Parties, Polarization and Democracy in the United States by Donald C. Baumer & Howard J. Gold

Author:Donald C. Baumer & Howard J. Gold [Baumer, Donald C. & Gold, Howard J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317254799
Google: _xXvCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 27890862
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Congress and Presidents

As the preceding discussion has made clear, another difficulty in trying to accurately, yet parsimoniously, portray the national policymaking process is the fact that it is a three-ring circus. Not only are there important differences in the ways the House and Senate have operated over time, but there is also the president and his legislative initiatives to consider. All U.S. presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have attempted to influence, if not control, the national policy process. In periods of unified government, the president and the Congress have tried, with varying degrees of success, to cooperate. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society (1965–1966) was the most successful example of presidential-congressional policymaking cooperation since Roosevelt’s New Deal (see Chapter 1). Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) was never able to get his fellow Democrats in Congress to work with him in a similar fashion, nor was Bill Clinton in his two years of unified government (1993–1995).

A much more common condition in the modern era has been divided government, in which one or both houses of Congress have a majority of the party that is not occupying the White House. This situation was in effect for thirty-eight of the sixty years between 1947 and 2007. Indeed, the movement toward more party-based organization and activity in Congress was stimulated in large part by the desire of congressional majorities to assert themselves against presidents. Wright sensed weakness in the White House during Reagan’s last two years and thought the Democrats could make a statement for the 1988 presidential election through policy action. In 1990, Senator George Mitchell knew that existing laws governing budget deficits could force President Bush to seek a compromise with Congress, and he exploited this opening to achieve a major and long-lasting agreement on spending and taxes.65 As described in this and the previous chapter, Gingrich’s contract was very much about taking the national policy agenda away from President Clinton; similarly for Speaker Pelosi and President Bush in 2007. Although the overall effect of divided government is an increase in deadlock and indecision (see below), it can also result in some real and important policy breakthroughs, such as the welfare reform law passed in 1996, and budget deals made during Clinton’s second term that paved the way for the first budget surpluses since the 1960s.66

Unified government under President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2007 deserves a somewhat more extended treatment, since we have not covered it much up to this point. Bush was able to team with Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay to move many of his preferred policies through the House without much difficulty. Hastert and DeLay used the tools Gingrich had assembled, as well as some new ones of their own making, to pass bills that reflected the wishes of the president and loyal Republican followers with virtually no input from Democrats. The main problem Bush and House leaders faced, of course, was the Senate, where many, though certainly not all, of their preferred policies got bogged down because negotiation with Democrats was necessary.

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