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Congress Crisis

Decent Essays

Yvette Hobson 2A Current Event #3 The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has announced that he “will resign from Congress”. The announcement came on September 21,2015 following ongoing tension caused by the “challenges of divided government” and a “ Republican Party faction”. Boehner has said the he will resign from his position at the close of October. Mr. Boehner has been struggling to lead effectively, as the most conservative Republicans of the House have been pressuring him and limiting his capability to lead. The conservatives in the House have been pressuring Boehner ,mainly, to persuade him to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. Boehner also faced the burden of trying to avoid a government shutdown. In addition to these strains, he …show more content…

As leader of the House of Representatives, Boehner is responsible for managing his party members, responding to their concerns as well as making committee assignments and assigning bills etc. However, with the current lack of party unity(agreement among party members) among Republicans and divided government (Republicans are the majority in Congress, but there is a Democratic president.) he has not been able to adequately fulfill these responsibilities and lead his chamber Of Congress effectively. While Republican members of the House pressed him to make more “aggressive policy changes” and decrease funding , Boehner faced opposition from the Democratic presidency which made it nearly impossible to fulfill the demands of those members. Disagreement within the Republican party also prevents the development of a favorable agenda among Republican House members. Simply put, Boehner could not properly respond to party member’s concerns due to the divided government nor could he manage those members due to the lack of unity and agreement among them.This article serves to inform readers of Boehner’s resignation and of the reasons for it , but it also provides one explanation of why policy making is hindered. While this article is not particularly biased against Boehner or his opposers, it seems to be slightly sympathetic toward Boehner noting his emotions and depicting him as a victim of political conflict. Steinhauer, Jennifer. "John Boehner, House Speaker, Will Resign From Congress." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 21 Oct.

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