“The main problem with Congress is the lack of effective leadership” Discuss. (45 marks)

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Updated examples will be needed! Written before Trump decided on legislation to control machine which makes guns automatic.

Congress works with the President to enact legislation and to use their party as well as bipartisanship support for their policies. In addition to legislation, Congress also votes on the annual budget, however in recent years has led to gridlock and government shutdown; showing a weak leadership which is ineffective. In addition to this, the increasing partisanship of Congress had created a greater divided government, meaning gaining bipartisanship for legislation will be harder. The President not implementing policies on their agenda (in which could have been the reason they were voted into power) is further proof that Congress has a problem of ineffective leadership. Finally, the impact interest groups and PACs hold over congressmen and leadership also creates a problem in Congress due to conflicts of interest as well as wanting to maintain in power, with the financial donations creating a block between their ideologies and what they can vote on in Congress.

Firstly, the lack of compromise between leaders on issues such as the budget and taxes, has become an increasing problem, which has led to government shutdowns. The most recent occurrence was in January 2018 where Congress couldn’t agree on the budget, in addition to the DACA programme funding. This could be argued the President’s fault for not being willing to compromise which ultimately led to all Democrat Senators voting against the proposed budget. However, 5 Democrats voted to keep government open, with 4 Republicans voting against the budget. This represents how some Senator's vote against their leadership, in the interests of their constituents, which ultimately shows a weakness in the party, and how the unity is limited such that all Republicans didn’t vote for their own party’s budget. Despite both chambers being Republican, there is still a high level of ineffective leadership, as all members should have been rallied by the party to ensure partisanship and show a united front when Trump declared the annual budget proposal. This shows a lack of responsible leadership as the President should be setting an example in which they can show a level of bipartisanship where policies can be agreed upon; ultimately showing unity across the parties as a sign of effective leadership, hence meaning led government shutdowns would be a less likely occurrence. Another important example is with President Obama in 2013, where he and the House Leader Boehner couldn’t reach an agreement about the proposed budget, causing a government shutdown for 13 days. This further shows ineffective leadership due to the inflexible position held by Obama regarding the DACA programme, which led to all Democrat Senators voting against the budget. Overall, this represents the ineffective leadership caused by the President and also the reaction of Congressmen (doing both what they would for the party but also their constituents), which inevitably is the cause for government shutdowns. This links to it being the main problem as having a united party is key

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