Biorgaphy

The government shutdown of 1995 was yet another example of how the system of checks and balances wasn’t what Madison intended. In 1994, there was a shift in the control of Congress from Democrats to Republicans, with the intended goal of balancing the federal budget. Here, breaches of inter-branch accommodation occurred and resulted in the 1995 budget shutdown. The Congressional Republicans were threatening to withhold funding from the executive branch unless President Clinton conceded to a series of budget priorities. The power of the purse is given to Congress without any textual limitations that give them the authority to defund the executive branch. The danger in this would be sabotaging the Constitution’s central organizational structure, set up by Madison, that the government comprises of three equal branches. Regardless, the Republicans in Congress remained firm, which caused the two shutdowns of government agencies in 1995.The divided branches and impasse led to the expiration of federal funding. In 1996, the President and Congress agreed on appropriations for the Fiscal Year. At the time, majority of public opinion favored the President’s position.

In the December 2015 NPR article, “ 8 Things Congress Actually Did Last Year,” author Alisa Chang explains the actions of the Republicans who were incharge of Congress and avoid self-made crisis, such as government shutdowns, and create more accomplishments. Surprisingly,Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner were able to keep their promise on avoiding shutdowns this year. Congress has been doing a good job so far.

The changes between the parties have become more distinctive throughout the years. Some of these changes include preferences, behavior, increasing homogeneous districts, and increasing alignment between ideology and partisanship among voters.

Stalemate causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock was written by Sarah A. Binder, who is a senior fellow in Governance Studies. In this book, Binder has reviewed more than fifty years of congressional legislative history. In particular, she has successfully compared the regularity of Congressional deadlock and, in doing so, has offered readers an informed and intuitive glimpse into Congress’ performance over this period.

Better known as the debt ceiling compromise, the sequester was intended to serve as an incentive for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the “supercommittee,” to come to a deal to cut $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. If they could not come up with a deal, $1.2 trillion in further spending reductions would be implemented starting Jan. 1, 2013. Despite the deadline being extended to March 1, the supercommittee still could not come up with a plan. As a result, the sequester was set in motion, causing the government to trim its budget by $85.4 billion this year and by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years (Zeitlin, “Fiscal cliff for dummies”)

Many Americans are aware of the polarization that exists within them and within the government. However, people do not realize the extent of the polarization and the effect that it has on government functions. Susan Page, author of “Divided We Now Stand” explains that many Americans are aware of the increasing polarization, when a political party influences the stance of a person, and that citizens believe that polarization influence politicians more than it influence them. However, Page argues that voters are to blame as well. She uses a survey to illustrate the choices that Americans make on a certain policy. The results of the survey show that Democrats and Republicans choose the stance of their political party, regardless of their own personal opinions on the actual policy (Page). Page’s point proves that politicians are not the only ones that contribute to the government’s dysfunction, and that voters might want to re-evaluate how they process their information and their choices if they wish to see a change.

From the rousing introduction, Chris Mathews' Hardball presents itself as a godsend to young aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Pompously self-assured, Mathews discusses his reasoning to sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players in "Hardball". However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin's writing style. In the first section of Mathews' self-proclaimed "classic" and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics through a series of informative--if not redundant--phrases, historical examples, and his own experience in Washington.

While campaigning in 1980’s Ronald Reagan promoted his solution to fixing the economic debt that the United States accumulated over the years. This solution was named “Reaganomics”. The United States was left with a $2.6 trillion dollar debt from President Reagan theory by cutting taxes, and the Federal Revenue would increase because economic activity will increase. President Reagan focused cutting down

Those were difficult days that recorded filibusters of a kind that can only be described as poisonous. In December, 1995, I took a proposal to the President which sought to impress on him to see things from the cost of the shutdown to the taxpayer in the short term and assess whether it was fair. I sent a similar proposal to the Republicans and asked them to come up with a plan that can save the taxpayer the cost of the shutdown in the short term or get to the negotiations table and cut President Clinton some slack.

David Brady and Craig Volden’s The Revolving Gridlock discusses the ability of Congress members to prevent and even kill legislation, even if their party does not possess majority control. The authors note that it does not always take opposing political ideology in the Executive and Legislative branches to create an atmosphere of stagnation within government. Instead the conflicting views and sectarian nature of the House and Senate, create sub-parties that become the obstacles of bipartisan compromises, and, in doing so, progress, creating the concept of the “revolving gridlock.” The writers consider the concept to be a direct result of the necessity for majority vote to pass bills and two-thirds to override presidential vetoes. Yet, there

The U.S. national debt is very large at more than three-quarters the size of the economy—and growing federal spending, especially on entitlements, is quickly driving the debt to damaging levels. Federal spending was about 23 percent of the GDP in 2012—far above the historical average of 20.2 percent. It is projected to surge to nearly 36 percent in less than one generation. The government debt must be limited in some way or else our economy will face devastating consequences. The government debt has had its highs and lows throughout history in comparison to the GDP, and to reduce it, we must minimize spending on entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

Congress vs. the President: Are We Fighting a Losing Battle? In today’s society we the people are putting our hope and trust into the men and women who setup high on Capitol Hill. Our society strives to look for that small ray of hope that will bring our country back together. Politically our government has taken on the role of political polarization. Analyzing American Democracy defines polarization as being, “situations in which policy positions or ideology within political parties become more homogenous, and policy positions across the parties move farther apart (Bond 521).”

With these two approaches in mind, I went through the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s Stabilize the Debt simulator three times. First, implementing the Conservative Republican approach. Second, implementing the Democratic approach. And third, implementing a bipartisan approach.

Like David Mayhew, he argues that aside from creating policy, the U.S. House of Representatives hold paramount the importance of voter approval and building within their districts. Furthermore, by prioritizing their seat over good legislature, they value incumbency instead of the general welfare of America. Fenno’s rational was concluded after extensive analysis conducted onto 5 members of the House who held incumbency within districts of California, Pennsylvania, New York, California, and Florida. (Fenno, 1964) These findings allow us to quantify that the ideologies of the 1960s have only strengthened.

Meanwhile, Congress is too busy trying to get one over on each other instead of actually doing anything worthwhile, even when one party is in control, they still get nothing done ... They’re really just the “Comments Section” for everything the President does.