Of the many obstacles facing greater economic equality, none on the federal level is more important than the homogeneity of Congress. Specifically, the incredibly high percentage of legislators with a professional history. Their legislation reflects their background, and as such, tends to neglect the need of those in other classes. Coupled with business interests that change the policy-making process, governing has become increasingly unrepresentative of what a majority of Americans want out of their congressman. A shift to publicly funded elections will not only reduce the influence of big business in political campaigns and consequently limit their influence in pushing policy. More importantly, the transition would allow people of …show more content…
Virtually all of the representatives had professional careers before getting elected. He notes four dangerous trends of government. First, there is a strong connection between a legislator’s socioeconomic status and how they vote on economic bills. Second, their background is a great predictor in their “legislative entrepreneurship,” which means the kinds of bills they introduce and how hard they fight to get that bill signed into law. The result is a government that focuses on the problems of the upper class more than other people because of the sheer amount of people from that lifestyle. He puts it simply, “lawmakers from different classes have different opinions about economic issues.” Third, Carnes recognizes that legislators are aware of the problems afflicting blue-collar people but through a skewed perspective of a white-collar worker. Fourth, he details how these inequalities lead to very clear outcomes for economic policy, one where the losers are usually working-class in areas such as social spending and thus higher inequality in places with more white-collar legislators. (23) The consequences for these issues are clear. The working-class legislators spend more time on economic issues than other members of the Congress, work twice as hard, but have a success rate below that of their colleagues in getting drafts out of committee. (74-76, 83) Their policies often preferred by are drowned out by the amount of
In the United States, public policy is shaped by multiple factors, from average citizens voices in elections to interest groups and organizations. In their study, “Testing theories of American politics”, scholars Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens explore the impact of average citizens, the economic elite and interest groups have on the passage of public policy. Additionally through their, Page and Gilens(2014) have found “that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence” (Pg 535). This means that when it comes to the creation of public policies, rich people and groups
The main goal of this paper is to assess why Americans tend to feel coldly towards the United States Congress. Looking at factors such as total income, I theorize that due to the large lifestyle gap between the citizens of the U.S. and their congress the American people might feel a disconnect to Congress and in return not feel warmly towards them. By controlling for outside variables and running a multitude of tests the results have shown that the relationship between income and feelings towards congress is not spurious and can be counted on as an accurate reflection of the American people’s true feelings. However, it is an opposite relationship from my hypothesis. I hypothesize that as income decreases feelings towards Congress would grow colder; instead, tests revealed that
During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class
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.
It can be said that money is power in the United States, and this is brought out in the essay, “Class in America---2012” written by Gregory Mantsios. He says that even though many Americans do not like to discuss class, “it can determine where people live, who their friends are, how well they are educated, and what they do for a living” (Mantsios). Many Americans do not speak about class type, and most find it unacceptable (Mantsios). Unfortunately, we can see that there are laws that are built to help and better the wealthy, while it cripples the rest of us. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “The richest twenty percent of Americans hold nearly ninety percent of the total household wealth in this county” (Institute) Gregory Mantsios without reserve describes the majority of people are at a disadvantage in their social class, while the upper class is compensated.
This means they will likely raise money in any way possible to increase their chances of winning. This leads many members of Congress to give less consideration to the needs of low-income individuals when developing legislation. Since these low-income individuals do not have the means to give large amounts of money to re-election campaigns, their views are often ignored. Many members of Congress endorse legislation that would benefit their largest donors. This leads to a Congress that is not a true representative of the broad interests across the United States (Flavin 2015).
The laws or regulations they create today can severely influence their full time career or business bottom line. Conversely, a lawmaker in California might be concerned with keeping their job and, in turn, will make legal and regulatory decisions based on their ability to be reelected. Unfortunately, a law or regulation made under this influence will help the few while hurting the many.
“Why should we care about high and rising inequality?” (561). Krugman starts his article with a thought provoking question that most Americans want an answer to. He grabs the reader’s attention from the get go. Following this question, he then makes a claim about inequality. Inequality has caused an extreme amount of damage to our society and democracy. He supports this claim by relating it to a Thomas Jefferson quote. “The small landholders are the most precious part of a state” (562). This quote translated means that the middle class is the most precious part of state. Krugman points out how this Thomas Jefferson quote seems irrelevant in our society now because of the high rise of inequality. This high rise has weakened the middle class tremendously. Readers are more than likely going to relate to Jefferson’s quote. Most Americans relate to the idea of America being a society that values the middle class, fairness and
Tim Dickinson published an intriguing article in the Rolling Stone, “How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich”, which scrutinizes the complicated history of the American government. Dickinson’s objective is to persuade the audience that the Republican party is giving leniency towards the upper class through the reduction of taxes, which results in the upper class becoming even more wealthy and the middle and lower classes struggling to make ends meet. He not only utilizes credible sources in order to convey the unreasonable actions of the Republican party, but also uses a multitude of historical facts pertaining to the central concept of his argument to strengthen his statement.
Representation in Congress is one of the problems Labor Unions have always faced. They were in need of a political maven with a force to be reckoned with that sometimes have more pull than the pressures of voters. In a Pew study taken a few years ago, they looked at the sources of many reporters who wrote stories about America’s economy. Of course Congressmen were often quoted and were subsequently the go to to get up to date information on passed legislation concerning the economy. The issue with this, Pew found, is that “representatives of organized labor unions were sources in only 2 percent of all the economy stories studied.” (Drum 2011)
In Nicholas Kristof’s article “America’s Stacked Deck,” his main point is to inform readers about the rigged economic system. Kristof presents this problem by addressing the faults with both political parties. He claims that majority of people represented by the political system are wealthy and explains that the changes being made do not benefit ordinary people. Kristof reassures his readers that they have a right to be angry and demand change, but blaming somebody is not the way to seek a solution. Kristof suggests that targeting solutions is more logical and beneficial than participating in scapegoats. He depicts that reducing the influence of money in politics is a starting point that must be orchestrated, while also reducing inequality. He persuades the readers to
Many citizens today feel that the American dream is a myth. They feel that even though they may work hard, they will never be able to afford a house and send their children to college, and even if they get a college education, they will never get a good job. Some feel that there are two Americas today where citizens are divided sharply and extremely by ideology, by money and by political power. In our politics you see various opinion polls, where the citizenry feels that lobbyists have too much power, taxes should be raised on the rich, and that there should be more control of corporations. Some polls have expressed that citizens would like to see the tax system fixed. But Congress does not enact any of those concerns. This has led the public to feel that Congress listen more to the wealthy and affluent
‘Neo liberalism is responsible for most of the global economic problems we are experiencing today’
promoted a half way approach to liberal ideas while they incorporated parts of a social
The Congress of the 1950s, known as the “textbook Congress”, is quite different than the Congress of the today. Our Author notes six legislative folkways that were noted by political scientist