Thursday, May 7, 2009

The first step for fixing our legislature

Problem: Our legislature is populist and members of Congress are far more interested in getting reelected than in creating policy that works

Solution: Institute term limits for congresspeople.

There are many situations in which legislative experience can be valuable, but there is a large network of advisers, thinktanks and consultants in Washington that former legislators can become.

Meanwhile, term limits ensure that congresspeople don't feel the need to hold onto their positions quite as violently because they'll be forced to give them up in the near future anyway. The fact that reelection happens at all helps to weed out the people who disregard public will entirely, but term limits insulate congress a little bit from people whose only goal is to stay in power.

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