The Revolving Griddown Analysis

Gridlock is one of the United States leading problems, and the main reason why people find the government to be “useless” or “slow” when trying to come to a consensus on major issues. Congressional gridlock is when neither the House or Congress seems to be able to respond with solutions to our nation’s pressing problems, and fails to enact any meaningful legislation to fix national issues. Gridlock mainly occurs when the president and the majority in one or both houses have different political beliefs and are in different parties. You hear everyone talking about gridlock and how it needs to be fixed, but you never actually see our political leaders doing anything about it.

Generally speaking, anyone who lives in the United States of America knows that there are two main political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats. Having two main parties has its advantages and, of course, its disadvantages. For example, in By the People James E. Monroe and Rogan Kersh (301) point out having this type of system creates “predictability and stability.” However, they also declare (301) it can “lead to a gridlock.” This is not a new concept either as there has been a divide since the beginning of both parties. The two parties more often than not disagree on various issues, while rarely agreeing on what is best for the country.

Congressional gridlock has become a major problem over the past several years, the lack of power that any-one party has held for more than just a couple years means that very little has been accomplished by Congress. A Congressional gridlock is a situation when a law can not be passed due to disagreements either between political parties, branches of government or between the houses of Congress. These disagreements that do not end in compromise slow the legislative process and leave both parties unhappy. Gridlock can also occur within the Congressional Senate when a minority party member begins a filibuster.

Congressional gridlock is not a modern invention in the world of politics. Alexander Hamilton use to complain about the deadlock “flaw” in the design of Congress. In politics, “Congressional gridlock” is a situation in Congress where there are complications in passing laws for the people. Gridlock could be prevented if we had a democracy for the majority and unified. While many view this as frustrating, gridlocks are starting to become a political norm. This leads to a divided government. Congressional gridlock in the states has become an everyday topic that nobody really understands what to do. The creation of gridlock is seen every day. The failure that Congress comes with when trying to agree upon the nation’s budget, or have the right

Congressional gridlock in the United States is at a high currently, doubling since the 1950s. Gridlock is the slowing of the legislative processes due to the difficulty of congressional officials to agree on certain bills and or laws. Gridlock makes the passage of legislation time consuming and hardly any progress can be accomplished. This is how Congress acquired the nickname “Do Nothing Congress.”This usually occurs when both parts of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, are of opposing parties. This then makes the President have the final say.

Ultimately, it appears that the framework of a separation of powers put into place within the constitution can be seen to result in a limited government, however it does encounter problems such as gridlock. Although, it seems apparent that the system does mostly create a spirit of bipartisanship with branches of government working cooperatively in order to achieve success, leading arguably to more consensus seeking. Moreover, it can be argued that the checks and balances ensure limited government and retain the liberty of citizens due to the provision of more levels of

Congressional gridlock has been around for centuries in Congress and does not seem to be changing anytime soon. Congressional gridlock refers to the inaction of the government and failure to make a decision or legislative law that satisfy the needs of the people. This inaction of the government and stagnation occurs when two parties cannot agree on a single matter, and they cannot come to a good agreement on how or when the law is going to be passed, thus leaving complex problems in the nation unhandled. Congressional gridlock does not just come and take over the government on its own, though. It is evident that congressional gridlock is a major problem in the American government that needs to be addressed because there are so many root causes that the government fails to fix including gerrymandering and a lack of “bridge-builders.” Solutions to these causes that have yet to be made include improving the system of checks and balances and reducing representative dynamics and some of the nation’s most pressing problems that should not even be examples of congressional gridlock include climate change and the gun laws issue.

The filibuster, a result of following Vice President Aaron Burr’s request to clean up the Senate’s rule book in 1805, once used to hold procedure by Senators to allow them time to arrive and debate or vote on legislation has been hijacked by minority Republicans into indefinite vetoes of legislation and administration nominations. While scarcely used by Senators to block legislation - President Woodrow Wilson attempt to prepare the U.S. for WWI found it difficult to pass legislation in preparation of the war introduced the cloture rule to close debate by a two-thirds majority vote that was modified in 1975 to a only three-fifths majority - Republicans have exploited this procedure to where even just the threat of a filibuster can block legislation and nominations creating mass gridlock. It was once required, if a Senator wanted to filibuster a bill, to stand on the Senate floor and speak nonstop in an attempt to coerce his cohorts to alter their stance. The filibuster has given a minority in the Senate the ability to veto legislation even if a majority of legislators in both houses and the president approve of the bill. The filibuster, with no precedent in the U.S. Constitution, has given a small minority of 41 the power to control and sway critical legislation in a way not envisioned by the founding framers as they constructed the United States governmental

Congressional gridlock happens when political parties cannot come to an agreement on passing laws. When the legislative branch and the executive branch are led by different political parties gridlock can occur. It can also happen if they are led by the same parties but there are different views within the parties. Unlike the House, the Senate does not have a rules committee, so congressional gridlock can easily occur. The Senate can use what is called filibuster.

The other question that occurs is what causes congressional gridlocks? A gridlock occurs when the ratio between passed bills and legislation decreases. A gridlock also happens when two legislative houses or when the executive branch can’t agree. Another factor that causes congressional gridlock are the grater polarization of the parties.

The political climate today is increasingly becoming more turbulent as Republicans and Democrats volley for superiority in Washington. The two parties are becoming more polarized by the hour, and this is affecting the ability of the government to move forward and pass legislation and continue to improve America. The Senate is in a state of gridlock on some of the most important issues to the people of the United States to date, and yet the senators which the people elected are instead caught up in fighting the people on the other side of the aisle. They should be listening to what their constituents need and want. Today Republican senators are using filibusters, scare tactics, and even entire news networks

For Centuries in the United States, Congressional gridlock has been one of the main difficulties of prosperity and progress. The government of the United States has had the opportunity to make the life of its citizens better but due to the epidemic of gridlock a lot of the issues we face are unresolved or ignored. Going forward I will give causes, solutions and some examples of the effect that it has had on the democracy of the United States as well as examples of congressional gridlock.

United States’ (US) political deadlock seems to be an unbreakable problem. The problem mainly comes from the relationship between two parties, the relations of president and congress, and the voting system of the congress. Since US’ congress and president controlled by two major political parties separately, gridlock seems to be a certain problem in their terms of political responsibility. For instance, president Obama announced his ambitious plan on health care issues. The ‘Obamacare’ a kind of social insurance policy by president Obama, also it is the trigger of the gridlock at 2012. Political deadlock mainly comes from the differences of ideology between two parties in terms of taxation, immigration, and others. This paper analyzes the problem of the political deadlock in terms of controllability, coalition.

In relation to Parker's and Gavin's responses, I can see both arguments, but I tend to side more with Parker. Congressional Gridlock basically works as a mechanism for Congress to check themselves. If Congress is gridlocked, the members of Congress are more likely to stop and question why the other side believes the opposite of them, which leads to a discussion of the pros and cons of whatever they are trying to pass. This kind of self checking and critical thinking could be skipped over without the aid of

Mainwaring and Shugart go on to explain the possibility of a deadlock if the President and congress majorities come from different parties; however, this is not a constant pressure like that of the hesitant, timid parliament. Even when deadlocks do occur there is the possibility of building coalition between the two opposing parties. Whereas in a parliament coalitions usually form with the majority cabinet that is in the executive office thus the legislation that is passed is one sided. A presidential system is better at