Sen. Ted Cruz is a master of meretricious blather, but it remains to be seen if he’s got a true feel for marketing. If he doesn’t name his new term limits bill “The Ted Cruz Will Be Forced to Leave Congress Long Before Satan Calls Him Home and His Purpling Corpse Lies Moldering in an Unnecessarily Deep Grave Act of 2022,” he’ll be committing legislative malpractice. In fact, if he wants to guarantee that his bill passes, he should apply it only to himself.
Unfortunately, he’s taking the opposite tack. He’s introducing a bill that would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms, while at the same time he’s planning to run for his third. That’s, uh—what’s the word?—hypocritical. One might also say “prickish.” Exactly the kind of thing a guy who’d planned to do belly shots at Señor Frog’s Cancun while his constituents literally froze to death would do.
The Texas Tribune:
The bill is a constitutional amendment that would prevent U.S. senators from serving more than 12 years. It would also prevent those in the U.S. House from serving more than three two-year terms. Terms served by members prior to the bill’s enactment would not count toward the proposed term limitations, which means that if the bill were to be passed by this Congress, Cruz would not be term limited until 2036.
“Term limits are critical to fixing what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” the Texas Republican said in a statement after introducing the bill last week. “The Founding Fathers envisioned a government of citizen legislators who would serve for a few years and return home, not a government run by a small group of special interests and lifelong, permanently entrenched politicians who prey upon the brokenness of Washington to govern in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the American people.”
Whatever you think of term limits—I happen to be in the “experience counts” and “why the fuck would you ever do that?” camps—they do seem superficially appealing. But it’s awfully convenient that the guy who’s currently advocating for them wouldn’t be affected for another 13 years.
Perhaps the best argument for term limits is that they might prevent corruption. Except we have some experience with this now, and that doesn’t ever seem to happen.
Vox:
[H]ere's the conclusion from a 50-state survey published in 2006: "Term limits weaken the legislative branch relative to the executive. Governors and the executive bureaucracy are reported to be more influential over legislative outcomes in states where term limits are on the books than where they are not."
This result has been replicated multiple times. In one study, a post-term-limits respondent said that after term limits, "agencies [do] what they want to. [One bureaucrat told me] we were here when you got here, and we'll be here when you're gone." As the authors of this study note, "Legislative oversight is the venue of specialists. A term-limited legislature tends to be populated by generalists, who lack the accumulated knowledge to exercise oversight effectively, if they even recognize it as their responsibility."
Term limits also strengthen the power of lobbyists and interest groups for the same reason. In term-limited states, lawmakers and their staff have less time to build up expertise, since they are there for a limited time. But like the executive agencies of the state government, lobbyists and interest groups are also there year after year. They are the true repeat players building long-term relationships and the true keepers of the institutional knowledge. This gives them power.
So, yeah, another bad idea from Bad Ideas Я Us (née The Republican Party).
Of course, whatever else you want to say about him, you have to admit that Ted is a smart guy. Dude graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and edited the Harvard Law Review. So he likely knows all of this. He also knows that lots of people like the idea of term limits and that he eventually wants to run for president again. And a weakened Congress would be just the ticket for attaining his lifelong dream …
World domination, huh? That’s pretty on brand. And in case you think he’s joking, ask yourself this: When have you ever heard Ted Cruz say anything funny?
Of course, Cruz has introduced this same legislation before, in both 2017 and 2019, and it’s unlikely to go anywhere this time, either. He probably knows that, too—but this kind of thing plays well with his GOP constituents, who’d probably like to eventually cast a U.S. Senate vote that doesn’t permanently corrode their souls.
But while Cruz, according to The Texas Tribune, chose to ignore questions about the evident hypocrisy of his proposal, at least one Texas Democrat saw through Cruz’s posturing.
In a bid to “oblige” Cruz, Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez has introduced a bill allowing the state to limit its U.S. senators to two terms in office.
“This is the same story he does every two years,” Gutierrez said. “It is beyond hypocrisy. If he wants term limits so badly to save us from entrenched politicians, then he needs to go retire now. He’s done his 12 years.”
RELATED STORY: It's high time we start beating up on Ted Cruz and Rick Scott
Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.