Lori Falce: Term limits are half the story

Joe Biden might be thinking about the presidency as a one-term option. Or not. Politico’s reporting on the issue has since been denied by Biden, who is running for commander in-chief for the third time.

But it’s an interesting question, not just for the 77-year-old former vice president and longtime U.S. senator. It’s an idea worth thinking about for anyone seeking the office.

How long do you expect to have this job?

The concept of term limits is generally popular when people are grousing about the guys in charge, be they state or federal or sometimes even the person who has had a death grip on a local municipality longer than some voters have been alive.

Term limits are one of those ideas, like consolidation of municipalities or police departments or other services, that makes sense in broad strokes when people talk about it, but that no one really wants applied in their own backyard.

Get rid of that guy! He’s been in office too long! Oh, but not my guy who has been there even longer. I like my guy.

I don’t see how many terms they serve as being the only issue. I see the length of the terms being the bigger problem, and that problem is actually that they aren’t long enough.

Washington’s and Harrisburg’s terms are almost Goldilocks lengths. House of Representatives’ are too short at two years, keeping them in a perpetual state of campaigning. The Senate might seem too long at six years, but that actually gives seat holders the best opportunity to actually do the job between running for the job.

But the president (and the governor) sit between them at four years. Instead of being just right, it’s more the worst parts of both. The executive ends up perennially campaigning for self or party and really only has the freedom to eschew that responsibility when a lame duck in the second term.

If I were redrafting the rules, I would stretch House terms to four years but stagger them so that everyone isn’t running at the same time, and bump the Senate to eight. I would place limits on both, because while I appreciate experience and institutional knowledge, no one should be in Congress longer than it takes someone to start a job fresh out of school, work an entire career and retire.

The truth is limiting terms limits power both for the individual and the party, as incumbents are almost always favored to win. A race without incumbents can become a puck drop with less certain outcomes. That might not be good for the party, but that’s a far cry from being bad for the people.

Public service is noble. Public office is not the same thing, and more people in those roles need to be considering how they can serve their communities in ways that don’t involve decades of cultivating power and currying favor.