Respond to the following Peer Discussion
From the first e-Activity, evaluate the relationship between Congress and the President and discuss two (2) reasons why the presidential duties may conflict with the role of Congress. Justify your response with examples.
The relationship between Congress and the President is one of similarity. When you vote for the President, you are also voting for members of congress. As stated in an article by Indiana University Center on Representative Government by Lee Hamilton (2002), it was stated “The relationship between Congress and the President lies at the very core of our system of government, and, under our Constitution, tension and struggle between these rivals for power is inevitable. A democracy without conflict is not a democracy. The framers did not set out to promote gridlock between President and Congress, but they did intend that conflicting opinions in society should be considered carefully before government takes action.”
Two reasons, according to Lee Hamilton (2002) on why the presidential duties may conflict with the role of congress are: (1) The President is entitled to recommend legislation, but his success at seeing his agenda enacted depends to a considerable degree on his skill at reaching out to members of Congress and persuading them to follow his lead. (2) The President often sees Congress as an obstacle to be overcome, and always has to calculate how his proposals will play out with Congress. He cannot dictate to Congress what he wants and faces a huge task in communicating with Congress because of its size and diversity.
The President and Congress have a relationship that works well together when it is needed, however, there are issues in which the President has to go through Congress to get something completed in a timely fashion. The present cannot overstep their boundaries without the approval of congress and often times vice versa. Each branch works together to make decisions that will hopefully be better for the people.
Hamilton, L. (2002). Congress and the President. The Center on Congress at Indiana University. The Center on Representative Government. Retrieved on 2 April 2018. Retrieved from https://corg.indiana.edu/print/139
Answer preview
This is a very informative discussion. It is true that the presidency and the Congress are two arms of government that interrelates in functionality to provide their mandate to the Americans. It is correct to say that voting for the President basically means one is also voting for the Congress. This is for the simple reason that the president and the Congress work concurrently in their duties to govern the Americans. It is also worth noting that the Congress keeps a watchful eye on the president’s decision and raises objection whenever it feels the actions taken by the president are not for the well-being of the country (Hamilton, 2002). Despite his powers, for the president to get some things done, he must go through the Congress for approval. The same case applies to the Congress. It must go to the president for approval. This relationship between the president and the Congress always results in some forms of conflict. To the president, the Congress is always an obstacle. There are times that the president feels that with his powers, he need not go through the Congress. When this happens, conflict always arise.(226words)