A small group of Republicans led by Senator Ted Cruz have introduced legislation that
would put term limits on members of Congress.
This isn't the first time Republicans have tried to get this done and there's a lot of
debate over whether or not term limits are the best option.
Okay.
We've heard the discussion before constitutional amendment requires what, two thirds of Congress
to vote on it, and then was it three quarters of all the states?
I believe it's three quarters of all the states to ratify.
Long shot, real long shot.
Take it from there.
It is an exceptionally long shot and for the, you know, maybe only the second time ever.
I agree with Ted Cruz.
Oh I do too.
I'm all for it.
And what's funny though is that, you know, I've done segments about term limits before
and I've gotten so many angry progressives saying, well, how could you support that?
How can you support that?
And my question is, how can you not.
I've never gotten a good argument from anyone as to why we shouldn't have congressional
term limits.
Not a single one.
Farron, I'm fascinated by what you just said.
You've gotten criticism and I have too about coming out and saying we need term limits.
What could there possibly be that would upset the average person who has a brain about term
limits?
What is, what is the criticism you've gotten?
Well, then we'd have to say goodbye to Bernie Sanders.
Well, Bernie Sanders, just in November, that was his election to a third term, so he'd
only been to the Senate for 12 years and I understand that that means saying goodbye
to literally one good guy.
It also means, would've gotten rid of at the time, McCain
McCain would've been history.
Jim InHofe who has destroyed the climate conversation.
Oh I can, we can go on forever.
You can go on forever for all the...
Boehner wouldn't have been in there for 25 years.
Lindsey Graham.
All the trolls, man.
Get rid of them.
I know that you've said this before, that when you do a store like this and you talk
about the need for term limits that progressive's write you back.
How could you possibly say that?
You're going to affect Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.
God, I mean, give me a break, think through it just a little bit.
Okay, so let's, let's talk about this.
To date, I think there's about 33 amendments.
I don't remember the exact, about 33 amendments that had been proposed, 27 or so were ratified.
Not really meaningful stuff though, I mean.
But if they were to send this to the states, this would pass.
Right now, polling over just the last 12 months at the lowest end, 74 percent of the American
public supported term limits for Congress.
At the high end, 82 percent supported term limits, so this is something where...
That it could happen.
Right, this has the same approval level as Medicare For All.
As the Green New Deal.
As all of those things that we're pushing for.
It's an interesting mixture.
You Got Marco Rubio, you got Mike Lee from Utah, David Perdue.
These are all, these are all Republicans.
They are and that's what's so weird.
You know what this is about?
They're projecting 10 years down the road.
They see a trend taking place and so they're saying let's do this, but the truth is it's
a good idea whether or not they're their rationale is what we would agree with or not, it's a
good idea.
Well, and when you look at what's coming up in 2020, there's actually more Republican
senators up for reelection in 2020, including some who would be affected by Cruz's term
limits, which would be two terms for a senator.
So 12 years total.
Not a bad limit there.
No, look at Nelson, my God.
When Nelson was running against Scott, I wanted to put a mirror under his nose to see if there
was any condensation.
The guy looked like a walking corpse and so obviously Scott beats him and he was just
a weak candidate man.
Right, and when you look at these people who spend 10, 15, 20 years in Congress, what's
the biggest criticism of them?
They're too establishment now.
They've got, they're too into the system.
They've lost touch back home, and it's true.
McCain is a great example.
McCain was, was barely even recognizable as statesman by the time his term was, you know,
the last time he ran, I don't know if you know this story, but he runs and you remember
that.
Okay, so you've got an economic burn down, right?
Obama was running against McCain.
McCain says, oh, well, we're going to, let's stop our election process and I'm going to
go to Washington to solve the problem.
Do you remember that?
Yep.
Okay, so the stories that came out of him going to Washington, he said, I got a plan.
He shows up for this meeting that's taking place in the White House saying, everybody
says, where's your plan McCain?
He had no plan.
He had become simply kind of a nutjob running for president, and that's what these people
simply lose.
They lose touch with reality and McCain's a great example.
I mean, my God, you know, if we, he's not the only example though.
Well, and here's the thing too.
We've got term limits on the presidency so that no one person in the US can have that
much power.
Mitch McConnell is more powerful than Donald Trump.
Lindsey Graham is more powerful.
McCain at the time was more powerful.
Boehner was.
Pelosi is arguably more powerful right now in her position.
Oh God, Schumer.
Schumer.
And you go, what in the world.
So why is it that this person can run and serve for 30 years and the person in the White
House only gets 8?
Let's limit them all.
Put fresh faces in there and as an aside there, you're not going to have somebody who over
the course of their career just took 30 million from fossil fuels.
They can't spend enough to keep up with term limits either.
You're going to inadvertently and to a smaller extent, solve another problem along the way.
Yeah.
Look, do me a favor, would you, once you get all the criticism about this segment, send
it to me because I really want to read it.
It's, it's almost laughable.
Some moron saying, oh, well, how dare you talk about term limits.
Go figure.