Nicholas Goldberg: Are Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein too old to do their jobs? (via latimesopinion)
that between 15% and 25% of people over 65 suffer from mild cognitive impairment. But physical problems also need to be considered. Many remember when an ailing 92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd was rolled onto the Senate floor in his wheelchair to vote for Obamacare.
One way to address these problems would be to enact an upper age limit for public officials. The Constitution already sets lower limits. You have to be at least 25 to become a member of the House of Representatives, 30 to be a senator and 35 to be president. Congress in 1986 made mandatory retirement ages for most professions illegal in an effort to fight age discrimination. But certain sensitive jobs — including in some cases, judges — are exempt. Presumably elected officials could be exempted too.
Or maybe that’s going too far. Maybe we don’t want to force out people who are still performing at a high level. In that case, we could simply require candidates or sitting government officials to undergo a thorough nonpartisan medical review to assess their physical and mental health after, say, 70.The House has sent President Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades.
Or we could enact term limit laws. Senators, for instance, might be held to two six-year terms. That wouldn’t be an age restriction, but it would clearly reduce the number of older senators.In 2019, former President Carter — who is still legally entitled to one more term if he chooses to run again — pointed out that presidents need to be intellectually flexible and attuned to new ideas and acknowledged that he couldn’t have handled the job even at age 80.
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