Why the Senate can never get anything accomplished
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I haven’t blogged since Monday, sorry, I’ve been nerding it up at the Model U.S. Senate all week, I’ll tell you how that went, but let me tell you why the Senate structure frustrates me.
I work well with examples, so take this one. In my Committee, we debated and passed a bill to endorse the Kyoto Protocol, once it passed the next day it was brought up in front of the entire Senate.
The Senate is divided by party, Republicans on one side and Democrats (as well as the one Independent on the other). This bill, which is very Democratic immediately was taking heat from the Republican side. There were amendments to alter the bill to help suit the Republican’s needs, but when the blue side would vote, the red side wouldn’t.
If this bill were to pass (which it didn’t, but lets just say it did)…it would go to the President, who gave our Committee a speach on why the Kyoto Protocol, which protects the environment, is bad. After being passed it would go to the Oval Office and sit on his desk for about an hour.
After this time has elapsed a Cabinent member, would then come down and read the President’s excuses as to why the bill was vetoed. We then would try to over rule the President’s veto, with 2/3 vote in the Senate. This would also fail, because only a handful on Republicans would vote for it.
The Senate structure is frustrating if your on the wrong side, and political parties interfere with work that should be done, only because of the submitter’s party.
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6 Comments
Phil
April 28th, 2006
at 11:42am
I vote that we abolish the parties and start a socialist government. that sounds familiar. but its a dang good idea.
Zach
April 28th, 2006
at 3:26pm
SECOND! Yea dude, it was fun, but the Senate’s format needs to be revised.
Troy Hess
April 29th, 2006
at 11:35am
Its not that nothing gets done in the Senate, its that something one-sided will get done. I’m not siding with the democrats, as I had to play one in the MUSS meeting as well, its just that when you go to something like this, that is supposed to make the actual senate more appealing and make you want to get into it, and it turns you away from US politics, something might have been wrong, and its not the ‘model’ part at MUSS, its the real idea.
I’ve sat many nights trying to imagine a better idea, and I think I’ve thought of some, but I dunno. Seems like it would be so hard to get them out there and talk to them rationally with people, when so many people are fixed into the old ways and are afraid of change.
I will have to say our fake overthrow of the government was funny, but in all seriousness, we would have had some .50 cal bullets in our foreheads if we tried something like that for real.
Phil
April 29th, 2006
at 12:07pm
It did make me want to get more involved with politics, especially the senate. It made me want to try and make it better. Because there has to be a better way, eg socialism and a seven party senate.
Zach
April 29th, 2006
at 2:56pm
@Troy: You’re totally right, it would never work and the senate is completely one sided, Republican for now. Political parties are lame and they accomplish only enemies and the President’s party accomplishes the most
@Phil: Makes me want to get more political, I went ahead and bought daily show subscription on itunes…good times watching the daily show at MUSS. =)
There is hope for the Senate! at zamwi.com
May 6th, 2006
at 5:24am
[...] WOW! Someone who enjoys good content and isn’t afraid to say forget the DMCA. Well I really hope that Hatch becomes elected, because as someone who was in a Model US Senate, I think that the Senate isn’t nearly up to speed with technology. I mean in one debate we were talking about intranetting the whole country…haha…this means all computers have to be connected in a LAN form of structure…with wires. [...]