America and Congress Essay

The Power and Significance of Congress Firstly it is important to look at the power and significance of congress as a legislative body. This includes the creation of law, and the scrutiny of the executive. Because the US federal system is ruled by 'separation of powers', it is important that the legislative - congress - acts as a good check and restraint on the executive - the president.

This written report is appertaining to the book How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, written by Lee H. Hamilton. This book is published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IL, it was copyrighted in 2004 by the publisher.

Is congress a dysfunctional institution? Columnist Ezra Klein contends that institutional deadlock and partisan rancor have paralyzed congress, causing it to lose power to the president and the bureaucracy. Former Massachusetts Senator Mo Cowan describes he has to come view the work of congress along with fellow members after fulfilling the remainder of John Kerry’s term upon the nomination of Governor Deval Patrick.

The Role of the Senate and House of Representatives The Congress of the United States consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives which means the USA is bi-cambial. The Congress of the United States was created by Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution, adopted by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. The Senate is composed of 100 Members, 2 from each State, who are elected to serve for a term of 6 years.

Today, career politicians are constantly looking for what will aid them in getting reelected. They become more loyal to their campaign fund contributers than to the people whom they represent. This increases the likelihood of having corrupted politicians in office, as they use the government as a vehicle to further their own career (Kurfirst, 1996, p. 123, 129). George Will, a well-known political journalist, was quoted as saying “[The] worst feature of professionalism in politics is that it obliterates the proper distance between the representatives and the represented” (Kurfirst, 1996, p. 125). Even James Madison agreed that legislators were meant to represent the people, not hold office as a career. In The Federalist No. 57 (1788), he wrote, “From this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a change of opinions, a change of measures.” The lack of new faces in Congress today symbolizes that the American legislative branch is straying from its intended purpose.

However , Lee H. hamilton differs and believes congress isn’t dysfunctional and is objected to,

Throughout history, there have been many factors that seem to have influenced the operations of Congress. Some of these factors have been the committee system, seniority, and political parties. These are only a few of the factors that actually have an influence on Congress’s decisions of certain operations.

The president is the foreign policy leader for the United States with an important political, military and economic role in the international arena. If there is collision between the president and congress, can congress restrain the president in foreign policy making?

In recent years, congress has been incredibly adversarial to the president, providing that it is not controlled by members of his (the president) political party affiliation. The main source of this weakness is that congress and its members are defined by partisanship, they value tribalism, and are rewarded based on their loyalty to their party and antagonism to their opposition. This makes congress a breeding ground for viscous opposition where any room for compromise between parties is villainized, because of this the president can only govern efficiently when his party controls a significant percentage of both or either house. The major cause of this new political culture is highly contested, some say it is because political parties have come to gain too much power by way of their influence and ability to build campaign war chests. Others believe that political parties are too weak, citing that special interests and third party intervention has made members of either party less responsive to their leaders causing them to govern based on their fiscal supporters, which, would not allow compromise between two single groups. Regardless, it is very appropriate to cast the blame of a dysfunctional congress upon party politics. To illustrate this relationship between the executive and partisan congress we will look at the presidency of Barack Obama,

The Congress is the first branch of government, in the American system so to say. While still abiding in the checks and balances system, It was still, in way designed to be the top out of the three branches. Through the years it seems like the congress is decaying and is failing more and more to fulfill its duties honestly and the Citizens are taking note. Nowadays most citizens of America critic the congress for its growing corruption and unreliability. The congress is often now described as a broken branch, damaged by partisan bickering and internal rancor. While no specific reason has been deemed the certain the main cause of congressional dysfunction, there are many opinions on what issues cause the congress to be broken. Reasons for the explanation of the collapse of the congress include the increased amount of Gridlocks, the corruption of politics over policy, transfer of work to the staffers, and misplacement of priorities and issues leading to meaning les debates.

Firstly, there are standing committees. They are a permanent committee in house or senate that considers bills within a specific area. Each different committee is given a specific area of legislative policy jurisdiction. Members tend to seek committee seats that deal with matters of special interest to their constituents. There are select committees. It is a temporary legislative committee created for a limited time for a specific reason. They normally form to investigate public issues like aging. Another is joint committees. It is comprised of both Chambers of Congress. They can be permanent or temporary. They work with economy, tax, or Library of Congress. Conference Committees are formed to reach an agreement between the House and

Since the middle ages, corporatism has taken a leading role in countries by involving different organizations into a group of people to develop cooperative associations on the basis of shared interests. In Europe, corporatism was the main objective of people in a country. For example, Lewis Mumford note that the basic society "was based on classes and ranks" and there was no guaranteeing demand through security and no power that did not recognize the legal obligations of a corporate profile (Mumford). Once democracy began to spread and become definite in the United States, the Americans began to experiment with new ideas and values. In America, corporatism began to evolve into a new system where the knowing of freedom and justice was

Over the last several decades, American politics scholars have sought to understand the causes of increasing partisanship and polarization in the United States Congress. Since the 1970s, the ideological positions of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic and Republican parties, have widened (Abramowitz and Saunders, 2008; Levendusky; 2010). This ideological divide also promotes a perception among the American public that Congress has increasingly become ineffective and polarized to a point where political parties in government no longer compromise on policy for the good of the country. In recent years, a new concern has arisen regarding unlimited spending in elections by outside groups permitted after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in SpeechNOW.org v. FEC (2010) (Mann and Corroado, 2014). Both decisions allow unlimited independent expenditures for political advertisements, ad buys, and other electioneering communications during elections. Furthermore, there is an increase and heightened unease of outside undisclosed donors, or “dark” money, who may have undue influences on political, electoral, and policy outcomes (Mann and Corroado, 2014; Federal Election Commission). Thus, does independent campaign expenditures spend have detrimental or undue influences on polarization and policy outcomes by promoting more extreme ideological positions in congressional representation?

The government in the United States supposedly revolves around American ideals such as equality and diversity; however, this is simply not the case as perpetuated by class inequalities. The meaning of democracy has been skewed in the United States to represent something entirely different than it did in 1776. Today, American democracy behaves more like an aristocracy, where the upper class exercises power within the government and state, influencing discourse and therefore the laws and resources in our country, which are purportedly “for the people”. Democracy is presumed to provide everyone with equal political power, but the government in today’s America, although seemingly following this ideal model, does not. Instead, the elite upper class has a monopoly over the political influence and are the sole benefactors from public policies due to their influence over the policy making process. The upper class has an overall benefit from class inequality, as it greatly impacts American ‘democracy’ through the significant power gained through money and status, leadership roles that impact government, and the influence in the policymaking process that creates upper class advantages.

My role in the delegation of the United States of America was to act as the Ambassador. As the ambassador, my top priorities were to make sure our alliances were politically correct, and to represent the peaceful, secure, and rational aspects of the United States of America. These were my top priorities because, I wanted our alliances to resemble those of the actual United States of America. I also wanted to make a positive representation of our country so that other nations could look past our faults, and be willing to work with us. Overall I somewhat met these standards. I felt like I let my emotions blind me in completely meeting my priorities.