Congress and the President
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
