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The Pros And Cons Of Congress

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2. This cartoon depicts the popular belief about Congress, which is that they don’t do anything. The current 112th Congress is supposedly the worst Congress ever for many reasons. First of all, they're not passing laws. The 112th Congress has passed slightly over 150 laws while previous ones have surpassed the 300 mark. Secondly, they're dreadfully unpopular with the public. According to Gallup, the 112th Congress set a record for unpopularity in February, where only 10 percent of Americans said that they revered the job Congress was doing. Lastly, they cannot get appropriations done on time. One of the most basic jobs of Congress is to fund the federal government, which is completed through the annual appropriations process. However, it is not happening lately leaving citizens utterly disappointed. The 112th Congress has been an embarrassment — and its members realize it. As Rep. Jim Cooper, a modest Democrat from Tennessee who has served in the Congress since 1983, says, "America's problems have rarely looked so large, and Congress has rarely looked so small." 2b. I agree with the cartoon because I believe that Congress has not done anything. All the facts point to this Congress being one of the worst ever. The Congress has not been able to get appropriations done on time, make enough laws, …show more content…

Many believe that the existing Congress is a miserable failure and is desperate need of new procedures, influence, and ideas. By implementing term limits, it can lead to a "citizen" Congress, rather than one occupied by career politicians and lawyers. There is also a less chance for corruption if time in office is regulated, since new politicians are unlikely to have the experience to manipulate the system. However, the absence of term limits can lead to a system of seniority, meaning that those who have spent the most time in office gain more influence and power. Therefore, term limits should be

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However, reelection being the motivator of members of Congress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The motivation to be reelected incentivizes members of Congress to enact legislation and constantly work to improve the lives of citizens. Regardless of motive, as long as legislation is being passed through the House and members of Congress like Representative Long are improving the conditions of their district, the purpose of government is being

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Lee H. Hamilton, a former congressman in the House of Representatives, wrote, The Case for Congress, to share some of the criticisms he has heard over the years and to explain the effects of such opinions. Hamilton speaks of three main criticisms: “Congress is run by lobbyists and special interests”, “Congress almost seems to promote total gridlock”, and “There’s too much money in Politics” (Hamilton 2004). For each of these criticisms, Hamilton explains these thoughts and his opinion on the matter. The strongest point of Hamilton’s argument was in defending the lobbyists in Congress. Hamilton (2004) said the public opinion of lobbyists is that “Congress is manipulated by powerful wheel-dealers who put pressure on legislators and buy votes through extensive campaigns and other favors” (p. 83).

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In The Broken Branch, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein offer a first hand and well-explained account of what is wrong in the United States Congress today, when and where the government started to let things slip, and how Congress can work to get back on track. Mann and Ornstein begin their book by discussing some of the history, events, and reasoning behind practices of today’s Congress. Not until chapter three in the book do they really get into the root cause of the problems facing Congress in today’s day in age. In chapter three, Mann and Ornestein detail that they began their political careers in Washington D.C. in 1969, at the peak of the dissatisfaction that citizens were feeling over the Vietnam War (47). The duo conveys that the

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Diplomacy in the United States is becoming more and more important. And congress's have their own weaknesses to competent leadership role in foreign affairs. For several reason members of congress background complex, opinions are vary. They will fails to meet foreign activities because those activity need a high degree of continuity, quickly, confidentiality. Especially their strong local color, they can’t consider the advantages and disadvantages of foreign for the United States.

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Perhaps one of the best arguments for lack of speed in Congress was laid out by a paper in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1963, when the editors wrote, “The Slowness of Congress, its traditional process, its respect for minority sentiment, all these will be enjoyed at one time or another by every minority, and all of us belong to the minority at times. ” Lack of speed is a check on majority by the minority. In turn each political party will be in power or out of power and thus slowness has the virtue of stopping the majority from riding roughshod over any minority group. Even though there are at least two major benefits, there are equal drawbacks of having a slow moving

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Mystie Robinson American Government Term Limits of Congress The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature of the United States of America’s federal government. Congress has two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of Congress can spend many years in office. They don’t have term limits.

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To impose limits on congressional terms, Congress would have to amend the Constitution (Zubler, 1995). This idea is not unexpected or even unheard of as Congress has amended the Constitution several times to include, most notable, setting limits on Presidential terms in 1947. Congress would be a vastly different arena if an amendment regarding term limits was accepted. If a six-year limit was imposed, 59% of the House would have been forced out of office. If an eight-year limit was imposed, 40% of the House would have been forced out of office.

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The democratic and republican parties also have an impact on the difficulties faced by congress. Even in the clear evidence that congress has had more disappointing sessions, they were still able to pass some serious policies. It is believed that disorganization can have difficulty applying actions to policies. Congressional gridlock has doubled since the 1950’s and that is not surprising when all we hear about is our do-nothing congress. Congressional gridlock on any given issue has roughly doubled in the past 65 years.

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Meaning they will do anything as long as it doesn 't threaten their principal goal which is reelection.” (Arnold, 5). Reelection is the main goal but members of Congress will do other things that are beneficial to their constituency unlike the theory that Mayhew brings up. Although, congressmen have to watch out for what they say and how they act since there will always be an opponent who will attempt to bring all those things to light to use them as an advantage and most of the time is decisions and conditions that the public hasn 't even noticed and wouldn 't at all if it wasn 't for the robo-challenger. In addition to that reasoning congressmen are extremely unpopular with the public because they have to take into consideration the input of experts, generalist and ordinary people.

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Congressional gridlock has become the norm in the highly polarised political climate in the United States. As a result of the unending stalemates, America’s chief law making body can no longer muster the capacity to make laws. As argued by Sweeny (2017), congressional gridlock weakens or undercuts the numerous principles that in total establish and maintain America’s governmental structure. Abramowitz (2010) notes that congressional gridlock mainly impends the vital or fundamental principles of legislative supremacy and separation of powers. This is the case as any gridlock makes it possible for the arbitrary exercise of government power as well as bringing about the problem of arbitrary inaction (Bonica, 2013).

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The United States Congress was created by the founding fathers for representatives voted by their constituents to create legislation and to keep the President in check for the betterment of the nation. Congress was seen as the heart and soul of democracy and many believed that congressmen listened to their problems and would enact change to help. Today, Congress is seen as corrupt, unproductive, and always promising, but never delivering. Several politicians have run for Congress saying they will end the corruptness and bring upon changes to end the unproductiveness. Unfortunately, Congress is still progressing at a slow grind.

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Hello my name is Ben Trammell and today I will be speaking about how congressional term limits would build a congress of little experience. Would you put term limits on policemen so they have no incentive to become corrupt? If so, then your police force would be filled with inexperienced rookies who would then make bad decisions due to their lack of experience. Congress would work the same way, they would have they same problem with rookie congressmen and women. If we impose these term limits we will be replacing a wiser man (that knows what to do) with an inexperienced man (who doesn 't know what to do).

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700 Words | 3 Pages

Congressional term limits have been what restricted the amount of time that anyone can work in office whether it be to a representative, senator, or even the president. People have debated over keeping or losing the term limits, since each come with their own benefits and faults at the same time. In the argument for term limits, some may argue that they are necessary because, “Congress will be more responsible toward their constituents because they will soon be constituents themselves” (Weeks). The validity in this statement proves to be one of the strongest arguments because the creation of laws is mean to serve all people, and if the people in office had complete immunity, it would serve unfair and unjust to the rest of society. For this reason, it always will make those in office consider how impactful and

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The Congress is really close to the people because they want to make sure that the people have a say on what law needs to be put in place to help protect the people’s freedom. The way the Congress stays close to the people is by letting them vote for who gets elected into Congress. Everything that a person touches in the US is basically marked by Congress’s hands. They helped make laws that kept food safe to eat and making sure cars are safe and making funds to

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The growing population of 10 billion people will significantly impact the amount of food waste each year due to food being poorly managed which causes basic needs from being fulfilled. The best viable solution to this concern includes how consumers handle wasted foods. In recent years, the growing population causes foods to be discharged in landfills because they are poorly managed. This occurs mostly in the less developed countries where people don 't have the technology to have proper infrastructure.

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