John Joseph Moakley: “I oppose the rule because I believe that the American voters, and nobody else, should decide who represents them. For…”

“I oppose the rule because I believe that the American voters, and nobody else, should decide who represents them. For anyone who thinks that we do not have term limits, I would remind everybody that every 2 years, the entire House of Representatives is up for reelection. Every 2 years the American people can decide who they want in and who they want out. Mr. Speaker, 2 years is far shorter than any of the term limit proposals we are going to hear here today. The shortest term limit proposed here today is 6 years. That is 4 years longer than the term limits built right now into the ballot boxes. Proponents of term limits argue that incumbents always win. They say the deck is stacked. Mr. Speaker, that is not true. Nobody is immune. In fact, in the last few elections, our Speaker, the chairman of Ways and Means, chairmen of other standing committees, chairmen of subcommittees have all been defeated. Mr. Speaker, over the last 10 years, 75 percent of the Congress has turned over. Three out of every four Members who were here 10 years ago either lost or retired, and most of those were relatively new Members themselves.”