Is Congress a Dysfunctional Institution
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- Date Submitted: 03/14/2014 01:30 PM
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Tracey Johnson
Is Congress a Dysfunctional Institution?
1) Compare and Contrast
a) Ezra Klein’s What Happens When Congress Fails to Do Its Job, seems to focus on institutional deadlock and how it causes the government to lose power to the president and the bureaucracy. The author talks of how Congress could not even make tough decisions on the health-care-reform bill and had to create an independent panel of experts to make the decisions. The author also, speaks of why the Congress does not work is because the country has change but Congress has not changed.
b) Lee H. Hamilton’s Public Criticisms of Congress, seems to focus on shooting down just the common criticisms that society has on Congress. The author talks about how the people think that legislators are a bunch of crooks. He states that the press only tells all the negative things that people do and does not go into any detail of all the good works that they have done over the years. He then goes on to talk of how the people think that Congress spends too much money on wasteful things. He talks about a small town that is dependent on the levies to keep the river water from flooding a town, those levies were paid for by federal money. So wasteful spending is in the eye of the beholder. He then goes on to talk of the fighting that goes on. When you have over 500 hundred people, who feel strongly about an issue, all of whom want to represent their constituents, there is going to be heated debates.
c) They both seem to agree that bills should not just be pushed through Congress quickly, that there needs to be a lot of thought put into those decisions. Bills that are pushed through quickly could have errors that will cause harm.
2) Unfortunately, I do not know how this issue relates to the U. S. Constitution, other than the fact that the Constitution is where Congress was built and tells how Congress functions.
3) Your opinion.
a) I agree with both authors.
b) I feel that...
Is Congress a Dysfunctional Institution?
1) Compare and Contrast
a) Ezra Klein’s What Happens When Congress Fails to Do Its Job, seems to focus on institutional deadlock and how it causes the government to lose power to the president and the bureaucracy. The author talks of how Congress could not even make tough decisions on the health-care-reform bill and had to create an independent panel of experts to make the decisions. The author also, speaks of why the Congress does not work is because the country has change but Congress has not changed.
b) Lee H. Hamilton’s Public Criticisms of Congress, seems to focus on shooting down just the common criticisms that society has on Congress. The author talks about how the people think that legislators are a bunch of crooks. He states that the press only tells all the negative things that people do and does not go into any detail of all the good works that they have done over the years. He then goes on to talk of how the people think that Congress spends too much money on wasteful things. He talks about a small town that is dependent on the levies to keep the river water from flooding a town, those levies were paid for by federal money. So wasteful spending is in the eye of the beholder. He then goes on to talk of the fighting that goes on. When you have over 500 hundred people, who feel strongly about an issue, all of whom want to represent their constituents, there is going to be heated debates.
c) They both seem to agree that bills should not just be pushed through Congress quickly, that there needs to be a lot of thought put into those decisions. Bills that are pushed through quickly could have errors that will cause harm.
2) Unfortunately, I do not know how this issue relates to the U. S. Constitution, other than the fact that the Constitution is where Congress was built and tells how Congress functions.
3) Your opinion.
a) I agree with both authors.
b) I feel that...