When Congress Checks Out

The last six (6 ) years of the Bush Administration has been wrought with controversy and has been highly criticized for throwing the entire democratic system into utter chaos . With allegations of railroading legislation and human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay , it stands to reason why such events were allowed to transpire . The separation of powers that the United States government has is supposed to prevent these abuses . No single branch is allowed to have so much power and neither is any branch allowed to exercise their functions arbitrarily to the detriment of

others . Yet , despite these safeguards , it seems that there was nothing that was done to prevent these abuses of power from happening

One branch which has been highly criticized for its participation , or lack thereof , in the perpetuation of these abuses is the United States Congress . As one of the main players in the separation of powers Congress has the solemn task of making sure that no laws are passed that will be harmful to the American public . It also ensures that under the system of checks and balances it acts as an oversight for the foreign and national security policies of the executive branch . This lack of oversight by Congress is a problem that must be addressed immediately

In his article entitled , When Congress Checks Out , Norman Ornstein criticizes the disappearing act of the United States Congress . He essentially argues that the Bush Administration was able to aggressively pursue its own agenda without the oversight functions of...