An Antidote to Federal Red Ink: Term Limits

We examine recent key votes on budget and tax issues and compare the voting behavior of the members of Congress with 6 years or less in the House and 12 years or less in the Senate (junior members) with that of the members with more than 6 and 12 years experience (veterans). We find that if only the junior members of Congress had been voting in recent years--as would be the case if all members were term limited--many popular fiscal reforms would have been approved, including a balanced-budget amendment, a line-item veto for the president, and the Penny-Kasich spending cuts. We also find that both President Bush's and President Clinton's record tax increases would have been defeated. Because members of Congress become more pro-tax-and-spend the longer they serve in Washington, term limits would probably lead to more fiscal restraint on Capitol Hill.