobby badly misunderstood the degree of self-interest and power of the Congressional Incumbents Club. Unless a Constitutional change movement originates with the states and mobilizes its way to Congress (as previously suggested), term limits bills are doomed to gather dust on congressional bookshelves.

Term limits have been a net benefit at the state and local levels. They would bring new perspectives to Congress, encouraging those with fresh ideas to run for office (perhaps to some degree offsetting the Supreme Court's 2019 holding that gerrymandering is constitutional). Term limits also would diminish incentives for election-related spending that have proliferated in the careerist Congress (especially following the Supreme Court's 2010 decision validating the solicitation and receipt of unlimited campaign contributions).

Although there are strong arguments against term limits, a further significant benefit would be a counterbalancing of incumbent financial and media advantages, as well as the name recognition, media access and embedded political contributions that flow to incumbency. Term limits also would incentivize members of Congress to nurture their successors by providing the types of apprenticeship experiences that make for practical staff training in other industries, thereby taking legislation out of the hands of lobbyists, bureaucrats and unelected Beltway insiders.

Read More

Vice President Mike Pence
Vice President Pence has tried, unsuccessfully, to explain his role in counting the electoral votes to President Trump.
Megan Varner

I Miss Vice President Mike Pence, and You Should Too.

That is, if you appreciate the second in command standing up for his oath to the Constitution instead of a man, and if you long for the days when America respected our European allies and was a proud member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

You can certainly disagree with Pence’s ideology, but all Americans should be able to appreciate his willingness to draw a line.

Keep ReadingShow less
Where Civic Hope and Political Reality Meet: Constitutions
Can the Constitution stop the government from lying to the public?
Can the Constitution stop the government from lying to the public?

Where Civic Hope and Political Reality Meet: Constitutions

Constitutions everywhere represent the nexus of civic hope and political reality. Nearly 300 professors, lawyers, and judges from 64 countries gathered in Austin, Texas, last month to compare notes during the thirdGlobal Summit on Constitutionalism. But a high school student, an atypical but welcome attendee, best captured the event's purpose.

I attended the Summit to offer 12 minutes about U.S.amendment cycles in a concurrent session, but I gained so much more as an attendee for all three event days. Some highlights:

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Bill Spotlight: Smithsonian Italian American Museum

People entering the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History in the Behring Center in Washington DC.

Getty Images, Ceri Breeze

Congress Bill Spotlight: Smithsonian Italian American Museum

The Fulcrum introduces Congress Bill Spotlight, a weekly report by Jesse Rifkin, focusing on the noteworthy legislation of the thousands introduced in Congress. Rifkin has written about Congress for years, and now he's dissecting the most interesting bills you need to know about, but that often don't get the right news coverage.

The most famous Italian Americans include Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Fauci.

Keep ReadingShow less
Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

An oversized gavel surrounded by people.

Getty Images, J Studios

Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

In a recent post we quoted a journalist describing the Republican Party as anti-immigration. Many of our readers wrote back angrily to say that the Republican party is only opposed to immigrants who are present illegally.

But that's not true. And we're not shy of telling it like it is.

Keep ReadingShow less