The Four Branches Of Government

How does Congress interact with the other branches of government? Government consists of arguably four groups, those groups are, Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and Press. Each branch of Government has different responsibilities, as well as powers granted to them by the constitution. Executive carries out the laws, the Legislative branch creates the laws, the Judicial branch decides whether or not laws are constitutional, and the arguable fourth branch that is the Press use media to influence people to think in a certain political way.
An important part of American Democracy is the interaction among branches, the system of checks and balances. Congress plays an important role in the checks and balances process. For example with the Executive

branch. A law can make it all the way past the House and Senate, however the President still has the ability to veto the law causing it to not go into effect. However, since no branch can be all powerful, the congress can override the veto with a ⅔ vote ,in favor of the law, from both the house and the senate. Sometimes the president will create a bill and the congress will turn it down and vise versa, because the president and congress may have contrasting interests, there will almost always be compromises made to satisfy the needs of each party. Another power the congress has over the executive branch is impeachment. The house of representatives must first pass the articles of impeachment by having a majority vote, then the senate will try the president and convict him if there is a ⅔ vote. Then the president will be removed from office. The budget is under control of the congress as well which affects all branches. Whenever the president wants to appoint a new cabinet member, supreme court justice, or other executive nominee, he/she must submit that nomination to congress who will confirm or reject the nominee. Interaction between congress and the executive branch is important to keeping power balanced among the branches.
The Judicial Branch also works together with congress to balance power. While the congress can pass a law, the judicial branch can declare a law unconstitutional, and if that happens then the law cannot be passed again until it has been modified. Additionally congress has the ability to impeach a supreme court justice in the same way they can impeach a president. The same actions must be taken where the house passes articles of impeachment, then the senate will convict the supreme court justice, he/she will then be removed from office if he/she is found guilty. In order to keep members of the supreme court from getting too powerful, congress will make sure they will be taken out of office if they don’t do their job professionally or abuse their powers.
The arguable fourth branch of the united states government is the press.

The press has no direct powers given to it by the government, it does have a very big impact on all of the other branches. The press can promote or destroy a candidate for each and every branch of government. The press will promote the candidates which they like for office positions, making it easier for the candidate to achieve their goal, while others who they don’t like as much will be slandered and made fun of, making their campaigning harder or in some cases impossible, even causing some presidential candidates to stop running for president, and stopping them from campaigning. The media can use many tactics to discourage those who they don’t like from running for political offices, in the event that they say or do something embarrassing they will play the video or “sound bite” in order to sway the public's opinion in favor of the press’s opinion. The press can also promote a congressman’s campaign through the use of political ads, usually, but not always, paid for by either the political party or the congressman. In turn for the promotion, if and when the congressman get’s elected they will usually try to vote in favor of bills that would benefit the press, while this may not be the most politically smart decision, it is a good way for the congressman to get re-elected. The press will also notify the public if an official does something that is unethical or that most people would disapprove of. The

fact that more people are informed about this means that more people will want the official taken out of office. This means that the press has a direct impact on who the congress will impeach based on the information it makes available to the public. While not an officially recognized branch of government the press does have a direct effect on the balance of powers in american democracy.
The most powerful branch of government is largely an opinion based question, however with the way the system of checks and balances works the press would clearly be the most powerful branch because it has a very large impact on how the government works as well as who is allowed to be involved in it.

On top of the influence the press has, it also has the least limitations due to the freedom of speech we have in America. Limiting the branches of government to those specifically outlined in the constitution the most powerful branch would most likely be the executive branch as it has an immense influence over congress and the judicial branch with few limitations aside from impeachment which rarely

occurs.
To sum it up, congress and all the other branches must interact with each other in order to balance power within the american government. Each and every branch has powers that work against each of the other branches, without the congressional interaction with the other branches one of the other branches would grow too powerful for the other branches to stop. Congress plays an important role in keeping our government system in place and functioning.