Opponents of term limits say look no farther than California to see the negative consequences brought on by restricting tenures of lawmakers, the Washington Examiner reported.
"The 1990s version of California term limits created weak short-term leaders in each chamber because they were always seen as temporary," California GOP operative Rob Stutzman told the Examiner. "Consequently, staff and special interests became more powerful."
To the point of inexperienced legislators relying on lobbyists to write legislation, the Examiner reported.
President-elect Donald Trump made term limits for Congress part of his platform as part of "drain the swamp" mantra, and hasn't backed down from that despite an expected lack of support from both sides of the aisle.
"I would say we have term limits now. They're called elections. And it will not be on the agenda in the Senate," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said recently.
Though Speaker Paul Ryan, for one, is amenable to the idea, the Examiner reported.
Though term limits have been a mixed bag at the state level, ultimately the issue comes down to less experienced lawmakers taking on more experienced lobbyists who can be entrenched as long as they want.
"Rather than having your legislative programs be subject to entrenched, lifetime legislators, you actually in many respects have turned a lot of the policy decisions over to entrenched staff people who aren't elected by the people at all," Allan Zaremberg, president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, told the Examiner.
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