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We are flipfloppimg because the legislature is paralysed, so only the executive can function. This is a fundamental issue with the American form of government.
by vkou 3y ago
We are flipfloppimg because the legislature is paralysed, so only the executive can function.
This is a fundamental issue with the American form of government. Parliamentary systems which have the executive made up of members of the legislature have way less flip-flopping, finger-pointing, and paralysis.
The governments they produce are more reflective of current public sentiment, end up with more than two parties, and are thus less stable. Minority rule and coalition rule is very common... which actively forces either compromise, or a new election.
- massysett 3y agoThis "paralyzed" legislature just passed, by large margins, a large amount of foreign aid and a very significant provision on a popular social media platform. Before that it spent billions of dollars on covid aid. Throughout that time it has appropriated billions of dollars to keep the government running. This "paralyzed" narrative is something the press and politicians like to push because it serves their ends, though for different reasons. It's false.
- vkou 3y ago> Throughout that time it has appropriated billions of dollars to keep the government running. In no other country is it considered an accomplishment for a government to debate a budget, agree on it, pass it, spend it, and then three quarters of the way through the year refuse to pay for the spending it agreed on, manufacturing a crisis that sometimes gets resolved at the eleventh hour, and sometimes results in a multi-week disaster and government shutdown. If a company had a department that ran that way, every single director and manager in it would be fired after the first time it happened. It has so far happened three times (Including once when the Republicans fully controlled congress), and has been threatened every year.
- massysett 3y ago> three quarters of the way through the year refuse to pay for the spending it agreed on, At no time did this happen.
- acdha 3y agoThat’s what the debt ceiling arguments are about: members of Congress don’t want to take the heat for actually canceling something so they don’t remove it from the budget but then refuse to pay without some kind of token win for their campaign ads. The real debt problem is that you either need to restore taxes to pre-Bush levels or cut popular programs, but there’s no way to do either of those without being willing to negotiate and that’s currently politically untenable for one of the major parties.
- Gormo 3y agoThe two-party system in the US is equivalent to a multiparty coalition system, just with the coalitions negotiated before the election instead of after it.