Assessing Congress Flashcards
What are the strengths of divided government?
Creates an incentive to the out party (one who doesn’t have the presidency) to help the in party succeed. When one party is completely in control the other party just does nothing, this is bad representation. E.G. beginning of the Obama presidency
Has to appeal to the middle group when making legislation - middle America rather than extremes
More effective oversight of the executive branch- congress becomes a watchdog not a lapdog. Consider the frivolous questioning of Gorsuch or the way tax cuts in 2017 cleared the house, not good oversight there in a United government.
Divided government incentivises cooperation and compromise
What are the weaknesses of divided government?
GRIDLOCK! Partisan bickering
2013 shutdown for 16 days
If there are very partisan parties it is difficult to build coalition and make compromise. In Reagan’s time although Republicans did not control the house he could build a coalition with GOP members and conservative dems. Now the democrats are more cohesively liberal and GOP is more cohesively conservative this is difficult
Impeachment is difficult
How many Benghazi select committees have there been?
8
Over zealous!
How did the 113th congress make the body more diverse?
1) there was the first openly gay senator (Timmy Baldwin D Wisconsin)
2) the first AA senator from the Deep South since reconstruction (Tim Scott R S Carolina)
3) fist bisexual member of congress and also first ‘religiously unaffiliated member’
4) first Buddhist senator (Maisie Hirino D Hawaii)
5) fist Hindu member of the house
6) first disabled female congresswoman
7) for the first time ever the Democrat part membership is not majority white male
8) record number of women elected to the senate (20) record number of LGBT legislators (7)
Is the congress representative?
Um hell no
Women only 20% of people in congress yet 51% of the population.
Hispanics 6% of congress but around 16% of the population
African Americans are 12% of the population but only 8% of congress
Asians are 4.5% of the population but 1% of congress
20% of Americans are not religious at all, basically no legislators say they are not religious. Atheists under represented.
80% of congresses wealth is held by 50 legislators
GOP especially not diverse, 3/4 of women are D and over 90% of the AA members
Does it matter that congress is not very diverse?
Yes perhaps a legislature should reflect the wider population.
Arguably with the system of congressional primaries, it is the people’s fault not the parties for having poor representation
There was an all white congress that banned slavery and an all male congress that gave women the right to vote. arguably we don’t need representative members to represent its interests.
How is the 115th congress in terms of diversity? Think about Race Gender and Religion
Race-
Kamala Harris (California)
Second ever black female senator
First Indian American senator
Tammy Duckworth
First Thai-American senator
Cortez Mastodon
First Latino senator
49 black members of congress in total ( 3 are GOP)
Gender
21% female (104 women)
5 GOP Senators are women/ 52 senators
21 GOP house members are female 9%
Religion
90% christian
6% Jewish
3 Buddhists, 3 Hindus, 2 Muslims, 1 Athiest
who is the speaker of the house?
Paul Ryan
is partisan. Controls the house and timetabling. Is not a ceremonial role in the same was as it is in the House of Commons. The speaker is an active partisan and second in line to the presidency (after the VP).
The speaker controls the legislative agenda and influences which committee a bill is assigned to.
the speaker has powers of patronage and can shape the membership of all important committees.
Obama was the …
First ever black president
Third ever black senator
Is there Native American representation?
No basically none
Who was the first ever female speaker of the House in 2006?
Nancy Pelosu
Why is the house more diverse that the Senate?
Shorter terms - more responsive to demands of the electorate
Increasing number of majority minority districts mean returning a minority candidate is more likely.
What is divided government?
When one party controls congress and the other controls the presidency. Divided government could not occur in the UK, the executive always controls the legislature.
What is a divided congress?
Where one party controls the house and the other controls the Senate
What happened to Nixon and his predecessor Ford, partly due to a Democrat controlled congress?
can this show divided government brings bickering?
Nixon forced to resign
Ford only lasts 2.5 years
Why is divided government more of a problem now than it used to be?
Parties are more ideologically extreme.
In Reagan’s day he faced a divided government situation but could build a coalition with moderate democrats.
now due to gerrymandering and stricter party discipline, it is harder to build coalition and get legislation passed.
Give some examples of significant legislation passed under divided government? as these were decided on consensus are they more appealing to middle America and therefore better?
Yes probably better legislation under divided government
Reagan’s tax reforms 1986
Clinton’s welfare reforms 1996
Which well qualified supreme court nominee of Reagan’s was rejected by the Senate under divided government?
Robert Bork
a weakness of divided govt, this was stupid
What issues with divided government did Clinton face?
partial federal government shutdown 1995-96 and the impeachment and trial in 1998-99
Does divided government give better oversight?
Arguably yes, makes congress a watchdog not a lapdog.
Not enough scrutiny of Trump at the moment, Betsy Devos was accepted and Neil Gorsuch was asked stupid questions.
What happened with the 113th congress?
So unproductive
divided government meant nothing happened
When has there been divided government?
divided government is the norm.
From 1987-1993 the GOP had the Presidency and the Democrats had both houses of congress.
From 1995-2001 the Democrats had the presidency but the GOP had both houses.
2007-2009 GWB but a Democrat house
Obama
2011-2015 the GOP had the senate
2015-2017 the GOP had both houses.
Does congress have good oversight over the executive?
the quality of oversight is variable
Most oversight is retrospective. Investigations take place long after events and few sanctions can be put against those who have done the wrong doing.
However, informal oversight may be good, based on day to day contact between members of congress and the executive branch.
Can the Senate check the executive effectively using the advice and consent powers?
Not really
Senate supposed to ratify treaties with a 2/3 majority
Senate did not ratify the UN arms trade treaty, perhaps showing these powers can be a check.
Presidents in reality just make executive agreements. e.g. Cuba and Iran 2015
