Just What is Ted Cruz Up To?

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By Maya J. Carter

Sneaking in the beneath the pile of Constitutional Amendments and other proposed legislation comes the ever so smarmy Ted Cruz. I can see the oleaginous machinations being concocted in his head. On January 25, 2021 he tweeted: “Today my colleagues and I reintroduced a constitutional amendment to propose #TermLimits on Members of Congress. The amendment would limit U.S. Senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.”

This is not the first time he has introduced these proposals. He did so previously in January 2017 and January 2019, and even wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in the past correlating this proposal as a means to “drain the swamp”.

But what is Cruz really up to?

According to Stacker.com:

“Members of the 116th Congress have, on average, 8.6 years of service for the House and 10.1 years for the Senate, based on January 2019 data from the Congressional Research Service—but many officials represent their districts and states for much longer. The standing record for the most time served in Congress belongs to former Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), who spent more than 59 years in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1995 and 2015 and died Feb. 7, 2019, at 92 years old.”

“Some argue for term limits for members of Congress, claiming this would prevent the development of deep relationships between politicians and lobbyists, limit the creation of a political class, and—according to Florida State University economists Randall Holcombe and Robert Gmeiner—help to slow government spending and taxes. Those who oppose term limits argue such restrictions take power away from voters, create governing bodies in which no one is inclined to build expertise, and push policymakers out the door regardless of their legislative acumen.”

Now, it is true that term limits for Congress receives large support. According to Gallup in 2019, “three in four Americans say that, given the opportunity, they would vote ‘for’ term limits for members of Congress.”

The Heritage Foundation also supports term limits. In their statement from the 1994 “Term Limits: The Only Way to Clean Up Congress”: “Term limits are a vital political reform that would bring new perspectives to Congress, mandate frequent legislative turnover, and diminish incentives for wasteful election-related federal spending that currently flourish in a careerist congressional culture.”

But look carefully at that statement, especially the part about bringing new perspectives to Congress and mandating frequent legislative turnover. I see a few issues.

First, I look at what is currently happening in Georgia in response to the state turning blue in the latest presidential and senatorial elections. Due to massive voter turnout, Republicans are already attempting to introduce new voting legislation to suppress the vote – again. According to the U.S. News & World Report, “Georgia’s chief election officer, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, has endorsed the idea of ending no-excuse absentee voting, which was utilized by about 1.3 million voters in the November election — spurred by voters trying to avoid in-person polls amid the coronavirus pandemic. He has also said he wants a photo ID requirement for absentee voting, despite repeatedly saying that there was no evidence of systemic fraud.” The Republican party is well aware from distant and recent history that if you can suppress the vote you can increase Republican chances at winning elections. Add term limits to the mix and Republicans can create an easy purge of established and respected Democrat elected officials and create an on-ramp for more Republican legislators through new voter suppression efforts alone.

Second, the vast majority of the longest seated Congressional leaders are…guess who…Democrats! The list includes Congressional leaders Jackson Lee (TX), Clyburn (SC), Pelosi (CA), Leahy (VT), Nadler (NY), Feinstein (CA), Waters (CA), Engel (NY), and numerous others, to a ratio of almost 5:1 (Democrats to Republicans). Don’t believe me? Check out the list at stacker.com here https://stacker.com/stories/3563/longest-serving-members-congress

Let alone their invaluable legislative experience, we would lose continuity in the legislative process which is already stymied plenty by leaders like McConnell as well as increasingly partisan. Additionally, with more candidates espousing inane ideologies such as QAnon becoming elected leaders in Congress, we must be more discerning regarding potential leaders with extreme views becoming newly elected in Congress. Even with shortened terms, we see the damage that such views can do to our democracy in short period of time.

Just food for thought when jumping on Cruz’s bandwagon when supporting term limits. What do you think?

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