OPINION:
If you would like a brief explanation for why we desperately need term limits for members of Congress, take Sen. Mitch McConnell.
The senior Republican senator from Kentucky has been a member of the Senate for more than 40 years, longer than most Americans have been alive. At 84, and with chronic health problems, Mr. McConnell has been hospitalized at least twice this year, the latest time on June 14. His staff will not disclose his condition or the nature of his illness.
Mr. McConnell announced in February 2025 that he would not run for reelection this year. Still, do Kentucky voters not deserve two U.S. senators in the meantime, especially with the slim margins in the Senate?
The Senate increasingly resembles a retirement community. One-third of the members of that graying body are 70 or older, and six are older than 80. Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has haunted the halls of Congress since 1991 — first in the House, and in the Senate since 2007. At 84, he shows no signs of slowing down.
More than half of the members of Congress are millionaires. Many came to Washington to do good and did very well for themselves.
To say this is not what the Founding Fathers intended is a gross understatement. They saw public service as a trust, not a career. They envisioned citizens going into the national government for a limited time and then returning home to the farm, shop or law office.
They did not anticipate that congressmen would stay as long as it took to hoodwink their constituents and then go into lobbying or join a Washington think tank.
Regular turnover brings fresh ideas and perspectives to deliberations. The unlimited terms of service we have today may be likened to a legislative hardening of the arteries.
Some former members of Congress have confessed that they did their best work in their first term in office, before they learned that the possible was impossible.
Legislators who have been dealing with the national debt and Social Security for decades have become so accustomed to these problems that they begin to view them as insoluble and simply kick the can down the road.
One of President Trump’s strengths is that he comes from outside the system. His time as a real estate developer taught him to look outside the box. That is why many of his solutions sound radical but work, such as the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
Mr. McConnell’s public service should be celebrated, but his determination to cling to power when he can no longer function in office should not be.
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