It’s Time to Pack It In, Mr. President

Tell me what is missing from the list below…

The mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots is 65, although Congress is trying to raise that age ceiling to 67 because of a shortage of pilots.

The mandatory retirement age for active-duty military personnel below the rank of brigadier general or rear admiral is 62. General and flag officers have until 64 before they are forced to retire. However, the Secretary of Defense can waive those requirements until age 66, and the President of the United States can waive them until age 68.

In other words, there is a generally accepted age that is considered too old for pilots to safely transport airline passengers from Point A to Point B… or for soldiers and seaman to adequately defend our country or to make important military decisions that affect the lives of men and women in combat. Under no circumstances are people in their 70s, 80s, or 90s allowed to serve in such critical capacities.

And yet, we allow – and even encourage through the power of incumbency – federal officeholders to make the laws that shape our nation’s future well into their eighth, ninth, and even tenth decades of life. Sounds crazy when you see it in writing, doesn’t it?

There is a reason why our Founding Fathers enacted minimum age requirements for serving in Congress and the Presidency. You must be at least 25 before being sworn into the House of Representatives, at least 30 before becoming a Senator, and at least 35 before being inaugurated as President. Simply put, the framers of the U.S. Constitution didn’t want neophytes with too little real-world experience calling the shots in Washington D.C.

So why did they include minimum age restrictions but not maximum ones? For two reasons…

First, the average life expectancy for an American male in 1788, when the Constitution was ratified, was just 38 years. And so, there was no reason to include a maximum age requirement because the vast number of men (remember only men could vote or serve in office) were expected to die well before their 50th birthday. Our forefathers simply couldn’t imagine an average life expectancy of 75, 80, or more.

Second, America’s founders were citizen representatives – businessmen, lawyers, and ministers – who considered public service a part-time and very temporary avocation… not a full-time and semi-permanent career. It would be anathema for them to learn that some legislators have selfishly extended their tenure in Congress for more than 40 or 50 years.

According to an exhaustive study conducted by the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, a branch of the National Institutes for Health, “There is some evidence that the magnitude of age-related decline accelerates at older ages… However, what does appear clear is that several different types of results converge on the conclusion that age-related cognitive decline begins relatively early in adulthood, and certainly before age 60 in healthy educated adults.”

The study found that until at least age 60, slower mental processing and diminished memory are somewhat offset by increased vocabulary and general overall knowledge. However, after age 70, the cognitive decline increases every year… and significantly every decade.

Specifically, speed of mental recall is cut in half and memory is reduced by as much as 75%.

My friend, I just turned 64 and believe that I still have much to offer my family and society in general. That being said, there is no question that it sometimes takes me a few seconds to remember a name, a face, or a fact. As a friend recently told me, “The information is still there, it just takes a little longer to find it.”

To which I replied, “That’s because you and I are still using the Dewey Decimal System!”

Throughout the 20th century, the average senatorial age never surpassed 60 and the average age for a representative never went above 55. In fact, they bottomed out for Senators at 51.7 years in 1981 and for Representatives at 48.4 in 1983. Today, the average age of a U.S. Senator is 65.3, the highest on record; and 57.8 for U.S. Representatives, the second highest ever.

The bottom line is that if Sen. Chuck Grassley (89); Rep. Hal Rogers (85); Rep. Steny Hoyer (84); Rep. Nancy Pelosi (83); and Sen. Mitch McConnell (81) will not voluntarily relinquish power after 48, 42, 42, 36, and 38 years respectively in Congress… then we should enact a mandatory retirement age that forces them to do so.

The same goes for our octogenarian President, whose cognitive decline is on full display for all the world – including our enemies – to see.

As for those members of Congress who are still in their 70s and yet have been in office for more than four decades – yes, I am talking about you, Sen. Ed Markey (46); Sen. Ron Wyden (42); Sen. Chuck Schumer (42); Rep. Chris Smith (42); Sen. Dick Durbin (40); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (40); and Sen. Ben Cardin (36) – it’s time they passed the baton and got a real job.