This is a fairly robust conclusion in political science: it's better to just "vote the bums out" than to have term limits for legislators: "fresh" legislators are far more easily swamped or wowed by flashy lobbyists who seem to know everything; and it helps maintain the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches.
O’Rourke’s amendment, like every push for term limits, is likely dead in the water. But there’s a reason the idea endures. Congress isn’t responsive to ordinary voters, and too many lawmakers have beencaptured by corporate interests. Incumbency rates are high, and extreme partisan gerrymandering insulates too many congresspeople from electoral competition. And while some of our long-serving legislators are competent stewards of the public interest, others are more known for their offensive outbursts than anything else.
It’s not unreasonable to look at these problems and conclude that Washington needs term limits to restore a measure of accountability and responsiveness. It helps too that term limits are easy to understand: When your time is up, you leave, opening the door to fresh blood and new ideas.
Except that, in actual practice, term-limiting congresspeople is a cure far worse than the disease. Fifteen states have term limits on their legislatures, giving us a chance to compare performance. The results are unambiguous. “Term limits weaken the legislative branch relative to the executive. Governors and the executive bureaucracy are reported to be more influential over legislative outcomes in states where term limits are on the books than where they are not,” concludes a 2006 study on the subject. The researchers, who compared legislators in all 50 states, found important behavioral shifts as well: Term-limited lawmakers spent less time on constituent services but equal time on campaigning and fundraising.
Power under term limits doesn’t just accrue to executive-office holders and bureaucrats, who hold more experience and knowledge of governance than term-limited lawmakers; it also shifts further toward lobbyists and others outside government. Lawmaking, like any profession, requires time and practice to do well. Even routine legislation involves considerable expertise, to say nothing of big ambitious policies. Term limits keep lawmakers from building that knowledge, producing representatives who rely even more on the “permanent establishment” of industry interests and their representatives, especially in states with weak legislatures. And without the specific subject expertise that comes with a career of lawmaking, elected officials become far less adept at oversight, impeding democratic accountability of the executive branch.