Inadequacy Of Congress

The constitution of the United States distinctly trichotomizes judicial, legislative, and executive power between the Supreme Court, Congress, and the President, allowing a system that functions through checks and balances. Since congress is a political organ whose members have different interests, this separation of power has not been conducive to drafting policies that effectively address pressing public issues. Madison expands on this lack of efficacy when he notes that “the powers of the legislative organs of government are derived from the electorates”. This shows that members of Congress represent a particular legislative unit and as a result they will always tend to act in the interests of those they represent. In this scenario, coming
By examining the number of bills enacted in the 112th and 113th congressional sessions, we can quite clearly see that this number has declined by a significant amount in comparison to earlier sessions. This begs the question: if congress is becoming increasingly ineffective, why should we as citizens trust our congressmen to pass the policies we so desperately need to preserve our liberty? It is this increasing inadequacy of Congress which leads me to consider the president as another possible engine of legislation. On the other side, those who are advocates of the current system recognize this slow and deliberative process not as a problem but rather as a feature of our constitution, intended to avoid poor bills and government overreach. From their viewpoint, congress is able to pass bills as needed and forcing them to vote on bills they did not propose would cause even more problems. While this argument may have some semblance of truth, I believe that it ignores some vital facts. The problem with congress is not so much that they are deliberate on purpose, but rather that this deliberation is a result of an accommodation process. The process of proposing, drafting, and voting on bills all in congress guarantees that somewhere in a bill’s life cycle, special interests will interfere and dilute its original intention. Collusion by members of Congress from differing factions and the inherent nature of bureaucracy ensures that this is bound to happen in some bills. The Affordable Care Act is one example of legislative policy that bears only little resemblance to its original form, which became a vehicle for the Senate to impose hundreds of amendments upon it. With this in mind, I assert that a system where the president proposes bills that would then be voted upon by Congress without changing anything is far superior. This capability will