Another consideration for term limits on congressmen that hasn't been discussed yet is that final-term guys have a lot of incentive to start working on their post-Congressional careers, and that can definitely negatively impact their political agendas from the perspective of the constituency. Over 50% of working former-Congressmen/women who lost or left their seats in the past 15 years are now working as Washington lobbyists for an average salary almost an order of magnitude above their Congressional salaries. There's already plenty of incentive for our Congresspeople to start getting themselves into bed with special interests; if you put term limits in place, that grows much stronger. One potential remedy, both within the current system or a term limit system, would be to substantially increase the Congressional pension plan, and certainly to allow it to vest at 100% with MUCH shorter service times (depending on age, you can keep benefitting up to 25 years of service under the current program). Then make most of it forfeit if you work for special interest groups/lobbies/etc. Increase salaries while you're at it. Sure, it incenses a lot of the taxpayers. But realistically, the cost of paying the Congress, Federal justices, and Executive officers is totally insignificant within the federal budget. You can bump it up an order of magnitude and it makes no difference whatsoever.