Legislative Power

Legislative Power

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  • Date Submitted: 09/29/2010 9:42 PM
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Clint Birtzer
Political Science
11/28/09
Political Analysis Paper 2

A recent article published on bloombergnews.com titled “Health Care Bill May Be
Stalled By Legislative Crunch” addresses many problems and obstacles that the bill is
experiencing. The article also touches on some issues involving the United State’s congressional
system. In the next few paragraphs I will discuss the obstacles facing the Health Care Bill and
my opinion about our legislative system, the powers possessed by our president and the overall
cohesion of our government.

The Health Care Bill has been stalled in the Senate for quite some time. The Democrats
have enough votes to stop debate and pass it whenever they want to but four of the votes they
were counting on currently oppose the bill. Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu
of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas as well as Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut
oppose the government run public option. For debate to be stopped the Democrats would need
the votes of those four to obtain the sixty votes necessary to put it to a final vote. As of now the
Republicans as the minority have enough power to stop this current bill and make the Democrats
start again from scratch. Until debate is shut off the Republicans can literally debate this bill into
the ground. This practice known as filibustering has been part of our nation’s legislation process
from it's inception. Initially, when I heard about how this bill was stalled I was strongly opposed
to filibustering. My original opinion was that since our nation is a democracy the minority should
not be able to simply shoot down a bill in senate. I thought it went against what a democracy
stands for. But after learning more about filibustering I have a more educated opinion that it and
all of the rules entrenched in our legislative system are necessary and integral to the governing of
our nation.

Hague and Harrop state that “the...

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