A growing problem in today’s government is Congress and the President of the United States forcing bills into law that the majority of the public do not support and then exempting themselves from the effects of the laws. Executive power is being abused and laws are being passed just to see what is in them. This is neither logical nor fair to the American public. It is time to take back the United States of America for its people. In order to do so, it is necessary to in effect overhaul the government or at least give it a tune up. Congressional terms need to be limited and it needs to become easier to remove pubic officials from office if they cannot or will not live up to their campaign promises and duty to their constituents. Bills need to be thoroughly read and discussed prior to a vote. Executive power needs to be more specifically defined and have more limitations placed upon it. If it is discovered that the president or any member of congress has lied to the American public there should be penalties placed upon the individual or group of individuals responsible. In recent years civil liberties have been stripped away. Political correctness has become a noose around the neck of free thinkers and politicians play games that endanger the American way of life. The American government as a whole needs to be held accountable for its actions whether they are good, bad, or indifferent. President Obama in his 2009 inaugural address spoke of financial accountability but that is not all that requires accountability (Steinhoff). It is time to hold all politicians regardless of their title or job to a higher standard of conduct. If those who serve in America’s military are held to a higher standard of conduct than an ordinary citizen,... ... middle of paper ... ...new set of checks and balances, keeping the good and trashing everything else. Works Cited "Executive Power." LII / Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014 Roff, Peter. "Pelosi: Pass Health Reform So You Can Find Out What’s In It." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 09 Mar. 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. Steinhoff, Jeffrey C., and Paul L. Posner. "Is Government Turning A New Page In Accountability, Transparency And Intergovernmental Relations?." Journal Of Government Financial Management 59.1 (2010): 12-20. Business Source Complete. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. "The House Explained." The Legislative Process • House.gov. U.S. House of Representatives, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. "White House on Defense over New Benghazi Emails, Claims Controversial 'prep Call' Not about Attack." Fox News. FOX News Network, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
The law making process is a lengthy process. First, a representative must have an idea for a new law and they become the sponsor of this bill. The representative must present to the bill to the Clerk of the House if it is in the house (H.R. Bills), or in the Senate (S Bills). The Government Printing Office, GPO, then prints the bill and distributes it to each representative. The Speaker of the House, for further study, then assigns this bill to a standing committee within the house. The standing committee studies the bill and its contents and has two options, either to release the bill with a recommendation to pass it or lay it aside so it cannot be voted on. If the bill is released, it may be voted on or sent into debate within the house and needs a majority vote for the bill to move onto the Senate. Within the Senate, the bill must go through one of the Senate’s sixteen standing committees, and as with the House of Representatives, the bill is either released or pigeonholed. If it is released, a simple majority passes the bill. The bill takes another step into a conference committee, which is made up of members of the Hou...
Gunther, G. (1991). Constitutional Law. Twelfth Edition. New York: The Foundation Press, Inc. pp. 1154-1161.
Light, Paul C., and Christine L. Nemacheck. "Chapter 7 Congress." Government by the People, Brief 2012 Election Edition, Books a La Carte New Mypoliscilab With Etext Access Card Package. By David B. Magleby. 2012 Election Edition ed. N.p.: Pearson College Div, 2013. N. pag. Print.
The procedure for approving a bill and making it a law involves many steps. The following description is a short summary from “How Our Laws are Made”, an in depth description of the legislative process that can found on the website of the Library of Congress. After a bill is drafted, a member...
First there is the House of Representatives. The House is the lowest level of what makes up the United States Congress. Members of the House are made up of state officials. The number of House representatives that each state gets is directly affected by the state’s current population, and so the number changes with each state. There are many duties formed by the House some of which include; introducing bills, bringing up resolutions, offering amendments, and serving on committees. Members of the House are voted for directly by the people of state from which they come. Each representative must be at least
There is no question that today’s political landscape comes with many questions, concerns, and fears for our future. With the country divided and tensions rising seemingly every day, government is increasingly coming under scrutiny and perception are far from favorable these days. I think it is important that we reexamine the roles of government and understand how and why it operates as it does. I think the first and most important aspect of modern government is the idea of accountability. In class, we discussed the idea of a “golden circle of accountability.” In summary, this idea realizes that all aspects of government have a civic duty to serve society. In this regard, they are “accountable,” through the many levels of the golden circle,
Jost, Kenneth. "The Federal Judiciary." CQ Researcher 8.10 (1998). CQ Researcher. SAGE Publications. Web. 01 Mar. 2011. .
transparency in the president’s constitutional objections, reservations, and assertions of power. Manuscript submitted for publication, School of Law, UCLA, Retrieved from http://www.uclalawreview.org/wordpress/?p=339
Hall, Daniel E. Administrative Law: Bureaucracy in a Democracy. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.
Accountability is a subject that ranges through every spectrum of life. From simply knowing your food supply by opening the refrigerator, to knowing the exact amount of ammunition a military convoy has at its disposal, down to each individual round. When we know what the situation is, and hold each person responsible for they're actions in the situation, that is the concept of accountability at its root. If we are not to hold each other responsible for each of our own actions and choices then we will never be able to correct problems and concerns, which will make us fail as a whole because the smallest individual action can account for the gravest of concequences. In this essay I'm going to show how important accountability is in the everyday life of a United States Marine. I will do this by presenting the textbook definition of accountability then dissecting it and defining it in my own words. I will then show you how the military practices accountability with everything it does; by applying a system that is similiar to that of checks and balances. I will tie into this the Incident that occurd in 29 Palms, CA on August 31, 1988, where the failure to have accountability of all the marines on Base ultimately resulted in the negligent death of one Marine, and the ruined careers of those who were in charge of him. Lastly I will go down to the basic level of the Marine Corps: the life of the individual Marine and how he can, and naturally does to a point, apply accountability to his every action, be it on or off duty.
United States of America. U.S. Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School, 1 Apr. 2003. 13 Nov. 2013
It seems the Founders wanted to make the passage of legislation difficult. The Constitution settles how bills become law in the United States. The procedure is operose and can take significant time to complete. The course materials of week three offer more than enough information on how the procedure works. This essay will, mainly, use the course materials to describe the process of how a bill becomes a law. The process of transforming a bill into a law requires the participation of both the Legislative branch and Executive branch of government.
The American government prides itself on the foundational principle of democracy which allows individual voices to be heard. Afterall, the roots of power in our nation stem from the people. The Constitution was established to ensure the balance of powers among the federal government, state legislature, and the common people. Time, however, has worked against the American people in the battle towards democracy. The idea of a governing body drawing its power directly from its constituents has been undermined by the corrupt nature of modern politics where politicians act out of self-interest. While the Constitution and later amendments had every intention of securing basic liberties, certain limitations later undermined the original intentions of the founding fathers to give power back to the people by placing the larger majority of power in the hands of the state.
The United States government braces its power among three powerful branches, legislative, executive and judicial. These branches interact with one another to establish authority that is strong, yet equal to have power over the country. Each branch pursues certain responsibilities and duties to operate in an efficient and effective manner in which society upholds. The executive, legislative and judicial branches all interact amid each other to validate accuracy of the nation’s most powerful law of the land, the Constitution. It is important to know how these branches interact with each other to learn how a bill becomes a law. Reflecting on how the three branches promote a balance of power that is constructive to include the agendas and electoral roles that also plays a vast part in the government’s operation.
Pfiffner, J. P. (2004). Traditional Public Administration versus The New Public Management:Accountability versus Efficiency. Unied States: George Mason University.