Download The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track AudioBook Free
Congress is the first branch of government in the American system, write Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, but now this can be a broken branch, broken by partisan bickering and interior rancor. The Broken Branch offers both an excellent diagnosis of the reason for Congressional decrease and a much-needed blueprint for change, from two experts who understand politics and revere our establishments, but assume that Congress is becoming deeply dysfunctional. Mann and Ornstein, two of the nations most renowned and judicious scholars of government and politics, bring to light the historical roots of Congress's current maladies, analyzing 40 years of continuous Democratic control of the home and the beautiful midterm election victory of 1994 that propelled Republicans into the bulk in both House and Senate. The byproduct of that long and grueling but in the end successful Republican marketing campaign, the authors show you, was a weakened organization bitterly divided between the parties. They highlight the remarkable switch in Congress from a highly decentralized, committee-based organization into a more regimented one in which party significantly trumps committee. The resultant changes in the coverage process - the demise of regular order, the decrease of deliberation, and the weakening of our bodies of inspections and balances - have all compromised the role of Congress in the American Constitutional system. Strong bulk management in Congress, the authors conclude, led not to a strenuous exertion of congressional specialist but to an over-all passivity when confronted with executive electricity. A vivid portrait of an organization that has fallen definately not the aspirations of the Founding Fathers, The Broken Branch highlights the costs of the malfunctioning Congress to nationwide policymaking, and outlines what must be done to correct the damage.
