Download Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't AudioBook Free
An eye-opening profile of how Congress today does work - and doesn't - that follows the dramatic quest of the sweeping financial reform invoice enacted in response to the Great Crash of 2008. The founding fathers expected Congress to be the most crucial branch of government and gave it the most electric power. When Congress is broken - as its justifiably dismal authorization ratings suggest - so is our democracy. Here, Robert G. Kaiser, whose long and distinguished profession at The Washington Post has made him as keen and knowledgeable an observer of Congress as we've, calls for us behind the sound bites to expose the protocols, players, and politics of the home and Senate - revealing both the triumphs of the system and (more often) its fundamental flaws. Function of Congress instructs the story of the Dodd-Frank Function, named for both men who managed to get possible: Congressman Barney Frank, excellent and sometimes abrasive, who mastered the facts of financial reform, and Senator Chris Dodd, who performed patiently for weeks to satisfy his vision of a Senate that may still work on a bipartisan basis. Both Frank and Dodd collaborated with Kaiser throughout their legislative efforts and allowed their staffs to talk about every step of the drafting and offer making that produced the 1,500-page law that transformed America's financial sector. Kaiser clarifies how lobbying influences a invoice - or does not. We follow staff members more influential than most senators and congressmen. We observe how Congress members protect their own turf, often regardless of what might best serve the united states - more wanting to court television cams than legislate on complicated issues about which most of them remain ignorant. Kaiser shows how ferocious partisanship regularly overwhelms all the considerations, though once in a while individual integrity prevails. Function of Congress, as amusing as it is enlightening, is an essential guide to a essential little bit of our political system desperately looking for reform.
