Reply #5: Terms are not the problem and term limits are not the solution

[Caliman73]

There is also a term limit for the Presidency, 2 terms is the maximum one can serve as the President. No such limits in Congress though.

While it is easy to see the "career politician" as the main problem in government, I don't think that they are the main problem. They can be a problem but not the main one. The main problem with government corruption stems from the money spent by powerful individuals and companies to have those politicians do their bidding. That would occur regardless of whether we had term limits or not. We have term limits in California and the problem is that it kicks out the good with the bad. The corrupt politicians who are termed out gernerally go back to Sacramento or Washington D.C. as lobbyists. The good ones tend to retire or write their memoirs. What you lose with term limits is "institutional memory" and sometimes that is not a good thing.

What needs to be done to decrease corruption is a major change in the financing and running of campaigns. This 2 year campaign cycle is crap. Public financing of campaigns is needed so that we don't have people spending 160 million dollars to buy their position. Lobbying needs to be done without the dinners and the junkets. If you have a point to make then present the issue, don't fly the politician to the Bahamas or have a 2500 dollar a plate dinner. These things if they could happen would do more to stem corruption than limiting politicians to a certain amount of years in office. The politicians come and go, but the lobbyists and staffers are around for a long time. That is where we need to look for solutions.