Congress: A Broken Government Throughout history, scholars, politicians, and the general public have been divided into two separate categories: those who agree that Congress is not a broken government and those who disagree with the former and argue that Congress is a broken government. While many factors point toward either argument, the most prominent answer is that Congress is, indeed, broken. The design of Congress, the founder’s intentions for Congress, and the Washington Establishment are among some of the many reasons that reveal plainly the brokenness of the government and allow others to see the dysfunction of Congress as well. Congress is designed to be made up of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each house, however, clashes with one another, making for a broken Congress. In Hamilton and Madison’s On Congress (1788), in order to be in the House of Representatives, one “must be of the age of twenty-five years; must have been seven years a citizen of the United States; must, at the time of his election, be an inhabitant of the State he is to represent” (page 180). If these guidelines are met and one is elected as a representative, two year terms are served; however, there are no limitations to how many terms one may serve. Because of the young age and less time spent per term, the House of Representatives is known as the more democratic branch, in that they are more responsive to the wants of the people. Madison objects to the House, saying it is “not sufficiently numerous for the reception of all the different classes of citizens in order to combine the interests and feelings of every part of the community, and to produce true sympathy between the representative body and its constituents” (page 180). House members also represent a district of people, in which most people carry the same opinions. On the other hand, the Senate proves to be opposite of the House. Madison and Hamilton explain that “the qualifications proposed for senators… consist in a more advanced age and a longer period of citizenship. A senator must be thirty-five… must have been a citizen nine years” (page 183). Senators also serve six year terms, as opposed to the House’s two. These qualities make the Senate the wiser and older branch, but less democratic. The Senate has six years while in office to supply the peoples’ wants, making them less responsive to them. The area represented by the Senator is the entire State, making it difficult to gather people’s wants because the opinions are diverse. With these two houses proving to be so different, it is said that Congress cannot work efficiently. Each branch, because of the difference in age and experience, the number of years each member serves, and the areas they represent, will have different perspectives on topics, thus reaching an agreement is
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The design of two houses making up Congress allows the wants of the people to never be settled, because neither side can reach an agreement. The founding fathers’ intentions for Congress to be a government in which the people are represented and heard clearly failed due to the never-ending cycle of The Washington Establishment, the most prominent evidence of a broken government. No government is perfect; however, America should set an example to other countries as one with a government that truly represents its constituents, not as one with a broken
The design of two houses making up Congress allows the wants of the people to never be settled, because neither side can reach an agreement. The founding fathers’ intentions for Congress to be a government in which the people are represented and heard clearly failed due to the never-ending cycle of The Washington Establishment, the most prominent evidence of a broken government. No government is perfect; however, America should set an example to other countries as one with a government that truly represents its constituents, not as one with a broken