Confidence In Congress: A Summary And Analysis

85% of House incumbents have been re elected and 91% of Senate incumbents were re elected. Being an incumbent, these officials have name recognition already from their district and allows voters to already be familiar with what they stand for. Congress members can give back to their districts the longer that they are elected into their

The Power and Significance of Congress Firstly it is important to look at the power and significance of congress as a legislative body. This includes the creation of law, and the scrutiny of the executive. Because the US federal system is ruled by 'separation of powers', it is important that the legislative - congress - acts as a good check and restraint on the executive - the president.

Is congress a dysfunctional institution? Columnist Ezra Klein contends that institutional deadlock and partisan rancor have paralyzed congress, causing it to lose power to the president and the bureaucracy. Former Massachusetts Senator Mo Cowan describes he has to come view the work of congress along with fellow members after fulfilling the remainder of John Kerry’s term upon the nomination of Governor Deval Patrick.

In this essay, I will be writing about how the power relationship between the United States Congress and the presidency has changed during the past two hundred years. I will be talking about how the executive branch is more powerful than the legislative branch and how the changing relationship between Congress and the president affected American democracy in a good way.

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.

     The third factor that seems to have an influence on the operations of Congress is the public opinion. Logically, if the public thinks that a certain congressman doesn’t know how to do his job, then he won’t get elected. That’s why the public opinion has a major influence the operations of Congress because the public has say if that Congressman or Congressmen will get elected again.

The inter workings of Congress have been studied extensively by Richard Fenno and David R. Mayhew. Mayhew’s study of Congress took place in Washington, while Richard Fenno conducted his research by following politicians within their congressional district. Mayhew attributes three primary goals to congressmen- getting reelected, achieving influence within Congress and making “good Policy”. Fenno also attributes three basic goals, having influence inside the House than other congressmen. Second, helping their constituents and thereby insuring their reelection, and lastly helping make good policy. The purpose of this paper is to research a member of Congress and to make a direct connection between his activity in Washington and his home district. The paper will answer whether the congressmen is a delegate or trustee. Are the actions a pursuit for reelection? Are the committee assignments a path for movement within the House or outside? What legislation has he/she sponsored or co-sponsored and does it directly reflect his/her districts political view. And finally, do major industries and interest groups within his/she district affect the way he/she votes.

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).

Americans have always had a love-hate relationship with Congress. It usually depends on whether or not we believe issues that are important to us (religion, abortion, immigration, jobs etc.) are being brought to the fore front and our elected officials are representing our best interest in these issues. We love them when we get our way and complain when we don’t. Interestingly the 13% approval rating that they have presently may be a little low to what it was in the past, but the past ratings do not suggests that Congress was ever popular. Nicholas Longworth once said, “We were unpopular when Lincoln was a congressman. We were unpopular when John Quincy Adams was a Congressman. We were unpopular even when Henry Clay was a Congressman. We

Stephen Medvic, In Defense of Politicians, discusses why Americans feel that politicians are dishonest. In 2007, a Gallup poll about honesty and ethical standards for occupations, showed that only 12 and 9 percent of people felt that Congressmen and State office holders held high standards, (Medvic p. 2). In addition, Americans tend to like their representatives more than the members of Congress because they view them as actual people. Americans view Congress as a group of politicians who are greedy and not representing their interests, (Medvic p. 4).

Congress plays an important role in ruling the United States. Congress job is to represent the citizens of the U.S. by sharing the power with the current president of the United States of America and Supreme Court. Congress is one of the three branches of the United States. One of the main Congress jobs is to make law, basically, America without the Congress is pretty much without no laws. The Congress today is suffering from partisanship, parties are not working together as one hand causing it to fail its job. The Republicans are now controlling the Senate ( both houses ) when they earned it in 2014 elections making the majority Republican in Congress. Some people believe that the Congress is a broken branch and how it is failing America and we need to get it back on track. While the other believe that the Congress is fine and doing it job. I believe that the Congress is a broken branch since the United States of American government has a lot of partisanship.

The president is the foreign policy leader for the United States with an important political, military and economic role in the international arena. If there is collision between the president and congress, can congress restrain the president in foreign policy making?

In my opinion, I feel that constituents have power over congress members because they have the power to vote them in or out of office. On the other hand, I feel that voting constituents have the least amount of influence over congress members, who strive for money contributions in order to, run their political campaigns, compared to donors and PACs.

Congress has many functions to keep it working and functioning. They do many things to make laws, make sure they’re fair, and much more. There are also many committees with important jobs. There are many things that influence congressional elections such as reapportionment, redistricting, much more. There are many people who make up the House and Senate and they have many important jobs to keep things running smoothly.

I believe congress may have this problem. It is apparent they have no trust in one another. They seem to always disagree without resolving the debate. Never speaking the true about issues due to fear of conflict. Never holding one another accountable. And they only have their agendas in mind not