The Chris Cuomo Project - Term Limits: Congress Doesn't Have Them (But It Should)

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Chris Cuomo offers up some food for thought on elder politicians like 89-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who turns 90 today, exploring why there are currently no Congressional term or age limits, why being a politician was never supposed to be a job, whether the country’s founders considered these issues, and more. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why can't we have term limits in Congress? There is an answer. Why don't we have age limits in Congress? There is an answer. Why don't we have different rules for how things work in Congress? There is an answer. And I will explain them all because we need to do better. We don't fake the funk here.

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will get personalized ED treatment options. HIMS.com slash CCP. Prescriptions, you need an online consultation with a healthcare provider, and they will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. You see the website, you'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan. The Chris Cuomo Project is supported by Cozy Earth.

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surrounding Dianne Feinstein, or Dianne Feinstein, as a lot of people call her. She's going to be 90. She's too old. And then they say on the left, well, what about Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Feinstein's of California? How about him? He's going to be 90 soon. He's been in there forever. Shouldn't he be gone? Now, let's unpack it. One, is age relevant?

I say yes, subject to stage. Not all people of an age are the same, okay? Biden is in probably better shape than a lot of 80-something-year-olds, okay? Feinstein does seem to have diminishing capacities. She had to miss a lot of votes, and she was in a committee that was tied up 10-10, and the Democrats still had to play with this. Why? Because they saw making a move on her, although some did call for it, as weakness. They'd be given into the other side. So how does it work anyway? Well, if she would have resigned, who picks? The governor, if the legislature of the state allows it. Why? Because back in the day, legislatures made of legislators picked the senators for the state.

Then that shifted, right? And it was made constitutionally into an election by the people. But one of the vestiges of that leverage is that the legislature of each state decides whether or not the governor will appoint somebody for a vacancy. And then they have varying rules,

state by state of special elections and how long are there and what happens. So that's what would happen if she resigned. But with both of these guys, we see each side has the problem. Why is the right complaining about Feinstein and not Grassley? Well, one, the game opportunism. And two, Grassley's not showing his age as acutely right now as Feinstein. But when you look at both of them, you see the problem, which takes us into why there's no term limits and why there's no age restriction. And there should be both. Now, remember, in the Senate and in the House, the Constitution only lays out how old you have to be and where you have to be from. And it's silent on other things.

And it says how long the terms are. Because it doesn't say how many terms there can be, it has been seen that you can't use just a law, even from Congress, to put a cap on them because it would be an unconstitutional taking of the people's right to decide who their representatives are. Now, we know this in this case that was called Thornton, where states tried in the 90s to pass laws putting term limits on Congress. in the 90s to pass laws putting term limits on Congress. And Thornton came out and said, you can't do it because the Constitution doesn't give you the authority. Now, there is an argument to be made that powers that aren't expressly given to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved for the states and that the states therefore should have it. And the Constitution does lend some credence to this by giving states the determining power of time, place, and manner for elections. And yet that case, and it hasn't been really fought since then, kind of said, no, it's in the constitution

that they get as many terms as they want and you can't mess with that. But that is really unfortunate because it's really clear that we need them. And that's why Governor DeSantis says we need a constitutional convention. But the bar is so high. I have often said, I don't think you can get a constitutional amendment passed. Well, what is that anyway? You need a supermajority, right? You need two-thirds of Congress to say they want this, to vote on an amendment. Then they got to give it to the states.

You got to have a supermajority of the state's legislatures pass it. You know, it's very hard. I don't even think we get one on the name of the country right now. I mean it. Do you think America would get two-thirds of Congress? Maybe. Two-thirds of state legislatures? Probably more likely, but it could get stuck.

Why? America is Amerigo Vespucci, Italian guy. You don't think he did anything bad when he was looking around? You don't think they can find anything on him? So anyway, I mean, I don't mean to be cynical about it, but that's a very high bar and that's why you don't have them.

But mainly you don't have them because the people in power don't want them. You know, a few years ago, Senators Cruz and Rubio proposed this. You know what's interesting? While they proposed two terms for senators, which would be 12 years, right? It's a lot of time. Neither one has taken a pledge to serve no more than two terms, right? I thought Rubio was going

to do that, but then I think it went away. You see what I'm saying? The people in power get comfortable there. They like it. So when you look at Grassley and Feinstein, Feinstein has been in office since 92, okay? But it's actually longer than that. 92 is when she became Senator. She was the mayor for 10 years before that of San Francisco. She was like a board of supervisors or something before that. She's been in this her whole life.

Being a politician was not supposed to be a job. It was supposed to be service to your community and therefore temporary. And I think that's why they didn't put in term limits. They didn't think anybody would want to stay there that long. Because people had other things to do, like run their businesses, their families, their palatations, be in the community. They didn't see it as a forever thing. We don't fake the funk here.

And here's the real talk. Over 40 years of age, 52% of us experience some kind of ED between the ages of 40 and 70. I know it's taboo, it's embarrassing, but it shouldn't be. Thankfully, we now have HIMS. And it's changing the vibe by providing affordable access to ED treatment, and it's all online. HIMS is changing men's health care. Why? Because it's giving you access to affordable and discreet sexual health treatments, and you do it right from your couch. HIMS provides access to clinically proven generic alternatives to Viagra or Cialis

or whatever. And it's up to like 95% cheaper. And there are options as low as two bucks a dose. HIMS has hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers. So if ED is getting you down, it's time to pick it up. Start your free online visit today at hymns.com slash ccp. H-I-M-S dot com slash ccp. And you will get personalized ED treatment options. hymns.com slash ccp. Prescriptions, you need an online consultation with a healthcare provider, and they will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. You see the website. You'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required.

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comes to be president, but it's about who kind of leads the Senate when they're in the minority. But he's emeritus. Why? It kind of makes the point. He's just been there so long that they gave him the title. And by the way, having the title of president pro tempore emeritus, it came with like a larger staff and got you paid kind of like the leadership, like around 200 grand. Emeritus, you know, when you look at the etymology of the word means, and this is ironic, right? Having completed one's service. That's why when someone is a professor emeritus, it means that they're done really teaching. And yet here's this guy in the Senate. You see what I'm saying?

He's still got an equal access and opportunity to all these other senators, although he's obviously past his period. Now, term limits have been something that customarily were always in place. They were in place in the colonies. They're in place in a lot of parliamentary structures around the world.

And we wanted them here. It was argued in the Articles of Confederation. Okay, I want to get the history right for you. And by the way, if you're looking at this, if you look in the Constitution in Article 1, Section 3, that's where you see how it works if Feinstein were to leave. The questions became acute because she had shingles one, section three. That's where you see how it works if Feinstein were to leave. And the questions

became acute because she had shingles and she was missing votes and stuff like that. She's also the author of the 94 Assault Weapons Ban, by the way. That's how long she's been here. She couldn't get that done again, but that's, you know, it's like the last signature piece of legislation that really did anything to deal with how we use weapons in this society. that really did anything to deal with how we use weapons in this society. Now, when it came to president, they got spooked by FDR and the four runs. So they passed the 22nd Amendment. They got it done to have two terms.

It's interesting that they didn't think about doing it for them at that time. Again, those in power like to keep their power. Before the Constitution, we had it. The Articles of Confederation, there was arguments in there about having term limits. But then at the Constitutional Convention, they decided against it. Why? Mainly because there was concern about taking power from people. That is the big swing against term limits. Here are the arguments against having term limits. One, people get to decide. You can't have a hard rule. Two, it would create an uneven standard that it would work for some people, but not for others. Like this person should still be in there doing great, but now

they're limited out. The next one is that experience matters. The next one is that relationships matter. But these are also things that can be abused, and that's what we've seen, is that these conditions have played out to our disadvantage, not our advantage. It's hard to look at Congress right now and see that tenure is helpful. It just seems to deepen resentments and divisions, right? Do we see anybody working together because they've known each other for so long? What's interesting about the Thornton case that took away state's ability to take legislators' names off ballots, therefore, or thereby giving term limits, is it was a 5-4 decision, a liberal majority. Kennedy, the swing, Anthony Kennedy, joined with the liberal majority.

The forefathers considered term limits and rejected them in the Constitution. That should be good enough for us. But do you think they foresaw how the parties have been attacking our process and how reductive and destructive the politics has become? Madison in the Federalist Papers was one of the big voices that said, elections are the best limit, so let the people decide. But that was before the game and the gerrymandering and these money machines controlling races. None of that could have been foreseeable. So I believe that term limits

would be a huge advantage for us because it just would encourage people to get out of that game and get in fresh blood. And it's not like you're piloting a ship to the moon where you need to have a certain level of acumen, otherwise nothing will get done. And they have their parliamentarians. And, you know, I mean, you could engineer it all different kinds of ways. It may be to have more than a certain number of terms, you got to get a different level of the vote.

I don't know. You know, I think you could figure something out. And, you know, Hamilton was also somebody who had thought about this a lot, but they ultimately decided to not put it in. You do have this one legal argument that it doesn't say you can't do it, but that has been found constitutionally lacking. And even when you hear it's thought about in the halls of Congress, they always talk about it needing an amendment, not a law. You could argue that they're saying that because it makes it harder to do and they don't want it. But Rubio and Cruz's bill got no traction. Now, some will say, well, that's because of

how they determined what the limits would be, but I don't think the powerful wanna do anything to hurt themselves. But the idea that, well, you know, the people decide that's the best way to limit someone's term as a public servant, that kind of discounts all the rigging of the game that has happened since this

document was created and how hard it is to get an incumbent out of office. So should Feinstein go? Yeah. Do I believe that you should have a top side on the number? You know, a lot of businesses have it. They call it being superannuated, that you're too old. My father came up against that at 70 something at his law firm. And you know what they did? They wound up doing it year by year. Is Mario still producing? Is he still who we need him to be?

Would that be so bad to figure out how to do that? You know, in the Constitution, they really just talk about removal for behavior, not about for ineptitude, unless you look at the 25th Amendment, and that's just about the president. But term limits is something that we had, but unfortunately, in my estimation, was rejected by the founding fathers of the Constitutional Convention, and they did debate it and decided not to put it in. And that means to change it, you got to make an amendment.

Now, they did do that in 1951 for the president. Could we do it again? I don't know. All right. I hope that that made it a little bit more clear about what the Constitution says and doesn't say and what the politics are of it and how this has been chewed on and why in the courts and in our political discussion. And ultimately, we've wound up nowhere. But that is probably the right legal result, even if it is the wrong policy result, in my estimation. What's yours? Subscribe, follow, let me know. I'll see you on News Nation 8 and 11. You got to be a critical thinker.

You got to know the background and the history. Otherwise, you just all feels, no facts. I'll see you next time. Whatever the challenges in your life, let's get after it. Take care of yourself and take care of the people you care about. I'll see you next time. You know, interestingly, you know who isn't limited by term? The vice president. A vice president can have unlimited four-year terms. Isn't that interesting? Here, here's one for you. I wonder, Trump could run as vice president to DeSantis.

And then, you know, because he could still be president because he only served one term and he could be vice president forever and be in control if he could get a puppet on top of him. I know a lot of you are like, why would you make that suggestion? I'm just telling you what the law is and how it works and how we work around it.