Dysfunction Of Congress Essay

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 …show more content…
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