Why do senators and congressmen not have term limits?

Question

Isn't most of our country's problems because of these self-centered, lifers who could not get a job as a grave digger; their only mission in life is to get money to get reelected. Why did our forefathers not think of this?

Answer 1

Yes term limits are needed, the american people could stop voting the career politicians into office after two terms also. Then as you say they may start doing what they was elected for instead of spending all their time getting ready for the next election.

Answer 2

Actually they did think of this.  They thought of public office as being a type of service.  Ideally that service was temporary.  Some states do have term limits though there are no national term limits.  Those states with term limits hinder their ability to get political power.  Yeah, it has its down side, but lifers have more power for their constituents.  There were no term limits on the presidency until after F. D. Roosevelt broke tradition and just kept running.  Even then that was tradition rather than law.

Answer 3

Well people continue to elect them. If the people really did not care for them, they would be more than willing to throw them out of office.

The founding fathers believed the people should determine who represents them and if a district wants to send someone back to Congress for decades, let them.  

Answer 4

It would require amending Article One of the Constitution. The document which, if more people read it, would make them realize that every two years we have the right to "overthrow" the government by voting out every Member of the House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate. Terms limits laws are a lazy way to conduct representative democracy. They cater to those who do not take the time to examine the candidates or support the challengers. Since half of all eligible voters are not even registered to vote, all that is needed is for an incumbent to have 25.1% of the total eligible electorate to vote for him to gain re-election.  

Answer 5

There was no term limit for the president until FDR was elected to four terms.

Answer 6

Very good question!

In fact, several states beginning in the early-1990's started doing this, but a Supreme Court ruling deemed term-limits on the federal level to be unconstitutional.

Also, here's the problem with this anyway:  If a few states decide to go ahead with term limits, and other states don't, those states who keep re-electing their senators and congress members would end up having more power and clout than the other states, who would be electing newer, less-experienced people in the Senate and Congress.

Perhaps, it might just be better to have the leading members of, say the Armed Services Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee to be headed by experienced members of Congress, and not by someone who is new to the process, "green", so to speak.