Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

JD FOSTER: Term Limits Would Be The Swamp’s New BFF

Wikimedia Commons/Public/Jessica Rodriguez Rivas

Editor’s note: Big Tent Ideas always aims to provide balanced perspectives on the hottest issues of the day. Below you’ll find a column from former Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President J.D. Foster, which argues that term limits would benefit the swamp’s entrenched interests. You can find a counterpoint here from U.S. Term Limits CEO Nick Tomboulides, who asserts that term limits are essential to restoring Americans’ trust in Washington.

Some ideas look so obviously right, yet turn out terrible. Ever had a date like that? For conservatives, one obviously right yet terrible idea is term limits.

I get it, Americans’ low opinion of Congress is too often justified. To be fair, today’s congressional membership includes many fine, well-intentioned individuals, many of them Democrats.

Yet there are also so many nutcases like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and scumbags like California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez. Nor is it just Democrats meriting serial eyerolls. Earth calling Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert. Anybody home?

Under the circumstances, supporting term limits is understandable. Throw the bums out!

But … what happens when you throw the bums out? You get new bums. Same voters; same political dynamics; new bums clone the old bums.

Also, while Americans think poorly of Congress, they generally like their own congressional delegation. Under term limits, real stars like Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan and Utah Sen. Mike Lee would go too.

Term limits run contrary to basic democratic principles. Suppose you like your representative. They address constituent issues and mostly share your values and views. Term limits would eventually toss them out, too. Why should you be denied the opportunity of voting for your preferred candidate? Talk about disenfranchisement.

Term limits proponents often acknowledge the foregoing, but find the prospective joy of bums tossing irresistible.

Yet for conservatives, resist they must because term limits would produce a massive shift in political power away from legislators to the elitist professional class and from the legislative toward the executive branch. Term limits would vastly expand the swamp’s power.

It’s not that easy being a new congressman or senator. Presumably you’re intelligent, dedicated and enthusiastic, but as a newbie you quickly learn you’re also incredibly naïve.

You think you’re hot stuff because you won your election. Chances are your race wasn’t even competitive, so don’t preen so much in the mirror. But if it was competitive, then chances are your opponent did a better job of losing than you did of winning. And now, whatever your prior accomplishments, you’re an amateur learning on the job.

Learning on the job is at the crux of the power transfer to the swamp. It takes years to become minimally conversant in the vast array of issues Members face. They don’t teach congressional oversight or defense acquisition in law school.

Meanwhile, you’re learning how Congress really works and, surprise, it’s not what you read in high school civics. And you’re still learning the intricacies of your district or state, managing your office staff, and year-round fundraising.

Bottom line – becoming an effective legislator takes years. Under term limits, you have few of those before you’re forced out. That might not be so bad, but it’s not the end of the story.

A Congress full of wide-eyed amateurs means “experts” would rule the roost, such as the congressional committee and leadership staff professionals.

The professional staff know the material and how the institutions work. You don’t. Nor under term limits would you have time to learn much. So you’re dependent on staff to guide you. Who is the legislator then?

Where else could you turn? One check on congressional staff domination would be the downtown lobbyists. Wonderful, but it gets worse.

The other experts with the knowledge you lack are the bureaucrats in the executive agencies. They understand how to navigate the Department of War’s byzantine contracting processes. They understand how monies flow in Medicaid. They know where the closets are for burying skeletons. And they know all these things better even than your congressional committee staffs.

Washington has three essential sources of power. First, personal relationships which under term limits Members would have little time to develop.

Second comes money, which needs no elaboration.

The third and most important is knowledge. Knowledge allows a Member to leverage money and personal relationships. Knowledge also allows the swamp to build nearly impregnable fortress against change they oppose, and to overwhelm opposition to change they support.

Under term limits, the quantum of knowledge embodied in the congressional membership would contract substantially relative to that of the committee staff and especially relative to the executive branch professionals; Imperial presidency, indeed.

Many conservatives instinctively support term limits, but whatever happened to draining the swamp? Term limits would emasculate the power of elected officials to the advantage of unelected swamp creatures.

Term limits are ultimately the lazy answer. Don’t throw the bums out. Discriminate. Throw the bad bums out, get better replacements through elections, and then hold them all accountable.

J.D. Foster is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.