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Should There Be Term Limits for Congressman and Senators?

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Should There Be Term Limits for Congressman and Senators?
Cazenovia College | Should There Be Term Limits for Congressman and Senators? | | | Brodfuehrer, Jason P | 4/12/2012 |

BACKGROUND Currently in the United States, we have a system setup where the average citizen is allowed to run for a seat in the House of Representatives or the Senate as long as they meet specific age and citizenship requirements. According to the United States Constitution, “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen (U.S. Archives 1). Additionally the United States Constitution states that, “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen (U.S. Archives 1). With these minimum restrictions put in place by our Founding Fathers 236 years ago, they believed that an average citizen of the United States would have gained enough education, “worldly” experience, and maturity in order to successfully make the important decisions needed to run our country and provide checks and balances upon the President of the United States. As you read the entire original part of the United States Constitution (minus the additions of the Bill of Rights or the Amendments that follow it) the Founding Fathers mention the stipulations of how long the terms are for Congressman (2 years) and for Senators (6 years), but there is no mention of anything in regards to how many times an average citizen can run for a seat in the House of Representatives or a seat in the Senate. Now I don’t know whether our Founding Fathers did that on purpose or if it was an unintentional oversight when they were drafting the final copy of the Constitution, but if you flash forward 236 years to the


Cited: Messerli, Joe. (January 7, 2011). Should Senators and Representatives in Congress Be Limited to a Certain Number of Terms in Office?. Retrieved from http://www.balancedpolitics.org/term_limits.htm United States of America. (May 14, 1787). United States Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html Walker, Nelson L. (2012). Tenure Corrupts. Retrieved from http://tenurecorrupts.com/
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