ipl-logo

Why Is Congress Weak

910 Words4 Pages

Brandon Patterson
Ms. McIntyre
Pre-AP English
16 April 2018

The U.S. Congress is Weak When the founding fathers first created the three branches of government, which included, the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, the intent was to create a balance between all three branches. In today's society, whether you like it or not, the United States Congress is slowly getting weaker and weaker. This in turn has caused the other two branches to become more powerful than Congress. In effect, it has made the system of checks and balances unbalanced. Significant issues in the United States are no longer being addressed by Congress. As a result, Congress has become weak and the president has become stronger. There are some people who feel differently regarding this …show more content…

Congress is considered to be weak is the environment of the system. In other words, the environment has become hostile. Neither side is willing to compromise on even the smallest of issues. In fact, the people in Congress are not even trying to make it stronger or better. It is considered to be a gridlock Congress, meaning that it is hard to pass laws because it is a divided Congress. In other words, the Democrats are not willing to work with the Republicans to reach a decision and vice versa. According to The Hill, it states, “I believe that the state of the union can only be strong when our political leaders put the common good of the nation over the temporal political gains of one party or another.” This division that is happening in Congress has caused a huge roadblock to conducting the nation's business. Problems like government shutdowns, inability to pass laws to the President, and so many disagreements between the members of Congress are tearing it apart. If this continues, then Congress would pass no laws. This would bring up the question of, what is the point of a Congress, if they cannot agree on things and pass laws that need to be

Show More
Related
885 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

The constitution doesn’t determine all of the rules in which congress is able to produce and pass legislation. So, congress will vote on the rules and guidelines in which they use to pass legislation. Sinclair believes that one of the biggest reason for this change is the ever increasing divide among parties. According to Sinclair it’s not necessarily that parties work in completely different fashions but continuing on the path that was being set.

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

Ever heard of the Articles of Confederation? Thought not. That’s because within only 8 years of their ratification, they were gotten rid of. This was because, among other things, there were no courts, no national currency, and no taxes. So in May of 1787, 55 men gathered together in Philadelphia to come up with a better plan.

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

What is Gridlock and why should we care about it? According to Political Dictionary’s Gridlock, “gridlock is a situation in which the government is unable to pass new legislation, often because the presidency and the Congress are controlled by different political parties.” Congressional Gridlock is a recurring issue in America’s political system. It is crippling the efficacy of the government's ability to lead the country to prosperity. Currently, most of the House of Representatives is republican, and the President is democratic.

Read More
137 Words | 1 Pages

Bipartisanship in Congress has not changed much since the 1970s. The dichotomy between before War Powers resolution and after makes theorizing about the relationship as a dividing line between Foreign policy surround a dangerous international environment into one that is a function of a resurgent Congress. The more we get through the 21st Century the more it seems as Congress having more and more of an influence and acting not in concert with the President while hearing loudly what the People of the U.S. know and hear about through the media. It is likely that without any incentives for stopping politics as usual, they both will most likely continue to shape policy according to their own political needs. Further evolution has occurred due to

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

Congressional Caucus Chaos In “With Boehner’s Departure, Congressional Dysfunction Will Only Grow,” Norman J. Ornstein argues that a radical group in the Republican Party has kept progress from being made and John Boehner resigning from his Speaker of the House position will not make things on Capitol Hill any more productive. Ornstein says that, “The realists, like Boehner, understand that divided government requires compromise,” but unfortunately, extremists are unwilling and outright opposed to doing just that. Ornstein believes a successful upcoming congressional session does not have a chance at occurring and finds Radical Republicans to blame because they have made stopping President Obama’s plans a priority. I agree that one group of Republicans are keeping Congress from not only passing meaningful legislation on the controversial topics, but keeping them from passing common sense laws; however, I disagree with the author in regards to Congress staying on this uncivil, unproductive path.

Read More
847 Words | 4 Pages

“What would life be like without the US Constitution?” Eventually, we would have tyranny. In 1787, a group of delegates for 12 of the 13 states got together to try to make the country better. Most of the US Constitution was written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was made to make a plan for the building of a federal government so that there wouldn’t be tyranny, and to make sure that the government wouldn’t be too powerful.

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

Today, per We the People, “Congress has voluntarily delegated a great deal of its own legislative authority to the executive branch” (pg. 320). The Congress has more freedom to create programs but cannot execute and administer them. The branch must go through other departments of government (Ginsberg, et all). Yet, because the new Constitution was adopted, the Congress has more

Read More
258 Words | 2 Pages

The congress is the part of Legislative branch whose duty is to make the laws that are beneficial to the nation. Congress not only interprets the law it also has power to declare the war. Congress also represents the common public. Congress is broken due to several factors, for instance; the filibuster, the fundraising, difficulty in interpreting the law, hyperactive media, few representatives and many others. There are many causes of broken congress, but the main important are the difficulties which representatives are facing to make the law.

Read More
411 Words | 2 Pages

There are many differing views on the powers congress holds, and congress itself, one such point of view is on whether or not congressmen should have a limited number of terms they are capable of serving, similar to how the president is only capable of serving two terms, and whether or not it would benefit both the people and the government. Congress itself is the legislative branch of the federal government, and as such holds a large amount of authority and power, including putting laws into effect, declaring war, taxing, impeachment, and many other important duties that can be carries out only by congress. Furthermore, members of congress do not have limits on the amount of terms they are allowed to serve, only limits on the length of each term, for those in the house of representatives each term is two years, while in the senate, each term is six years long. I find this to be a matter of public concern because many

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

This statement can be backed up by the fact that, “…historically the incumbent is re-elected 90% of the time” (Weeks). To make this complete, it leaves almost no chance for new members to enter congress due to how well known the previous congress member is. Not to mention that, if and when a congress member starts to fail his or her duties, it makes it easier for newly elected officials to take their spot as soon as possible. Resulting in a faster fix for the error that was in

Read More
349 Words | 2 Pages

In 1787-1788 eighty-five essays appeared in the New York newspaper, they were supporting the federal constitution, Alexander Hamilton was one of the writers. Hamilton was responding to antifederalist who had claimed that absence of the Bill of Rights and a powerful Judiciary would bring oppression to the people. Hamilton argued that Judiciary was a weak branch of government compared to Executive and Legislature because it lacked an army to command and would only react to what the two branches of the government had proposed. I disagree with the statement by Alexander Hamilton that judiciary is the weakest branch of the government, maybe at that time it could have been viewed as so, but its power has increased through several amendments (Jellum, 2008). The Congress creates law, for example, they created the National Prohibition in the 1920s, and the president executes the laws by ensuring all the laws passed by the Congress are implemented.

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

When parties draw lines in the sand they become consumed with their party’s goals and forget what truly is important. As we see with congress being partisan, the country realizes that it doesn’t work because it lead to a government shut down and the country is on course to see another one. Bipartisanship is great because it works. When the government is working like a well-oiled machine bills can get passed on a timely matter versus sitting and waiting until congress changes the language to make it more republican or

Read More
381 Words | 2 Pages

The Perpetuation of Ethnic Stereotypes in Modern Television: A Case Study of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from "The Simpsons" Television plays a significant role in shaping societal perceptions, particularly regarding ethnicity. The portrayal of characters in television shows often relies on stereotypes, influencing public opinion. One such example is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from "The Simpsons," whose character perpetuates ethnic stereotypes.

Read More
1120 Words | 5 Pages

Limits to Congressional Terms The only constant thing in America is change; except when it comes to the congressional member that govern our country. Many political pundits questioned how a junior senator from Illinois became President of the United States; because of change. The America people want it but Congress is having none of it.

Read More

More about Why Is Congress Weak

Related Topics

Open Document