Why Politics Matters Then and Now Essay Activity

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Why Politics Matters: Then and Now Essay Activity

Read the account comparing the 80th and 113th Congresses, both known as “do-nothing Congresses,” and then write a three to five paragraph essay in response to the questions that follow.

How has the experience of divided government differed between the Truman era and more recent years?
Do you think that presidents or Congress receive more of the blame for legislative inaction? Do people accurately assess who is at fault?
What are the benefits and drawbacks to unified government? How would this be impacted by divisions within political parties?

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Then and Now: A Do-Nothing Congress The 112th (2011–2013) and 113th (2013–2015) Congresses were characterized by polarized political parties and little legislative progress. Divided government also played a role, with the Republicans holding the majority in the House of Representatives and the Democrats holding the Senate and the presidency. As a result of these differences, very few pieces of legislation passed both houses of Congress and were sent to the president for his signature. At a 2014 Chicago fundraiser for the midterm elections that year, President Obama remarked that the 113th Congress was less productive than Harry Truman's “do-nothing Congress,” referencing a similar episode in history. In 1948, President Harry Truman campaigned against his difficulties with divided government under the 80th Congress and made this an issue for the presidential election that year. Like President Obama, Truman was a Democratic president who faced the challenges of getting a Congress with actively disapproving Republicans to pass his programs. On the campaign trail, a frustrated Truman proclaimed that he had proposed a series of domestic programs, including policy to solve a housing shortage and plans to secure water and irrigation for California and the Southwest, and that Congress failed to act to pass the legislation. Truman portrayed the Republicans in Congress as the problem and himself and the Democratic Party as the solution, calling the 80th Congress the “do-nothing Congress.” Truman was not only seeking reelection and the election of politicians who favored his policies, but he was also frustrated by the pace of the legislative process. Despite its label, the 80thCongress passed a little over 900 bills, including the Marshall Plan, created the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, and supported nations threatened by the Soviet Union. It also passed what would become the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution, which limited the presidency to two terms. The 80th Congress's agenda was set by the U.S. position of leadership following World War II and focused primarily on solving international, rather than domestic, problems. Like the 80th Congress, the 113th Congress has been described as a do-nothing Congress. Unlike its predecessor in the 1940s, the 113thCongress's agenda was primarily occupied with domestic legislation, including the government budget, extending expiring tax breaks, cybersecurity legislation, and the ABLE Act, which modified the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also passed an authorization for defense spending. Much of the 113th Congress's legislation was passed in a flurry of activity following the “lame duck” post-election session, during which 111 bills were passed. It passed a total of 296 bills, the second lowest number only to the 112th Congress, which passed only 13 fewer bills. In fact, the 112th, not the 113th, Congress was the least productive Congress in history. However, the 113th Congress's work was very contentious. In 2013, partisan disagreements over the government's budget produced a sixteen-day government shutdown. Divisions between the two parties in Congress also contributed to the challenge of passing legislation. Additionally, members of both parties were divided among themselves, aligning themselves into factions, such as the Tea Party and the progressive Democrats. These internal divisions produced additional legislative disagreements. As a result of the divisions between and within the parties, there were periods of time when the House and the Senate not only had difficulty working out their own bills, but they also failed to communicate with each other in the process. Like Truman, President Obama has characterized Congress as being the problem and the reason he has failed to get his own domestic agenda passed. The experiences of both Obama and Truman reveal the challenges of divided government. When the president's party is different from the party of at least one of the houses of Congress, getting the nation's business done requires the use of compromise and strategy.
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Why Politics Matters
The Truman congress and the 112th congress have a bit of difference in that while the
80th Congress had divisions along party lines only, the 112th Congress had split along party
lines and also within the parties. While it was difficult for laws to pass in both congresses, the
112th legislature made it a little bit more difficult for the laws to be asserted by the president due
to the divisions within the parties, especially the Democratic Party whic...