legislative

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November 6th 2018 will be the House of Representatives elections in the United States where about 435 congressional districts will take on election. This will mark 116th United States congress serving the country if won. Republicans evidently has more senators and House of Representatives and this puts them in more advantage positions to win congress election in 2018. Ultimately, democrats are in serious disadvantage and future is not bright for them.

Nevertheless Democrats need 25 seats to defend and that comes from states won by president Trump. Democrats to win back Senate control requires 3 seats net gain and chance of this happening is remotely slim because Republicans number. However, after witnessing Trump and Hilary election makes me realize that anything is possible at the last minute. It is not how you started but finishing the race and winning at the end.

Evidently Republicans has 52 seats of senators while democrats hold only 46 seats which make them defensive of 25 seats. Also 241 seats of House of Representatives belong to Republicans and 194 seats for Democrats. Even with this figures, democrats are still optimistic that history has it that congress seats can be lost in the midterm election. For example in 1934 after Franklin D Roosevelt first election in 1932, Democrats gained 9 seats and republicans gained 8 seats in 2002 following George W bush 2000 presidential election. Bottom line is, anything is possible therefore it is too early to predict the winner or the loser.

Obama care brought some controversy among the political parties because Republicans want it to be replaced. They believe it’s not affordable for middle classes and working class American as opposed to initial plan. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that Obama care will be replaced. Kentucky senator was also adamant that Obama care will be replaced even without cooperation of the Democrats.

President Trump, senate and House of Representatives has Obama care on the top of agenda and they are now cautiously optimistic it’s a done deal replacing Obama care. They see this as a federal government controlling individual healthcare but Obama care on the other hand saw that as helping people getting injured in order to take care of their health. We know that majority of uninsured people don’t seek preventive care until it’s too late leading to careless death.

My honest opinion as a healthcare professional that worked in a hospital for 13 years, insurance coverage is very important. Like old saying, prevention is better than sure. I have personally seen people come through ER with glucose level of 400 and blood pressures of 190/100 making them a walking time bomb wanting to explode. Some people don’t make it alive because it was too late, but some are lucky to live to tell you because they are uninsured and no regular checkup put them in great danger. At the end of the day, if people don’t want Obama care fair enough but let government get a better and affordable insurance coverage so people can stay on top of their health. It doesn’t matter whose idea it is or where it came from, let’s just have a reasonable healthcare.

Lesniewski, N. (2017, February 17). Senators Silent After Meeting With FBI Director Comey. Retrieved February 18, 2017, from http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/senators-silent-meeting-fbi-director-comey

Mascaro, L. (2017, February 10). Republicans hold the House and Senate, but will that end the Washington gridlock even with President Trump? Retrieved February 18, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-election-congress-control-20161108-story.html 

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I believe that whatever party is in the White House then the Congress should be the other party.  “However, the politics of divided party control has frequently lead to president and Congress working together through this system of bargaining. If they did not, there would be a stand-still in American politics. Historically, Republican presidents have always had more success in dealing with a Democrat dominated Congress than a Democrat president with a Republican dominated Congress” (Trueman (2016) para 6).

Even with my opinion confirmed, as I researched other opinions, I found just the opposite. While President Barack Obama was president, “with the help of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Obama pushed through a huge economic stimulus package targeting the deep recession he had inherited, initiated comprehensive reforms of the nation’s health care system, and signed a major redesign of financial regulation aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial meltdown that had made the recession so severe. These legislative achievements made the 111th Congress among the most productive in many years…..” (Jacobson (2011) para 1).  Even though President Obama could do most of what he promised during has campaign, the 2010 midterm elections the people voted in a majority of Republicans to take over the majority in the chamber. “The Congressional Republicans’ strategy of all-out opposition. Adopted not long after Obama too office, turned out to be remarkably successful, delivering a stunning setback to a majority party that had won a sweeping victory just two years earlier” (Jacobson (2011) para 3). This is what happens when you have party line voting. I believe the issue should be the most important not which party you belong to. 

Maybe there is something to having the same party in control of both the Whitehouse and the Congress. “Increasing party polarization affects the relationship between party control and presidential success differently in the House and Senate” (Cohen, Bond & Fleisher (2013) para 2). Maybe there is a good reason to elect the same party as the new President comes into office. If we can get the President, House and Senate, to all get along and pass bills that will really help the American people; then just maybe our country can start heading in the correct direction.

As for the 2018 vote, there may be a problem for the Republicans in both the House and Senate with President Trump’s low approval rating. Although the states that stood behind President Trump could want to continue with a Republican House and Senate to help him. All we can hope for is that there will be a good turnout for voting in 2018.

References

Cohen, J. E., Bond, J. R., & Fleisher, R. (2013). Placing presidential-congressional relations in context: A comparison of barack obama and his predecessors. Polity, 45(1), 105-126. doi:http://dx.doi.org.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/10.1057/pol.2012.28

Legislative Success and Political Failure: The Public’s Reaction to Barack Obama’s Early Presidency Gary C. Jacobson (2011)

Retrieved from http://archives.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/Gary_C-_Jacobson_-_Legislative_Success_and_Political_Failure.pdf

Trueman, C.N. The President and Congress (2016)

Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/american-politics/the-president-and-congress